"Double Dip Delight" 09.27.2008 - Chapter 4!

[tig82174]

Jason and I booked two cruises aboard this most recent cruise.....and our travel agent already has plans to rebook those trips for us into 2010 on the 14th when the bookings open. We are (at least right now) planning on doing a back-to-back sailing.....and book the 9/8/10 Ten-Night Med cruise and follow that with the Westbound TransAtlantic......24 fabulous days on the magic!!!

 

[pit303]

We also booked two cruises. We booked the Wonder for 11/30/08 and a dummy date for 2010. thinking about one of the Med cruises or the EB repositioning really need to make a decision by 14th.

Maureen

 

[LuvtheEars]

As far as my room and limit experience goes .... All is *wonderful*. I noticed yesterday that they were having a little problem with the Mickey pool. They filled it, emptied it, filled it again .... Not sure what was up with that.

The first day Megan and Grady got to the pool as soon as they could, swam for about 15 minutes before it was closed because someone messed in it. It seemed to take more than a day to get it open again. I didn't know it was messed in multiple times.

BTW - Anyone else book while onboard?

We booked Dec. 5 Eastern, but I'm not sure if we will keep it or move it to a 2010 cruise. We're hoping for another Double Dip!

BTW - I am still waiting for my servers to bring me my ice tea.....I am not readjusting well at all

We stopped to eat lunch on our way home Sat. and it hit home that we were really off the ship when the waitress did not put my napkin in my lap and I had to tell her I wanted unsweet tea.

Who put all the mayo in my FE?

I didn't do it, but I know who did!

Yeah, we ran into Brent in Sessions after Mickey went missing and considered complaining to him... but really, what's the point? Besides, they only got the top half of his tux, his hat and dress shoes... all the other "clothes" were on the inside of our door. (His pants must've fallen off and gotten kicked back under the door cuz we found them the next morning on the floor)

Ah well... it's not a big deal.

I would have loved to hear that announcement, "Please return the half dressed Mickey magnet to the door it was stolen from! He's getting cold!" I'm sorry he went missing! Mean people do suck!

Our cruise experience was Fabulous! I loved Castaway Cay the best (Both visits!) Although they did have to kick us off the island the first time because we did not want to leave.

Megan and Grady had a great time in the kids clubs with only one problem. Megan was at lunch at Animators palate and was getting her fork while watching the movie turned around and poked the counselor with her fork. She didn't mean to, but the counselor yelled at her and told her to sit down and she was not getting lunch! They paged us, but for some reason the page didn't come through. As soon as Doug heard it he ran straight to AP to get her and she was very upset. Doug thought she was upset because he didn't pick her up right away. He was told nothing when he checked her out. She informed us that she did not get lunch. We took her to lunch on deck 9 and she told us what happend. I went back to the kids club to find out exactly what happened, but no one knew anything and nothing had been put in the computer. I was assured that no counselor was allowed to tell a child they could not eat and the Manager would be notified about the situation. We did get a call from the Manager and the counselor that got upset with Megan was taken off her rotation. Megan did go back, but she told us she would not return until they left Animators palate.

We also had 2 bags on our door the last night from the kids clubs with cards for each kid, graduation t-shirts and caps and Magic moment pins. Did anyone else get these? We were thinking it was because of the problem. The manager really wanted to make things right so it did not put a damper on our cruise experience.

We also loved all the FE gifts and the kids loved coming to our room to see what we got! My Secret Mickey was great too! We love all our gifts and the clues each day was a lot of fun too!

Grady and I picked up the treasure map kit from guest services, but had so much to do we didn't do the treasure hunt. I'm glad we're booked again because that looks like fun!

Have a great evening everyone! I have a group picture and I'll try to post it either tonight or in the morning.

Tiffany

 

[AQW]

We also had 2 bags on our door the last night from the kids clubs with cards for each kid, graduation t-shirts and caps and Magic moment pins. Did anyone else get these? We were thinking it was because of the problem. The manager really wanted to make things right so it did not put a damper on our cruise experience.

<nodding> We got goodie bags on our fish as well - no doubt due to our incident earlier in the cruise. They also gave us two pillowcases and a baggie full of fabric markers because Celeste had wanted to do the previously scheduled pillowcase-coloring activity, but I pulled her out of the Club when things got a bit unruly.

So sorry to hear you had a negative experience with the Club as well - do you recall the name of the counselor you had a problem with? I'd be interested to hear; feel free to PM me if you don't mind sharing but don't want to do so publicly. We had at least marginally good experiences with all of the youth counselors except one, Katrina from the US (not to be confused with Australian Katrina, who was terrific). USA Katrina really has no business working with kids IMO... she's brusque to the point of rudeness and seems to have very little patience, especially with the youngest children.

Future cruises - I'm TERRIBLY tempted to jump on the Westbound TA in 2010, especially with the prospect of $99 3rd/4th passenger fares. However, airfare to Barcelona is pretty daunting and both DH and DMom have reasons they don't want to go, so I doubt I'll pull the trigger. Sigh.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

We didn't rebook another cruise on board...but we are going to cruise again for sure!!!!!!

Denise, I can't believe your battery is dead!!!! That stinks! Sounds like some of us are coming home to car problems and others are coming home sick!

 

[pit303]

We didn't rebook another cruise on board...but we are going to cruise again for sure!!!!!!

Denise, I can't believe your battery is dead!!!! That stinks! Sounds like some of us are coming home to car problems and others are coming home sick!

We got both sick and car problems!!!

 

[alleluia5]

Our servers were Oppie and Marko. Oppie was our server and he was very good. We had no complaints about his service but he wasn't overly personable. We found out Saturday AM that he was finished his contract and was going home for 3 months so he may have been a bit distracted, but again, we couldn't complain about his service.

We actually started the first night with Oppie and sad to say it was the worst service we had ever had on a Disney cruise. He was completely distracted, and the meal took absolutely forever. Luckily, that was when we saw our former server from another cruise and found out that he had a table with plenty of openings so we switched over. Now this was a choice we made, but we later found out that Oppie "chastised" our server for "stealing us" - again, not something we were impressed with.

 

[pfishgirl]

Our Drink server... Sani... was Not very good.. but our Food server.. Jose Luis.. was AWESOME!!!

 

[VIKKIGZ]

Our servers Dean & Guidien were really great. But the service in general was just sooo slow. We enjoyed the food but it took about 1 hour 45 min everynight to complete dinner.

We did the XCaret excursion in Cozumel and had a horrible experience. We met in the theater at 9:15am and didn't get to XCaret until 12:45pm and then were told to meet back at 3:30pm. $105.00 p/p just to be rushed through the river and eat a nasty hotdog! Wish we would've did the excursion on our own.

DS 7 enjoyed the oceaners club at first but got bored after three days.

Thanks to everyone for the great F/E gifts. DS really enjoyed looking to see what was new, and also passing them out.

 

[jjgarv]

I believe we had them!
We had Liam from Jamaica...our third cruise with him! We request him ahead of time now.....and his assistant Marina was wonderful..she complemented him well. We also had Fitz as a head server and he was our best one in 7 cruises..stopped by every ngiht and chatted and even stopped by us at the pool just about every day. (Fitz...I know you read these boards.......here is a hint of who I am.... Captain Morgan by the pool!)
Our stateroom host was Rosa, who was average, my daughter still wants to know when she will see the monkey towel animal!

Other cast members of note:
Erika who is in charge of all the characters is amazing! Probably the most magical of all cast members we have met...she treated our daughter like her own....she invited her to be in Golden Mickeys...to whcih our shy daughter declined. But did invite us to a private meet and greet with all the characters in Studio sea right before "till we meet again". By far the most magical experience we have ever had in our 10+ Disney Trips
Character escort Arian. Who was exactly the same height as Dale She too, "adopted" our daughter and made it a magical cruise.
Photographer Milana Who became very close with my wife since she probably photographed my daughter 8000 times. She was incredibly sweet and did some extra special things for my family.
All of these cast membrs made this our best cruise ever....I hope DCL admins read this!
We rebooked for next Oct, but will likely move it to the Spring of '10.

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Denise: watch out I am stalking you.

I am almost done with my I am just now washing the autographed pillowcases. I think I have done 10 loads of laundry.

Hope everyone is feeling better!

Anyone booking any of the Europe trips in 2010? I would love to do one of the trips.

The outbound Transatlantic leaves ON MY BIRTHDAY, so I'm trying to talk Jeff into doing that one...I mean, come on!!! We HAVE to go, right? We'll see if he takes my suggestions...

Last year, we got the kids' club goodies with the shirt and all, but nothing this year?

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

We got both sick and car problems!!!

We also had both, but I am glad the car problems were at home and NOT at the airport! Matthew had a cough all week and Rachel was good until ear problems started up...they DID NOT want to go to school today. Steve also went back today, I go back Thurs night...lots of unpacking today!

 

[Nette]

Denise: watch out I am stalking you.

I am almost done with my I am just now washing the autographed pillowcases. I think I have done 10 loads of laundry.

Hope everyone is feeling better!

Anyone booking any of the Europe trips in 2010? I would love to do one of the trips.

We've got DU set to book the WB repo for us.

 

[LuvtheEars]

<nodding> We got goodie bags on our fish as well - no doubt due to our incident earlier in the cruise.
So sorry to hear you had a negative experience with the Club as well - do you recall the name of the counselor you had a problem with?
Future cruises - I'm TERRIBLY tempted to jump on the Westbound TA in 2010, especially with the prospect of $99 3rd/4th passenger fares.

I thought it was a little strange that we got another t-shirt and hat when both kids went to the graduation. I'm thinking they thought after "the problem" we didn't return. When in fact Megan went back within an hours time and had a great time in the club the rest of the trip. I have to admit Megan didn't get a Graduation cap because she didn't want to wear one and now we have one for her. They are pretty nice and I can see it being used for Halloween costumes.

Megan didn't get the name of the counselor because Doug picked her up and we didn't find out about the problem until a few minutes later. By the time I went to ask what happened they were back in the club and nobody had a clue. Apparently the manager found our who she was later by asking Megan to point her out because she called to let us know she was taken off Megan's rotation.

I want to do the Westbound TA, but Disney has kept the Magic in Europe for extra weeks and it's not until September. My kids would miss 2 weeks of school. I'm thinking I'm going to just keep bumping my date until I can get a PC cruise.

We did the XCaret excursion in Cozumel and had a horrible experience. We met in the theater at 9:15am and didn't get to XCaret until 12:45pm and then were told to meet back at 3:30pm. $105.00 p/p just to be rushed through the river and eat a nasty hotdog! Wish we would've did the excursion on our own.

We looked into doing this, but I was afraid this might happen and it was very expensive! We ended up doing the Discover Mexico excursion and I was very pleased. We went to Chankanaab for swimming and snorkeling for about 3 hours and then went to the Discover Mexico museum with a guided tour, a very good catered Mexican lunch and the kids broke a piñata filled with Mexican candy. All the kids had more candy than they could carry. Our excursion was scheduled to end at 2:30, but lasted until almost 4:00pm. We never felt rushed. This was well worth the $.

We actually started the first night with Oppie and sad to say it was the worst service we had ever had on a Disney cruise. He was completely distracted, and the meal took absolutely forever. Luckily, that was when we saw our former server from another cruise and found out that he had a table with plenty of openings so we switched over. Now this was a choice we made, but we later found out that Oppie "chastised" our server for "stealing us" - again, not something we were impressed with.

We had Larua from England and Nicola from Sibera. They were great! We never had to ask or wait for drinks and Nicola would put drink refils on the table while we were not looking. I don't know how many times I reached for my drink and it was a full new one and said, "When did he bring me this?" We had Palo on our last night and Laura and Nicola had planned to bring us our Anniversary cake, so he brought it to our room instead. That was a nice surprise.

As promised here is the group picture. It turned out a little blurry. Hopefully someone has a better picture.

Tiffany

 

[AQW]

The DDDers look great!!!

My kids are down front... DD Celeste is turned around looking the wrong way (of course); DS Dexter is standing next to her with his hands nicely folded (good boy); DNephew Trevor is next to Dexter, also with his hands folded, wearing red Crocs. My mom is right next to Kimberly on the far right of the photo, and DH and I are the dorks right behind the Mickey statue. We're easy to spot... between his incredible tan and the fact that I'm the only person over the age of 12 to get her hair braided while on vacation, it's tough to miss us.

Thanks for sharing, Tiffany!

 

[Elliott's_mommy]

One last post before I turn in. Please pray for our safe driving tomorrow. We are leaving FL and heading back to NC. We have been staying with relatives since the cruise and head out early in the AM

We also have the crud. Started getting it early in the cruise Tuesday and Wednesday being the worst. Yesterday, Sunday, we were just wiped out and spent as much of the day as possible resting/sleeping.

Sorry to hear so many of us got the crud. Maybe we should tell Disney there was an outbreak and we want a do-over cruise. LOL

Dear Aunt let us do many loads of

Going back to work Wed. after about a 12 hr drive tomorrow.

You guys be careful.

Denise: watch out I am stalking you.

I am almost done with my I am just now washing the autographed pillowcases. I think I have done 10 loads of laundry.

Hope everyone is feeling better!

Anyone booking any of the Europe trips in 2010? I would love to do one of the trips.

DH would like to do a repositioning one but realistically I'm not sure if it will happen or not.

 

[alleluia5]

You know, this cruise thread was so unique....I have been looking at some of the upcoming cruise threads and they just aren't quite the same.

So I was looking at some of the Med cruises for 2010 and the return in September really has a nice schedule....but 2 weeks - wow - have any of you done that before?

 

[Epperbiker]

Hey BUCKEYE GAL! Are you feeling better? Did your Mom get her luggage?

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

I was wondering how Kimberly is doing too! I hope she's feeling better!!!

Back at work...wishing I were on the Magic right now.

 

[anc22]

I woke up on Sunday morning with a bad head-cold. Still have it today. I am thankful that it didn't affect my cruise, but it just adds to the post-vacation depression. Not to mention that we came home to typical oregon weather...RAIN. The group pictures looks great. I wish we could have made it. Our experience with the kids club was o.k. DD make close friends with a couple of girls, but I do think that she got bored at times. DS liked it sometimes and other times cried when we told him he had to go. It was very chaotic in there at times, especially when they mixed the older kids kids with the younger kids. I just don't see how they could have possibly been able to keep track of everyone