Feb 20, 2011 - Presidents' Week - Mexican Riviera

Well, it's Weds. and I'm STILL coughing/running nose and my ears are clogged. The sore throat finally went away yesterday. I had a fever Fri/Sat/Sun (slept through most of the drive) and I still fill nasty.

We had small tummy issues, but nothing major. On Friday DD did wake up and come in our room and then promptly threw up in the bathroom. However, 10 min later she said she felt better. I did give her some pepto. She did not eat well after that, and Geoffry our server was quite worried that Princess Jordan was not eating the baked potatoes she had been devouring the days before.

I thought maybe we had picked up something at that horrible resort in Cabo. :) Just something else to blame them for, I know.

I too am still not 100% through with my "sea legs" either. It's really driving me crazy.
 
Did anyone rebook for next year

WE DID WE DID! :)

We booked Spring Break next year. I coach competitive juniors volleyball, and if I move up with my girls next year, there is a big tournament over President's Day that I really shouldn't miss (it's in Vegas, I've never been to Vegas, but that's not why I shouldn't miss ;) )

Anyways, I'm hoping there are no conflicts for Spring Break w/our schedule. Plus, I'm hoping the weather might be a tad bit warmer for the trip.
 
:scared1: If you find this I need it! I had Mickey heads with the signature C's and DBs on my door, but I need one with that quote!

Silence,

If you can send me the one with the Cs, I can modify it with the quote :thumbsup2
 
All 5 of us made it though the trip without getting sick. I was a but worried after our PV towns and tequila tasting tour because we had people use a bathroom that had no soap and I left my hand sanitizer back on the dresser.

We had a great time despite the cool Caif weather. The mountains covered in snow were beautiful - I almost thought I was in the Northeast, and we had Manhattan Beach to ourselves

I did think my husband was going to strangle me after I dragged him to the World of Color at Disneyland in a 50 degree rain shower with high winds. The show started about 15 minutes late and an entire section of people got drenched when the fountains where they projected Ariel ended up as a tsunami so they stopped the show. We were the lucky ones - we were not upwind of the fountains.

We enjoyed being on the west coast but our LA to NYC flight was full and felt very cramped so I think we'll stick to Florida for a while. We re-booked on the Fantasy for summer 2012. I'd love to see one of the ships sail out of NY or Boston.

Thanks for all of the great FE gifts. I thought I might end up with an empty suitcase. You all helped make sure it was full.

Elaine
 

We wanted also to thank everyone for the great FE gifts. We had a blast checking ours every day to find something fun waiting for us. We also had a great time going out and delivering them and seeing how everyone had their door decorated. The one my wife loved the most was a Mickey outline with signature Cs from Coach in there, with the quote "I don't ride in a coach, I carry one". We forgot who's room it was, but she wanted me to ask where the person got it, and if they have the template for it.

We had a great time on the trip, even if the weather was not all that we were hoping for (especially our two days at DL pre-cruise). I hope to have a TR up sometime this weekend, and will post the link when I do.

That was our girls' room. We got so many comments on it. The little girl (maybe 3 or 4) in the room next to ours was using our room to find her own -- she would run to our door and then know hers was the one right next to it- it was so cute!

Anyway, silence and DVC Chris (and anyone else interested) if you PM me, I will send you the file with the quote as an attachment. In full disclosure, I did design the mickey head; it was from one of the Disigners websites - can't recall right now which one...

Many thanks to everyone for the great FE gifts. Our girls (young and old) were really into it and I was so glad I had the extra suitcase when it came time to leave!
 
With us, it was just a case of too much rich* food that got to my 3 year old that night. He was just fine after that. On Friday or Saturday he started with runny nose. My 16yo got that and a sore throat Sunday or Monday when we got home. And I am STILL reeling from the ship! It is WEDNESDAY! What's up with that??? :confused3

*I say RICH food, but really we were not overly impressed with the food this cruise, so in my mind it totally could have been BAD food just as easily.

What's everyone else's opinion on dining room food on the Wonder?

My husband's only negative comment was that the food in the regular dining rooms seems to be of a lesser quality than previously. Like others, we had brunch and dinner in Palo's (Thank you Alex - you rock!) and think that the quality there is as good or better than ever. Can't wait to try out Remy's on the Dream.
 
Hi All,
Just wanted to say a BIG Thank you to all the folks who dropped FE gifts off at our cabin. We were too late to get in on the 'entire' FE but so many of you dropped off trinkets I felt horrible that we couldn't reciprocate. Also, I couldn't make it to the meet and greet. I sprained my ankle (badly) about a week before the trip so was in slow gear for much of it.

BTW - both of my boys (5 & 9) had a high fever Wed/Thur - so glad I brought enough motrin/tylenol with me. I was in the gift shop on Sat and heard they had completely run out! thanks again all!
 
My husband's only negative comment was that the food in the regular dining rooms seems to be of a lesser quality than previously.

Some of the meals were only blah, but we found a few good ones. Our main problem was our serving team. We had Teoddy and Olga, and it was the first time that I ever did not give the full tip. Olga was our assistant server, and she would take over 20 minutes from us sitting down to taking our drink orders, and more time to deliver it. She also did not always offer the fresh ground pepper, or inquire about coffee or tea after the cruise, I would ask for a water refill, and she would walk back to the server station and go do something else. I complained to our Head Server, and there was improvement for a while, but it started sliding again.

Teoddy did pretty good, and while not as smooth as I am used to on DCL, I think a lot of it was him having to cover for Olga, so while we detracted a little bit from Olga, we gave the difference to Teoddy, and praised him to the head server.

I booked two DCL cruises for next year. A 3 night on the Dream over Memorial Day Weekend and a Fantasy Cruise in August. Cannot wait!
 
Some of the meals were only blah, but we found a few good ones. Our main problem was our serving team. We had Teoddy and Olga, and it was the first time that I ever did not give the full tip. Olga was our assistant server, and she would take over 20 minutes from us sitting down to taking our drink orders, and more time to deliver it. She also did not always offer the fresh ground pepper, or inquire about coffee or tea after the cruise, I would ask for a water refill, and she would walk back to the server station and go do something else. I complained to our Head Server, and there was improvement for a while, but it started sliding again.

Chris- did you fly home on Delta at 1:30pm from LAX? I am curious if we talked to you on the plane (or really overheard you!), since we heard someone describing their dining room staff just as you did!
 
We rebooked with a dummy date as we would love to to Alaska, but just can't seem to shell out that much money. We tried to rebook our cruise we have a SPH room for in Jan 2012 but that category was sold out and the price had gone up about $500 since we booked. Either way, we have January to look forward to and this time it will be myself, hubby and DD. Leaving the other half at home.
 
Bayportkat,

Inquiring minds want to know..... Why did you change your room? :confused3

I did want to apologize to everyone for the crazy changes!! Our first room had several problems- soft spots on the floor, like rotten wood underneath or something, the fake wood front on the sink in the bathroom was halfway unattached and wiggled each time you pulled on the toilet paper and the room creaked and creaked and creaked, etc. like a haunted house. I had mentioned the floor to our room steward, but not the other problems since we didn't really notice the creak until the next day (Monday). So, on Monday, when we had a problem with the Wave phones (I hate them!) and after my dh dropped them off a few hours before and our kids wanted to go to the kids club, I went back to guest services to get them. While there, I got in a conversation about the other problems in our room and they said they would send somone to check things out. We got new phones too.

Someone came to the room and was apologizing left and right! She said they couldn't do anything about the floor until the room was blocked for a cruise because they had to pull up the rug and cement it or something. She got the carpenters in to fix the bathroom and said they would check the noise.

Guest services called a few times in the next 2 days to check on the noise problem and finally on the PV day, said they had an open room and did we want to move? Once dh heard it was a verandah room, he jumped on the chance, so we dropped the kids at the kids club, threw our stuff in our bags and guest services had some people help move us.

Once we got there, I couldn't believe how quiet it was and realized how bad our room noise was. I also realized that something was wrong with the bathroom door (didn't stay open) and probably the AC- didn't get very cool.

Then I wrote all the notes, delivered all but 2 and my dh looks at the paper and says, we are room 6530, not 6053! So we went back and changed all the notes! Busy day!!

One huge problem that I think I am going to write Disney about, after I thank them for fixing the room problem, is that when my dh dropped the kids at the club, he made sure they had the room change. They said they did and no problem. Several times after that, we would go to pick up the kids and one or both would say they had asked the counselors to call us, but we never received a call. Once they tried the room, but we must have just left. We mentioned it to the counselors and the first time was kind of blown off- we too thought it was a one time thing. Another time, we had phone 2 and assumed it was because they tried phone 1- the counselor said we had to tell them if we didn't have phone 1 with us- though at the first check in they said if they didn't get someone on phone 1, they would try phone 2 automatically. Anyway, went back and no missed calls either. Finally, on the afternoon of the last day, after ds said he tried again to have us called, a knowledgable counselor told us they were supposed to change the phone number- that although the room change comes up, the phone change doesn't. the kids were at the club that night and sure enough the phones finally worked. I was just really annoyed that my kids were sitting in the club thinking we weren't coming for them- one of the nights, they were both in tears because we hadn't come for them (that may have been the night the phones didn't work), but either way, it was frustrating.

Sorry for the long post- just wanted to explain things!!
 
Chris- did you fly home on Delta at 1:30pm from LAX? I am curious if we talked to you on the plane (or really overheard you!), since we heard someone describing their dining room staff just as you did!

That was me. Were you guys the ones that had trouble getting off the ship?
 
One last post about the trip-

Thank you everyone for the great gifts!! My kids absolutely loved giving and getting the gifts last week!! Even my dh got into it, which surprised me! We still have to look at a lot of the stuff- there was so much and we were always on the go on the boat, we didn't get to really look at everything closely. It is all still packed, since we got home so late Sunday and all had work/school this week! Hopefully it will get unpacked tomorrow!

Once again, sorry about the room confusion!! And thank you for letting us join the FE exhcange! Thank you Elaine for coordinating it!

Oh- we did book another cruise- the Dream in April 2012, though I have a feeling we will change it or cancel it because it is crazy expensive!

And luckily, we did not get sick on the boat. The last night, I didn't feel well, but since I get motion sick, I attributed it to the boat motion. As long as I laid down, I was okay.

Oh- one more thing! I went to the DVC talk (we have been back and forth on joining for years) and won the $300 credit!!!!! That was so cool!

It was so nice to "meet" you all! Maybe we will cruise again with you someday!
 
Bayportkat...I'm glad to hear they were able to move you to a better room. Now you know the luxury of a verandah and will want to sail that next time.

I was going to write a trip report on here but couldn't figure out how to do the picture thing through photobucket. I am kind of clever with some things and not so much with others. I decided to do a blog so that my family and friends could read it as well. Here is the link. Hope you enjoy it....even if you don't....just pretend you did! :)
http://adventuresofthexcrew.blogspot.com/2011/03/cruising-mexican-riviera-on-disney.html
 
That was me. Were you guys the ones that had trouble getting off the ship?

Yes- we had our dd6 and ds8 with us. We were Donald- didn't get off the boat until 10:30 if I recall correctly and out to our limo until 11am. I was worried we would hit traffic and be late to the flight. Luckily, no traffic- long line to check our bags (I paid online and still had to wait 30 minutes to check the bags!) and luckily again, short security line! We even had enough time to get some food!

I was just frustrated that we had a flight to catch and people who had driven themselves to the port or were leaving the next day were getting off before us.
 
Bayportkat...I'm glad to hear they were able to move you to a better room. Now you know the luxury of a verandah and will want to sail that next time.

I was going to write a trip report on here but couldn't figure out how to do the picture thing through photobucket. I am kind of clever with some things and not so much with others. I decided to do a blog so that my family and friends could read it as well. Here is the link. Hope you enjoy it....even if you don't....just pretend you did! :)
http://adventuresofthexcrew.blogspot.com/2011/03/cruising-mexican-riviera-on-disney.html

Oh, come on... you can't just end with day ONE!!!!! Oh & what the heck towel animal was that??? :rotfl2:
 
Oh, come on... you can't just end with day ONE!!!!! Oh & what the heck towel animal was that??? :rotfl2:

Look on the right hand side of the page and there should be the rest of the entries under blog archive. I did all 7 days. I didnt want to leave anyone hanging. Let me know if it doesn't work.
 
Look on the right hand side of the page and there should be the rest of the entries under blog archive. I did all 7 days. I didnt want to leave anyone hanging. Let me know if it doesn't work.

Great blog and photos! Did I miss it or did you leave out the last sea day and the galley tour?
 
Look on the right hand side of the page and there should be the rest of the entries under blog archive. I did all 7 days. I didnt want to leave anyone hanging. Let me know if it doesn't work.

LOVED Your blog! Your children are simply adorable. The pictures were great!
 
I think it was XMom who told me and my wife about another shooting in Mazatlan the week of our cruise, which was brought up at the Q and A with the Captain. Was that right, XMom?

The article below is from a website called Borderland Beat, which someone posted on Cruise Critic. The cut and paste below is the first part of the article.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/03/sinaloa-governor-dont-worry-be-happy.html

<<<Sinaloa Governor: Don't Worry, Be Happy!
Thursday, March 3, 2011 | Borderland Beat Reporter Gerardo

Governor denies that murders impact Mazatlan’s image.
Mazatlan is a popular tourist destination with a “golden zone” of hotel lined beaches and also has one of the largest commercial ports on Mexico’s west coast, and until earlier this year was a popular cruise ship destination.

For the past several weeks west coast cruise ships have dropped Mazatlan as a port of call due to a security situation widely perceived as deteriorating. After having received assurances that security was adequate in the affluent tourist area of the city, the Norwegian Star docked in the port city February 23, with its thousands of passengers vital to the tourist industry.

Unfortunately there was a shootout with two men killed in the tourist zone that same day, reportedly occurring close to dozens of cruise ship passengers who were not hurt in the incident.

The Norwegian Star, Sapphire Princess and Carnival Splendor immediately cancelled all further stops in Mazatlan.

This past Monday morning at about 5:00am, the bodies of five men were hung from two different highway overpasses in the northern and southern entrances to Mazatlan.

The murders occurred in spite of the fact that security in the city had increased with the annual Carnaval festivities set to begin. In a sign of the impunity with which these murders occur one of the sites of the hangings was only several hundred meters from a federal police station.>>>
 

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