"Double Dip Delight" 09.27.2008 - Chapter 4!

[ntheory]

Hi all, just wondering what the feedback from your 11-13 year olds on the Disney Quest was? Our DD and DS went one time, then didn't go back. I am thinking it wasn't structured enough for them? Not sure, not getting a lot of constructive feedback from them. Just wondering

My 12 year old LOVED it and stayed in there as much as he possibly could. My kids are content without a ton of structure, though.

The kids' club incident...


Luckily, she has plenty of other wonderful memories to counteract the incident - she had a blast at the Mickey pool, going down the slide, chasing bubbles on Castaway Cay with "Miss Heather and her pirate boy" (I have no idea why she remembers him as a pirate!), meeting so many characters, developing her first crush (on "Mr. Lazslo" our assistant server). She cried getting off the ship, so even with all the trauma and drama, she still loves the Mickey boat.

Oh my goodness. That is so so so very sad to me. No child...NO child should go through that. I hope that she can recover easily and only focus on the good memories as the days ahead pass. Hugs for her and for you.




My 3 yo dd just bawled when we had to say good bye to Snow White. She was the most *wonderful* character with kids. She was so nurturing and loving, and my daughter fell in love with her (and I HATE the story of Snow White .... ). She really did a great job.

 

[FatCat]

This cruise was different for me.

I think because we were not traveling with a group(family) I was doing several things during the day. 3 nites I was in bed by 10:00pm.

I did see several of you from my cigar corner.

Overall I actually liked the buffets and the quick service food better this trip. I think I have had better food with the table service in the past.

I have quite taken to have a 3:00 pm Panini

Also the chicken tenders were particulary tasty this trip. I ordered them several times from Room Service along with the cheese platter.

Who put all the mayo in my FE?

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Jen, it was so great to meet your family!!!!!! Did you guys have car trouble when to disembarked?

I'm going to miss so many of you guys so much!!!

FatCat, I can tell you for a fact, I didn't put any mayo in your FE!

 

[Magic3forme]

Adrienne: so sorry to hear about the experience with your daughter. that broke my heart too.

Chris: I truly thought about putting mayo in your f/e but I didnt, I figured some one would .

 

[AQW]

We loved Snow White also - she was terrific in character. I thought many of the characters were just great!

My two moppets with Snow White - I swear my son was hitting on her!

...and I *know* my husband was hitting on her!! That's his "how YOU doin'?" look.

Celeste was so taken with Snow White's signature pose that she adopted it as her own:

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Adrienne--

I am SO sorry to hear about the experiences with the kids' club! I thought there were a lot of kids in the club at times, and I remember last year when Reese was in the 3/4 year old group, that when the 5-7s came back into the club, it felt REALLY crazy & busy. Poor baby girl. Good for you to bring it to their attention. I can't imagine trying to keep organized with that many kiddos in one place!

Perhaps Celeste remembers Reese as "the pirate boy" because from the moment we step onto the Magic, Reese is a pirate. The whole time. So all those eye patches that were delivered in the FE gifts? AWESOME!!!!! Usually, we have one eye patch and it winds up lost for weeks at a time & Reese is sad. Now, I have a whole big stash!

And FatCat, although I thought about grabbing some Chik Fil A mayo before the cruise for you, I didn't. Glad others thought of your need for mayo though!!

Reese is standing in the pantry right now with the FE gift of the Mickey pin that flashes lights...telling me he's a police man...

 

[Elliott's_mommy]

Adrienne I'm so sorry you had that experience, it breaks my heart especially since my introvert of a 4 year old LOVED the clubs and latched on to several of the CMs. I saw you guys around the ship (and I kept telling my husband that your two were the CUTEST kids).

Elliott is still exhausted from the trip. We went to my parents yeasterday to pick up our puppies and to see my niece and nephew. Talk about crazy when we got there. The kids were running around (in Mickey ears) my parents were going through photos, my brother (who is recovering from foot surgery) is in a chair attempting to direct things....all I could think is "how much longer until we are back on the magic?"

Anyway...back to the real world for me today. Fatcat we didn't give you Mayo but I did seriously think about it. I wonder though if I could get someone to bring me hot tea at my desk all day?

 

[Maggie62677]

I had explained to him that only Mommy & Daddy could come pick him up, but apparently he thought it was HIS job to make sure of that. He said there were lots of "Don't Knows" coming to pick up kids and he was afraid they'd take him!

Your son and my son must have been in 'cahoots' because my son was afraid of the same thing...crazy kid. Had to go over the whole process with him about 15 times before he caught on....and that was on the first night.

3 nites I was in bed by 10:00pm.

Sad to admit, but I think I have you beat on this one...I was in bed by 9:00 just about every night.....BUT at least I have a good excuse, I blamed it on the pregnancy.....

Overall I actually liked the buffets and the quick service food better this trip. I think I have had better food with the table service in the past.

Who put all the mayo in my FE?

I have to definately agree with you on this one. I think of all the DC's we've been on the food on this one was by far the 'least enjoyable'...I too preferred the buffet and and quik service....not sure what happened here - what was everyone else's take?

And BTW - the mayo was not from me....thought about it....but can't take the credit.

We loved Snow White also - she was terrific in character. I swear my son was hitting on her!

So sorry to hear about your incident...I can't even imagine what I would do - I have to give you LOTS of credit for handeling it the way you did...you get BIG Mom props....anyway, tell your little man to 'back down'...my 3 year old saw Snow White first....and I think she even winked at him!

 

[Gramto3]

Hi Everyone and welcome back to the real world of cooking, dishes and cleaning. UGH!

I'm sorry I didn't get to the the DIS meet or photo shoot. I looked forward to meeting everyone and didn't get the chance. It was nice to meet the people I did though.

Thank you for all the FE gifts. It was soooooo much fun making deliveries and the kids were (and me) excited each time we came back to the room to see what we got! OH......by the way.......thanks to the person who gave us a little green snake......the kids had tons of fun torturing me with it (I am deathly afraid of snakes of any kind...alive, dead or pretend). People probably thought I was being beat up from all the screaming coming from my cabin. I finally flushed it down the toliet because everytime I threw it in the trash it somehow made its way back to being wrapped or stuffed into my items to find.

The kids also enjoyed the Mexican Jumping Beans.....they had never seen them before.

If you didn't get a FE gift from me I am sorry. A few people on my list didn't have FE hangers out ???????

Not the best cruise I have ever taken. I've decided the poison I had two weeks prior to the trip isn't poison. I had more outbreaks all week, itchiness (sp), upset tummy and tired....many afternoon naps this trip and early bed times. I didn't enjoy the dinning food that much either. By Thursday, I didn't want to go to dinner. Our asst. waiter (Valerie from France) was the pits. She never talked or even smiled and her service was terrible. We had ice tea everynight and always had to ask her for sugar. Several nights, we even had to ask for forks. Hopefully, she leaves the cruise business soon.

On the other hand, our room man was excellent.....very friendly and went overboard on the service he provided us. Extra tips for him!

Off to go get groceries.......talk to you all later.

 

[nenner1]

I'll wave to you all as we leave the boat...we're on the 9/19 cruise. I didn't want to go to St. Thomas because of the customs thing in the morning...and we don't really care about the ports so much anyway. We use the ports as a time to have the boats to ourselves!!

Sounds like the 9/26 has a good following already!

The meets thread folks are super nice, but there aren't that many of them. The whole thread is like 20 pages total. Not quite what I'm used to after this thread. We'll get 'em going though!

I'm home. We're all safe, and our trip home went well. I'm just bummed to be here instead of somewhere (ANYwhere) in the ocean on the Magic. We truly had an awesome trip.

Welcome home, Shell! Sorry I didn't get to meet you! I have to say a special thank you for Sarah's FE gift. She has it as I type and it is covered in drool, so good job!

Jeff & I had THREE dates on the ship...the first we've ever done that since Reese was born in...uh...2003...

Oh my gosh, us too, I bow down to Flounder's Reef!
Let me tell you, we would have spent our entire onboard spending allowance there had it not been for their limited daytime hours!

Jen you can wave to us next year when you leave the ship.

Aww I sure will! Warm her up good for us!

we wanted the 26th, but they wouldnt gaurantee us rooms. we should have booked earlier in the week.
oh well. another Western will be fun, now that we know what to do.

Wow, that's what I heard! Quite a suprise to me, especially seeing the meets thread and discovering it sure isn't full of Diser's! We did get rooms we wanted, 5031 and 5030, at Cat 6 and 11 on 5 aft...but right after that apparently Cat 6 went GTY. We actually waited all the way til Tues. to rebook, there is another example of annoying limited hours. EVERY time we passed that desk (when it was actually open!)the line was ridiculous! I saw several of you there!

The kids' club incident...

Aww, I'm so sorry to hear this! A couple of the times I went in there to get Savannah (5-7) the 3-4's were there too and it was utter pandemonium.
The pictures of them are just too cute!!!

Also the chicken tenders were particulary tasty this trip. I ordered them several times from Room Service along with the cheese platter.

OMG, yes! It just makes me shake my head even more at the parks for taking them away in favor of those sad wimpy little nuggets. Boo Hiss, WDW!

I had to order a tray of them from room service one last time at about midnight our last night to go with my leftover celebration cake.

Who put all the mayo in my FE?

Jen, it was so great to meet your family!!!!!! Did you guys have car trouble when to disembarked?

Oh yes, we had a blast with you guys!!!! You all are so much fun! And thanks for thinking of us for the little extra gifts at the end. The kids just think you are the "nicest lady ever"!

And, yup....we were actually in a hurry when we left, the kids had a football/cheer game to get to, plus I didn't want Savannah to miss two weeks of dance company rehersal...and of course we get out to the lot and had a flat tire. Ron went to change it but we couldn't get to the spare....long story, but we finally got AAA in there past security. Erica and Lionel drove by us too. I was so embarrassed!!

I have to definately agree with you on this one. I think of all the DC's we've been on the food on this one was by far the 'least enjoyable'...I too preferred the buffet and and quik service....not sure what happened here - what was everyone else's take?

ITA. It seems the quality in the dining rooms is down a notch. Especially the filet, I had a few that were fatty and even my Palo steak did not seem to be as good a cut of meat. And they changed the Animator's
Menu and took away some of the things we liked the most (If the Chocolate/Peanut Butter Pie had been gone I wouldve gone postal on them) Yeah, so overall dissapointed. The embarkation buffet was SAD compared to what I'm used to on the Wonder (I actually only ate some cucumbers, cheese and bread and desserts, that's it-nothing else there I liked or looked edible) Was nice to see pancakes and french toast on the breakfast buffet at Topsider's but how can they NOT have mickey waffles every day? That annoyed me. We had amazing service in the dining rooms though, which really made up for it a bit. We did like the second-day menu at Cookies a lot, too! However, I do think they have cut back on their costs by stocking not as high quality of food.

Back to reality for me...I have to go back to work tonight!

 

[nenner1]

If you didn't get a FE gift from me I am sorry. A few people on my list didn't have FE hangers out ???????

Must have been us. Our room was changed. We started out with our FE on the new room which was down the hall, but ended up moving it to our other room, which was the closer of the two to the old room. I know we might have missed a couple of things and we got a couple of early gifts on the old room's fish and the floor! Oh and also someone tried to take our FE! Thank goodness for the zip tie! THANK YOU KIMBERLY!!!

By Thursday, I didn't want to go to dinner. Our asst. waiter (Valerie from France) was the pits. She never talked or even smiled and her service was terrible. We had ice tea everynight and always had to ask her for sugar. Several nights, we even had to ask for forks. Hopefully, she leaves the cruise business soon.

 

[Nette]

We actually thought the food in the dining rooms was BETTER than last year on the DVC Member's cruise. I wasn't impressed with Topsiders though, and the "TexMex" buffet was laughable. I finally gave up on the buffet for lunch and went counter service... muuuuch better... I never thought it would be possible to have too many chicken strips, but when we went to the grocery store yesterday, DH asked if I wanted chicken strips for lunch (our HEB makes them as good as DCL) and I about lost it. NO. MORE. CHICKEN!

Rest of the cruise was great, except for the two nights that our door magnets disappeared. Dress up Mickey went MIA on Monday night between 9-11pm and our "Casa de Day" sign disappeared on Friday night. Mean people suck.

 

[AQW]

I was impressed overall with the food on DCL. I've cruised Royal Caribbean and Carnival in the past, and I thought the DCL food was better. There were some misses (the beef tenderloin was downright nasty) and several things were just okay, but I had a handful of dishes that were out of this world. Did anyone have the parmesan-crusted mahi mahi? That was the second-best piece of fish I've ever eaten in my life (first being a delicious ahi steak in Maui). And the portobello risotto was to die for - my mom and I shared it and had to push the plate down to the other end of the table to keep us from continuing to take "just one more bite... just one more bite" after we were both full - the dish was *so* rich, but incredibly delicious.

I loved the turkey/bacon/tomato panini at Goofy's Galley and thought the pizza was decent (much better than RCCL or Carnival, but nothing to write home about). Somehow we managed to miss the chicken strips entirely! Definitely need to rectify that next time. And I loved the soft-serve on Deck 9 - I'm usually not a fan of soft serve ice cream, but this was yummy.

Okay, now I'm hungry.

 

[FinallyBoughtDVC]

We actually thought the food in the dining rooms was BETTER than last year on the DVC Member's cruise. I wasn't impressed with Topsiders though, and the "TexMex" buffet was laughable. I finally gave up on the buffet for lunch and went counter service... muuuuch better... I never thought it would be possible to have too many chicken strips, but when we went to the grocery store yesterday, DH asked if I wanted chicken strips for lunch (our HEB makes them as good as DCL) and I about lost it. NO. MORE. CHICKEN!

Rest of the cruise was great, except for the two nights that our door magnets disappeared. Dress up Mickey went MIA on Monday night between 9-11pm and our "Casa de Day" sign disappeared on Friday night. Mean people suck.

We had a bunch of magnets go missing too. I made most of our magnets "personalized" so they wouldn't get stolen. Only those that didn't have our names on them were stolen. Mean people do suck.

 

[Epperbiker]

I have to definately agree with you on this one. I think of all the DC's we've been on the food on this one was by far the 'least enjoyable'...I too preferred the buffet and and quik service....not sure what happened here - what was everyone else's take?

As I stated in an earlier post, I was a bit disappointed with the presentation of many items in the Dining Rooms. Granted, I was very active the entire week and used the stairs almost exclusively, but I actually lost 3 pounds on this cruise!! I wish I had taken more photos of food this trip because I had many of the same items as last year and the comparison was pretty remarkable. I will say that the Lobster was much better this year than last!

Regarding Kid's Clubs - DS4 spent 15 minutes total and refused to be left alone. I felt that things were very unorganized and the CMs we encountered were just not very friendly.

Our Dining Room Servers were excellent as was our Room Steward. We even tipped a bit extra to our Head Server in the Dining Room because he was very nice and changed our Dining time and rotation at my request.

 

[Nette]

We had a bunch of magnets go missing too. I made most of our magnets "personalized" so they wouldn't get stolen. Only those that didn't have our names on them were stolen. Mean people do suck.

Well, when Mickey went missing, we thought that they left the other magnet because it was personalized... Guess not. I can't figure out why anyone would want our magnet with our name on it.... Now we are plotting ways to make magnets unstealable. So rude.

 

[AQW]

Re CMs: We had an outstanding stateroom hostess (Flori from Romania) and our head server (Yolande from South Africa) went to great lengths to ensure my dairy-allergic daughter had appropriate meal and dessert options every night. Our dining room servers (Cloverly from Jamaica and Lazslo from Hungary) were very nice and friendly, but their service sometimes left a little to be desired. Still, I'd rather have someone who is fun to talk to and who my kids adore, even if I have to ask three times for something like a drink refill or a clean spoon.

 

[jns]

Welcome back everyone

great to hear you all had a good time

was wondering how all your Diss Board plans went
and looking back now would you have done any of them different

any one done the Cozumel Eco-Park & Snorkel or the grand cayman Aquaboat & Snorkel Adventure would love to know all about them Thanks

hows the

 

[nenner1]

Nobody stole any of our magnets (that I think anyway..I had so many of them I might have lost track), but on our doors people (not always kiddos, sometimes up high) kept wiping their fingers across them and dragging off the ink, then wiping their inky fingers on the doors.

I had to wash off all three doors the last night, and I will have to throw away pretty much all of the magnets because of it. Next time we will laminate.

 

[CrazyZeus1]

We didn't have anyone take our magnets...that's SUCH a bummer that some of you had yours taken. And someone tried to take the FE? The nerve of some people.....