Considerate Cruisers

[DL1957]

We had airline issues getting to our Norway/Iceland cruise last summer ... to the point we seriously considered calling it "not meant to be".

The cruisers on our FB group were so amazingly supportive ... I was overwhelmed by the fact that people I had never met were willing to take time to share encouragement and suggestions when they had already left on vacation or were basically heading out the door.

Long story short, we made it to the ship on time (barely) and when we checked in the CM said "Oh, the family from Canada that was having trouble getting here! You would be surprised how many people have asked about you or mentioned that you were on your way". That totally blew me away.

We were also in that group and happy you made it. Something similar happen to us flying from the east coast to LA for the repo to Vancouver. Didn't think about getting FE support!

 

[DL1957]

On our flight from Richmond VA to LAX our plane got canceled out of Atlanta. We generally don't make our plane reservations through DCL but did this time because DH could not get an extra day off work and we were flying to the west coast on the day we were sailing. The DCL rep on the phone was great and we got out on the next flight which only had a few seats left. Got in to LA around 2:30 had to put a claim in for our luggage because it did not make it. DCL rep was there waiting for us waited as we put our claim in and called our transportation to come get us. The two of us had our own a 30 passenger bus. On the way to the port the my cell phone rang it was Delta telling us our luggage had arrived and DCL rep told them to put it in a cab and get it to the port rather than using their regular delivery service. We made it just before the muster drill and when we went back to our room we had our luggage. This is one of many great experience we have had with Disney and their cast members. Sail in June on the Magic for our 15 trip not as many as some but we at still platinum!. This is a great thread.

 

[diznymom]

Our last cruise was to Alaska. Once we got to our room on embarkation day, I needed something (don't remember what), so I stepped into the hallway to see if I could see our room host. I saw a room host and asked him if he was our room host. He let me know that he was not and our room host was on break. But he let me know that he could handle whatever I needed, and he did. The funny thing is that I ran into him more than our own. Apparently, our room was at the end of the line of rooms assigned to our room host. It is service like this that makes Disney so special for me.

BTW, both were mentioned on the comment cards so they would both get recognized.

 

[Mrslissaaa]

I absolutely love this thread!!!!! I haven't been on a Disney cruise but i pay attention to these kinds of things and it's nice to see that others do so as well. It makes me look forward to my first cruise in December.

 

[disneymath]

We were also in that group and happy you made it. Something similar happen to us flying from the east coast to LA for the repo to Vancouver. Didn't think about getting FE support!

The FB support is what kept me going ... on top of dealing with the airline (which was challenging) and insurance company (unhelpful), I had to transfer a private tour in our first port from my name to one of the other families we had plans to go with. Amazingly, two other families volunteered to purchase our 8 spots so that no one was out extra money. (Both families then offered the spots back to us once they knew we had made it. We declined, but were touched by their offer.). We were also booked on a group transfer to the port in Copenhagen, and the organizer said she would try to fill our 8 seats ... I guess she was able to because my payment was reimbursed through paypal after the trip.

Glad you made it to muster drill on your repo, some of my family didn't.

To get us all to Copenhagen on time, the airline resorted to splitting us up. (We weren't happy and have vowed never again.) Anyway, 6 of us flew direct from Toronto and had a horrible flight (multiple med issues during the flight with other passengers), but we got to the ship by mid afternoon. My parents had to fly through Chicago and their final leg was delayed by 2 hours out of Ohare. They got to the CPH airport well after 3PM ... everyone from DCL had left. An awesome porter hand-picked a cabbie (who may have been a chariot racer in a former life) who got them to the ship before it sailed, but they did hsve to go to a special muster drill along with 2 members of the entertainment staff.

I should also say that DCL staff was awesome throughout this ordeal. They kept checking in with and for updates and they downplayed my parents' absence at muster (likely because my nephews were starting to worry about why grandma and grandpa weren't there). When my parents finally got to check in, the CM took one look at my (somewhat stressed out) mom and said, "Just breath, no worries, you're here now and we'll take good care of you".

Sorry OP for monopolizing the thread a bit ... it really was quite the experience. (For the record, the cruise itself was awesome and drama free, as was our flight home together.)

 

[belac]

Now that we started talking about room hosts, I remember one room host with the most. So we were on NYE cruise on Fantasy and it was a rather dismal holiday for personal reasons that year but we went. So we get our bags, start to unpack and DS costume sword broke, well he was 5 at the time and that was a meltdown for him after traveling all day. So room host knocked on the door to introduce himself, he was so very nice and he told us this was his first contract with Disney and joked that his English will hopefully get better then he inquired why DS was upset. We told him and just went on unpacking, and such. The host left saying if there is anything you need .....We got ready for the show and dinner and just forgot about the sword. After dinner we go back to stateroom and we saw the sword that we left on out in 2 pieces is now one piece with some glue or something on it with a note saying to let it dry till tomorrow from your pal Mickey....
OK DS was shocked and amazed at that and the elephant made from a towel. The next night all the stuffed animals DS came on board with all had props - sunglasses, hat, a towel animal etc... so cute. Pirate night was a success with a mended sword. The room was always stocked even with the coveted H20 After Sun. Now I know we weren't concierge, but wow this was service seriously. The best ever on DCL or anywhere for that matter.
On the last day CC day DS got his finger stuck in the bathroom door. Now that hurts and our Host was there as always and got us ice right away told us to go to Dr, just to be sure DS didn't break it.
We looked at it and our SR neighbor was a doctor (met them earlier on) and they saw commotion as they were leaving SR. She looked and and did what I was always taught so we were ok not to see ship Dr, and DS was way better after 30 mins. and swelling went down with ice.
Well we get back from CC and there is a nicely printed and Card-stock framed "Courage Certificate" with some Button pins for DS waiting for him on the bed with a towel zoo all around it.
Well this Room Host made our cruise so amazing, we had such a horrible xmas holiday before the cruise and he turned it right round into a wonderful NYE memory. Needless to say we gave him the recommended tip with the same in cash in the little envelope... and yes he got an excellent rating and then some. I have to run through the old pics to get his name, he was from India, and had a difficult name to remember. He may never remember us, but we will never forget him. I have looked for him on Magic and Wonder but never found him, although we haven't sailed the Fantasy again we always try hoping that he may have switched ships... We will try again this year.

 

[purfectlyweird]

I absolutely love this thread!!!!! I haven't been on a Disney cruise but i pay attention to these kinds of things and it's nice to see that others do so as well. It makes me look forward to my first cruise in December.

You're going to love the ship in December! Which one are you going on?

 

[jenf22]

On our Fantasy cruise we all went to a Bingo session. They did one of those drawings with the small prizes. We didn't win so we're sitting there talking and all of a sudden the woman who won was next to me asking if she could give the prize to our 6-year old son. It was a Jack Sparrow sword and our son was so excited. He carried that sword around the ship for the rest of the cruise. He had a pirate makeover the next evening so it went great with the sword. He was so happy when he got to show it to Jack Sparrow on Pirate Night.

I'll leave out the part where someone let their kid steal it from under our son's chair while we were in the theater and we had to chase them down and demand the sword back all while my baby cried "that little boy took my sword". Apparently he saw him take it but didn't want to say anything because the show was going on. The reasoning the people gave us "well, it was on the floor". My mom replied "so was my purse!". Oops, maybe that's for the other thread. Sorry.

 

[kerry1379]

Here's a good one - my wife and I sailed on one of the Halloween cruises last year. They do a costume party which my wife dressed as Belle and I was her prince. On the way back to our room from the costume party, some little kids came up to my wife and wanted pictures and autographs which she did. The kids were ecstatic. The next day, we found a note on our door from one of the kid's mothers thanking my wife for taking the time to meet the kids. That really made my wife feel special

We took a Halloween cruise in September of last year on the Fantasy. (Sept 12-19th) I met a couple while standing in line with my husband for pictures (either before or after dinner, maybe formal night, can't remember). The couple was dressed as Belle and her prince and I learned she had made the costumes-and they were top notch! I am not sure if that was you guys but if so-we thought y'all looked amazing!

 

[Mrslissaaa]

You're going to love the ship in December! Which one are you going on?

Fantasy

 

[richkaryn]

When we cruised the Dream in December 2014, we had brought along a few of the M&M filled candy cane tubes in case we wanted to Pixie Dust someone outside of our FE or in case DS met a friend or two. We had the most amazing tablemates at dinner, and on the last night we took the candy tubes to dinner to give to the son (DS's age) and 16 yr old daughter. That night the daughter was late coming to dinner. When she came, we found out she was late because she stopped at the gift shop on the way to dinner b/c they had wanted to pick up a small gift for our son (not knowing we had a gift for them as well).

 

[DL1957]

The FB support is what kept me going ... on top of dealing with the airline (which was challenging) and insurance company (unhelpful), I had to transfer a private tour in our first port from my name to one of the other families we had plans to go with. Amazingly, two other families volunteered to purchase our 8 spots so that no one was out extra money. (Both families then offered the spots back to us once they knew we had made it. We declined, but were touched by their offer.). We were also booked on a group transfer to the port in Copenhagen, and the organizer said she would try to fill our 8 seats ... I guess she was able to because my payment was reimbursed through paypal after the trip.

Glad you made it to muster drill on your repo, some of my family didn't.

To get us all to Copenhagen on time, the airline resorted to splitting us up. (We weren't happy and have vowed never again.) Anyway, 6 of us flew direct from Toronto and had a horrible flight (multiple med issues during the flight with other passengers), but we got to the ship by mid afternoon. My parents had to fly through Chicago and their final leg was delayed by 2 hours out of Ohare. They got to the CPH airport well after 3PM ... everyone from DCL had left. An awesome porter hand-picked a cabbie (who may have been a chariot racer in a former life) who got them to the ship before it sailed, but they did hsve to go to a special muster drill along with 2 members of the entertainment staff.

I should also say that DCL staff was awesome throughout this ordeal. They kept checking in with and for updates and they downplayed my parents' absence at muster (likely because my nephews were starting to worry about why grandma and grandpa weren't there). When my parents finally got to check in, the CM took one look at my (somewhat stressed out) mom and said, "Just breath, no worries, you're here now and we'll take good care of you".

Sorry OP for monopolizing the thread a bit ... it really was quite the experience. (For the record, the cruise itself was awesome and drama free, as was our flight home together.)

Thanks I meant FB!

 

[Sir William]

.... I will say, that one of the situations that can turn ugly fast is Officer Pin Trading night. On the Magic (and probably the Wonder) there are always limited release pins for special itineraries (Europe cruises and such) and any extras from the previous year get put on the landyards for officer pin trading night. They're very desirable pins for adult collectors and all too often I see adults rushing forward to reach an officer to trade before they're ready (I've been guilty of this once because nothing is more frustrating than the same person getting to every officer first and trading all the best pins) so when I see kids who want to trade I always try to make sure they get to go up in front of me.

When pin trading on the ship or at the parks, I always let kids go ahead of me, often to my detriment when they get the pin I wanted. A few years ago, while at MK, I observed a small boy, perhaps 5-6, see a toy fall from a stroller ahead of his family. He picked up the toy and ran forward to give it to the child in the stroller. I gave him a trading pin (after asking his parents' permission). Throughout the next few days I continued rewarding people who did something kind or helpful. That same trip, at DHS, I saw a mother trying to explain to her young girl how pin trading worked, but the girl didn't want to part with any of her new starter pack pins. I gave her a pin and told her to trade it for another pin with the CM nearby. The smile on her face after doing made my day, but even more so when I felt a hand on my shoulder from behind. I turned around and there was Darth Vader, who then said (in a not very Darth Vader voice), the "The Force is strong in this one!"

On our last cruise, DW changed our dining rotation and we found ourselves seated with another couple on their first cruise. It was at an 8-top but the other two couples had also changed their seating arrangements. DW met another couple at the hot tub and learned they were seated alone at a 6-top near our table as none of their tablemates had shown up. She invited them to sit with us, which we cleared with the maitre'd, and we all had a great time.

 

[Sarah O.]

Nothing specific to add, but I certainly would have nothing to add for anyone being inconsiderate. It's amazing that you can put so many awesome people on one ship!