Barely live from the March 22-29 Magic

[SMDent]

On the Magic, typing and reporting in before Tuesday night dinner...

We're "swingin" today, 8-13 (15) ft swells and yes, one ship was getting tendered, but it really looked like it was not a fun operation. My dear brother caught some of the action on his camera... not something I'd want to do.

Better to be aboard the Magic than stuck in Georgetown, like my sister and her family in 2005, almost didn't get back aboard the swells were too high.

Well enough for now...

 

[dlf246]

We are back to great sailing. Yes as Icepadman said, we were around Cayman for about 2 hours, and then headed early to Cozumel. Arrived there at 7:30AM, 2 hours early. Really helped us, get to scuba earlier.
FirefighterMickey: having read trip reports for years, I really think the missed ports are just statistical luck. I bet if you read another cruise line board the past month, you would seem same bum run of luck.

By the way the captain hung around Cayman (if I heard correctly) to see if they could somehow tender 10 passengers TO the ship. Not clear if they were late at Key West, or I don't think they boarded...

If my alter ego, will let me sneak in some things that are not differences...
Once again, most of my crew were in bed asleep before 9PM, so we missed party and fireworks.
Hey, kiddo, only report differences

ok, ok, back to only differences. Now it is time for eensy weensy pet peeve type differences. I mean, come on, even I know these are teeny, but will continue to serve you Dis'ers

1) Our stateroom (7566), has had 4 minor problems. Air conditioning did not seem to work at all on arrival. We were told it was because they had not started up all 5 engines yet. When I tried to explain that one of the engines was not working, a Big Dis Moderator Ghost appeared and gave me warning that this thread may be closed. So I quieted up.
However, after we were sailing, we could only imagine some cooling. They sent up an engineer, and we had a cool night, but still warmish next morning. We complained again, and then did not notice any further problems.

2) no tongs with ice bucket. Our stateroom attendant was a little peculiar about this. He strongly implied that we were out of luck, unless he made a special effort. Then one appeared, and when you see how it is simple plastic, I wondered why he made it sound so challenging, except for better tip????

3) Our coffee table, is stuck. (for those of you who do not know, the coffee table can be telescoped up and down). A mechanic came by and said sorry, no way to fix.

4) Our cooler (cabin attendant corrected me to never call it a refrigerator), was hot. Not lukewarm, but warmish, with very hot coils in back. They replaced it. (don't worry, I tried first to turn knob in back, did not help)

Our server has made a mistake on an order (i.e. wrong salad, or appetizer, etc) every meal so far!! It's not a big deal, though a little annoying that 2 of the times, she kinda looked at us like we had really ordered the incorrect item. DD7 is in love with her (gives her a bear hug at end of each meal), so we're fine with her.

Last picky picky picky comments: the portion sizes to me are much smaller than 2 years ago, but still delicious; so I always order 2 of at least 1 course. No problem. Finally, our table 44 was in the periphery of all 3 dining rooms, 2 times right next to galley door. Now I thought the rotational dining was designed to have at least one table location near center or out of traffic...

One last item: I visited with Brent, who said that he is here to transition with Christiaan (sp?), and C leaves the ship on Sunday. C did a great hip-hop move on stage a few nights ago.

 

[Skuba2]

Our seas were actually 20-30 foot swells. Isn't that swell?

It was so cool to see the Goofy pool - it was a wave pool Wednesday night with more water splashing out of it than remained in it! We walked deck 10 from one side to the other going to Palo. Could hardly walk straight!

I have always wondered if you had 4 beers, would that counteract the swaying and make you walk straight. LOL!! We had 20 foot seas on a cruise a few years back. It was kind of fun. Palo ressies were in huge supply as everyone was pretty sick. There are advantages. LOL!

DG

 

[dlf246]

Well, we loved, loved, loved the onboard checkin for air flights. Now keep in mind that if you have DCL air, you automatically QUALIFY for this, but must still turn in the vouchers by Thurs night 6PM. A tricky part is to put down the number of pieces of luggage.

Now, we have second thoughts, when 4 of our 6 pieces did not arrive, but 2 carryon luggage we checked in personally at the airport arrived fine. I.e. onboard checkin luggage had 66% chance of being lost, and stuff we checked in ourselves had 0% chance of loss.... As of 11PM local time, they have located 3 of the 4 pieces of luggage....

By the way, the cruise was magnificent. I felt bad posting mainly negative differences. Keep in mind tons of things are the same: great! DD18 who does not like cruising, has changed her mind and loved it.

I have a few other comments, but will have to postpone about a week due to ....... work...

 

[spiritual traveller]

We too have just returned from the Western Cruise. We just enjoyed it so very much, that we booked a 8/15/09 Eastern Cruise with them. They offered a 10% discount and a $200 onboard credit, so it was very difficult not too take advantage of it. Not going to Grand Cayman was a disappointment, but it just gives us another reason to book the Western Cruise for sometime in the future. We did the Dolphin Encounter in Cozumel, and I thought for the money we paid, it was well worth it. My husband and my daughter thoroughly enjoyed it, and got to spend alot of time in the water, and interacting with the dolphin. I was an observer and video'd the whole thing from the dock. Unfortunately, we discovered that our camera malfunctioned, and I recorded nothing!!!! Needless to say, my hubby and daughter were very annoyed with me. So much for saving money not purchasing the video sold at the encounter!

Our cabin was an inside, number 7125. It was fine for me and hubby, my my daughter said next cruise we need to have a porthole, so we do!!!

Is is just me, or do any of you still feel the motion of the ship?

 

[JerseyBelle]

Finally, our table 44 was in the periphery of all 3 dining rooms, 2 times right next to galley door. Now I thought the rotational dining was designed to have at least one table location near center or out of traffic...

Great report.

We also sailed the 3/22/08 Western.

Our view in all three dining rooms (table 11) was the server workstation. At Animators, my dd10 could hardly see anything because of the workstation. In Lumiere's due to the blocked view, I didn't even know there were roses in the ceiling until we took the Galley Tour. The character breakfast was the only time we ate breakfast in the dining rooms. Half the tables were empty but we were still behind the workstation. It was like having tickets with a obstructed view for 7 Broadway shows. We had a great server though. His name was Josue Moreno Jaimes. We filled out the survey based on the service and the food and chose to email DCL separately with our comments about the need to rotate the location of assigned tables to be fair to all guests.

The 10 people coming on at Grand Cayman did make it on. One of our tablemates had been talking to one of them. It was very rough tendering. I don't know what happened in Orlando but it was probably due to canceled flights. Our tablemates came from Wisconsin and they barely made it in time due to canceled flights. Key West is not set up for taking on passengers. It is some law (the name I can't remember) and that is why they had to fly to Grand Cayman.

I didn't know Christian was leaving. Is it temporary? He was great on this cruise. The teenagers through him into the pool and he was in his full dress white uniform. He made some funny comments about needing to go to Vista Spa afterwards to get his hair done.

The head chef in Animator's is also leaving. Oscar is retiring after our cruise. We attended the Art of Entertaining seminars with him and also had him for our galley tour. He was very entertaining.

 

[JerseyBelle]

Well, we loved, loved, loved the onboard checkin for air flights. Now keep in mind that if you have DCL air, you automatically QUALIFY for this, but must still turn in the vouchers by Thurs night 6PM. A tricky part is to put down the number of pieces of luggage.

Now, we have second thoughts, when 4 of our 6 pieces did not arrive, but 2 carryon luggage we checked in personally at the airport arrived fine. I.e. onboard checkin luggage had 66% chance of being lost, and stuff we checked in ourselves had 0% chance of loss.... As of 11PM local time, they have located 3 of the 4 pieces of luggage....

Sorry you experienced lost baggage with the on-board check in of baggage. We thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Smooth baggage delivery for us. After our first cruise in 2006 I was raving about using a porter and how you sail through customs passed the long line and out to the port check in of baggage but this was so much better. Didn't even have to get our boarding passes printed as they were delivered directly to our stateroom.

 

[dlf246]

We filled out the survey based on the service and the food and chose to email DCL separately with our comments about the need to rotate the location of assigned tables to be fair to all guests.

I totally agree. Jerseybelle, thank you for pointing that out to DCL.

Update, 3 of our bags have been found in Texas, and one in California! we noticed that DCL or airline had not removed the onboard luggage tag that has a bar code too. I wonder if that distracted some scanner from the airline tag???

 

[Timon]

One thing that hasn't changed..... cannot believe it, the choc chip cookies are still always overcooked. Why, why, why,

I have wondered this too on the last 3 cruises. They would be sooooo good if they were cooked a few minutes less


Sorry about your luggage, it's never fun to lose luggage

 

[dvcbrad]

Well, I have to sadly report on the biggest difference ever. We were not able to tender into Grand Cayman. In all of our cruises this was a first. But hey, that is life on a cruise ship.

One strange thing: The announcer said that the port was closed to all 6 ships, but an hour later we saw some tenders going to and fro from a Celebrity ship... Still, I have total confidence in our captain (and port authorities).

Haven't heard yet whether we will arrive in Cozumel earlier.

Your reply is a bit misleading to other readers ... what the Captain said was that those other three ships were in a different harbor. We couldn't get into that harbor as there were six ships scheduled to be in GC that day, and due to closing the main harbor due to weather condtions and the port authorities closing tendering operations there, that only three ships could anchor at the second harbor. The determination of which ships can anchor is pre-determined at randoem approx one year in advance. Let's not get other readers concerned that this particular incident was potentially 'engine-related'.

 

[dlf246]

Your reply is a bit misleading to other readers ... what the Captain said was that those other three ships were in a different harbor. We couldn't get into that harbor as there were six ships scheduled to be in GC that day, and due to closing the main harbor due to weather condtions and the port authorities closing tendering operations there, that only three ships could anchor at the second harbor. The determination of which ships can anchor is pre-determined at randoem approx one year in advance. Let's not get other readers concerned that this particular incident was potentially 'engine-related'.

dvcbrad is correct!. I apologize. There were at least 3 ships who could go to a protected part of island. And actually, celebrity did do some tendering. Lastly, a fellow passenger did confirm that the 10 people (who missed boat in port canaveral) on GC WERE able to be tendered to the our before we left.

 

[Experiment-626]

Great report.

We also sailed the 3/22/08 Western.

Our view in all three dining rooms (table 11) was the server workstation. At Animators, my dd10 could hardly see anything because of the workstation. In Lumiere's due to the blocked view, I didn't even know there were roses in the ceiling until we took the Galley Tour. The character breakfast was the only time we ate breakfast in the dining rooms. Half the tables were empty but we were still behind the workstation. It was like having tickets with a obstructed view for 7 Broadway shows. We had a great server though. His name was Josue Moreno Jaimes. We filled out the survey based on the service and the food and chose to email DCL separately with our comments about the need to rotate the location of assigned tables to be fair to all guests.

The 10 people coming on at Grand Cayman did make it on. One of our tablemates had been talking to one of them. It was very rough tendering. I don't know what happened in Orlando but it was probably due to canceled flights. Our tablemates came from Wisconsin and they barely made it in time due to canceled flights. Key West is not set up for taking on passengers. It is some law (the name I can't remember) and that is why they had to fly to Grand Cayman.

I didn't know Christian was leaving. Is it temporary? He was great on this cruise. The teenagers through him into the pool and he was in his full dress white uniform. He made some funny comments about needing to go to Vista Spa afterwards to get his hair done.

The head chef in Animator's is also leaving. Oscar is retiring after our cruise. We attended the Art of Entertaining seminars with him and also had him for our galley tour. He was very entertaining.

We were just on the Eastern Cruise (3/15/08) and did not hear any rumors as to Christian leaving. Is there any truth to this? It would be a shame to see him go.

 

[JerseyBelle]

We were just on the Eastern Cruise (3/15/08) and did not hear any rumors as to Christian leaving. Is there any truth to this? It would be a shame to see him go.

In the link below a poster explains the Christiaan leaving issue. I don't know if it is true but take a look at post #3.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1772309