OMG, I wonder if this was the same lady I am about the write about? James was wonderful, LOVED HIM. The rest of the entertainment staff was just as great. Carly, Lori, Sherielyn, and TJ with James, made the trip very very magical.
Here is the long and short of it for ya!
Please note that the lady I am about to write about is NOT the lady with the bear. This is a completely different person. She has been on between 5 and 10 cruises as she was wearing a gold lanyard.
Ok here goes:
1st encounter: they announced that on the 11th they were going to hand out wrist bands for the release of the TA exclusive pin at 2pm. I went to line up at Mickey Mates at about 1:15 as I know these lines can get long early. I walked in and asked Tom where the line was and he stated that there was not one yet. I asked him where he would like the line to be and I would start it. He showed me where to start it and which direction that he would like it to go. I said ok and that I would sit there and start the line. At this point, this woman, who was sitting in the chairs and tables for Preludes, turns and said in a harsh voice "I am first in line". I said ok that is fine, but I would sit there to start the line so that people would know where to line up. She then stated again in a very condisending harsh voice "But I am first". I again said that was fine that she could sit there and I would let her in front of me when the time came. I said this because she seemed a bit older than me, like in her late 50's early 60's and could have had a injury or not as spry as others to sit on the floor. (Now let me say, had I known what she was really like and how 'spry' she really was, I would have made her come and sit her *** down to be 1st
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Second encounter: This took place at a Bingo session, cannot remember which one. I was walking up to purchase my cards when they started to sell them. She was sitting at the front table nearest the walk way. As I got to her table, she turned her head, look straight at me, jumped up and bumped my shoulder and cut in front of me. No excuse me or sorry I bumped you. I again let this one slide and just bought my cards after her. What burns my butt is that she won one of the sessions. After this, I would wait to buy my cards until she was done as I was getting less patient with her behavior.
Third encounter: This one was not me but I witnessed it. At another session of bingo, we were waiting for sales to begin again and I saw her again butt in on someone. They were up there asking a question when the sales started and so they just went ahead and asked to purchase. She had walked up behind them and stated that she was first. They looked at her weird and she said, I was in the room first so I am first inline. They again looked at her weird but let her go in front of them.
Fourth encounter: At one session of bingo, we had to move to the Promenade Lounge as Rockin Bar D was booked. My daughter was with us and was curious about how Bingo Betty worked (the bingo machine for those who have not played before) so we were up in front talking to Carly about it. Kirsten was standing to the side of Betty and I was half way in front of the sales terminal. When Carly stated that they would start sales in a minute, this woman came up and again bumped me out of the way and into my daughter to be first. She did it hard and there was no "excuse me are you in line" or anything, just a hard push and a dirty look so you know she did it intentionally. Luckily, I was able to keep Kirsten from being pushed into Betty, which was at about neck/lower face level. I was so pissed off, I had to excuse myself and Kirsten to go back to the table at which point I told my husband to go buy the cards as I was too pissed off to deal with it properly. After bingo, I had to take some things back to the room and went to the elevators to go to deck 8. She was standing there, so I took the stairs from deck 3 all the way up to deck 8 because I knew that it was a bad idea for me to get into an elevator with her at that point.
Final encounter: This was the last session of bingo. We got there early to get a good table. They were having a dance lesson in Rockin Bar D at the time. JT came around and let us know that they were going to be clearing the room in after the lesson (about 15 min later) to get it ready for bingo. He then moved on to tell all the other people in the room. We got up and went outside to line up with most of the others in the room. 15 min later, when they asked those that stayed behind to leave, she came out of the room and stood right by the door. At this point I was done with her entitled behavior and I said that the end of the line was back there. She then insisted that she was in the room first and that she was first in line. I went to say something else and my husband asked to let it go so I shut up. She did not. She went on about how if I did not see her enter the room then she was there first and that she deserved to be in the front of the line. After about 2 minutes, I calmly said to her "I stopped talking to you, please stop talking to me". It was at this point that she called me a B***H. This is when my husband got between us and pushed me back. He knew it was about to get out of hand. The lady behind us started trying to calm me down saying that she had been cussing out other passengers and CM's and that she was not worth the effort because it was only going end badly. As this point the woman was then yelling about how big a B***h I was and going on and on about it. This is when I learned that she had been saying obcenities to the Bingo CM's when they did not call the right numbers. I have to say that I did not hear this first hand as I sat as far away as I could but another lady join the conversation to confirm that she had cussed at the CM's during Bingo and several other passengers throughout the cruise, including the first womans husband for an infraction that he did not even know he commited.
Since this was the last sea day and the second to the last day on the ship, I was able to avoid her the rest of the cruise. This type of behavior, unfortunately, is never addressed on the cruise because the staff cannot do or say anything about it and other passengers usually let it slide as it does turn ugly like it did in the last encounter.
So this is my story and I hope that you did not find it too boring. Please note that this did not spoil my trip. I have many many many more magical stories that far out weigh the bad and only typed this out because it was requested. I was only using this as an example of the entitlement mentality that was displayed by other passengers that was just over the top.
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Funny you say that....I WORK in a skilled nursing facility ("seniors home") and have had a fairly long career in MH/DD management, so I genuinely appreciate your sensitivity to this woman's possible issues. I never said I found the bear's presence disagreeable; more like humorous and slightly sad. But it never should have taken service or attention away from other customers or caused a server to be chastised. This wasn't a service animal or aide, just her idea of fun, it seems..."quirky".... from what other passengers have said and what we personally observed. I did speak with someone who was on their plane over, so it went with them from home 
. I can't imagine how they managed...we struggled with our luggage, that's for sure, and this bear was quite large. Our beach chair on CC was just behind them for about an hour, so my DH watched as the lady and the bear sunbathed. Attention-seeking? Undoubtedly. Wacky? Yep. Mental illness? Probably not to the degree that others may be thinking. But, no one really knows the whole story 
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It was a bit odd, though she seemed nice enough and not mentally disabled in anyway. 
one day in our deck 8 cabin, although we were never notified of a disruption in service. I can't recall which day it was, although it cleared up quickly.
I am finding this thread extremely entertaining. 
