February 28, 2009 Bushwacker Banditos Magical Cruise

[DMMarla07860]

Oh so you missed the mom and dad changing their five year old on a lounge chair at the cove in the middle of the day then.

I missed that. But, I saw a lot of times later in the night when a kid or two would come into rockin' bar d. The one time I know pretty much both times I saw Tisa or Dan asked them to leave

 

[aan1701]

Oh and also there was the one time in Diversons when a man came in with his small child around 9:15 at night. Not only did the staff not ask the dad to take out his child, they served the dad a beer. And the cherry on cake for this one is Clayton ( the astt. Cruise Director) and Brent were looking at him for like five min and then just walked out and did not say anything. I am sorry but 18 and up means just that. Not 18 and up unless you accompanied by your parents. This needs to stop or I may have to find a new cruise line.

 

[DMMarla07860]

Oh and also there was the one time in Diversons when a man came in with his small child around 9:15 at night. Not only did the staff not ask the dad to take out his child, they served the dad a beer. And the cherry on cake for this one is Clayton ( the astt. Cruise Director) and Brent were looking at him for like five min and then just walked out and did not say anything. I am sorry but 18 and up means just that. Not 18 and up unless you accompanied by your parents. This needs to stop or I may have to find a new cruise line.

Well I know they busted a 18 year old for drinking, maybe they should keep kids out a little more might not be able to and they could walk in real quick, but as soon as someone sees them asked to leave would be nice.The time I saw they were asked to leave

 

[aan1701]

Well I know they busted a 18 year old for drinking, maybe they should keep kids out a little more might not be able to and they could walk in real quick, but as soon as someone sees them asked to leave would be nice.The time I saw they were asked to leave

Wow, well at least someone got busted. All I am saying is I think, as a whole, the crew did a very poor job enforceing the age requirements. Of course there were people on the crew, like Lee in Rockin Bar D, who were great at enforcement.

 

[bonzie1]

Wow, well at least someone got busted. All I am saying is I think, as a whole, the crew did a very poor job enforceing the age requirements. Of course there were people on the crew, like Lee in Rockin Bar D, who were great at enforcement.

Do you have an address to send comments? Thanks!

I think that some folks, with children and without, are of the mind set that if it's Disney, the rules really don't matter. After all, Disney means Family + Fun. I know the CMs don't really like to enforce rules, and they really shouldn't have to. They hope that the adults will abide by them, and not push the limit. Unfortunately today, I'm noticing more and more, that is not always the case (I'm not just talking Disney...)

Thanks for the address. I want to send some comments about checking in to get a boarding number.

 

[ChocoKat]

Do you have an address to send comments? Thanks!

I think that some folks, with children and without, are of the mind set that if it's Disney, the rules really don't matter. After all, Disney means Family + Fun. I know the CMs don't really like to enforce rules, and they really shouldn't have to. They hope that the adults will abide by them, and not push the limit. Unfortunately today, I'm noticing more and more, that is not always the case (I'm not just talking Disney...)

Thanks for the address. I want to send some comments about checking in to get a boarding number.

Yeah I noticed this as well, at one point there was a family with the whole pack of kids at the Cove in the pool! I just felt like asking them: "Do you realize that there are 2 other pools for the kids? Could you just let this one be please?"

At Serenity Bay we were just arriving with our bikes when we saw a whole family pull up and get the kids to the beach. I believe a CM must have said something because when I turned around to check if they were REALLY staying they were gone.

If this continues I say the adults should take over the kid's clubs in retaliation Who is with me? We can invade both the Stack and the Oceaneer club

We gad a minor thing happen to us on our way to Palo, not Disney's fault at all mind you. A French lady decided DH must be working on the ship and demanded he hand her a sani wipe while we were waiting to be seated for dinner. I was horrified! She didn't even ask! She just snapped her fingers at my DH and told him to "Hand him one of those".

I was left in shock, her husband told her "I don't think he works here", but she still took the wipe from my DH and didn't apologize until we were waiting in the same area for several minutes.

Dinner at Palo was so-so for us, maybe we were still in a bad mood after that experience, but the lobster was overcooked and DH's lobster ravioli had part of a lobster shell in them. We asked for our bottle of wine and I told the server we would leave it to the somelier's taste to find one for our dining selections, he came back with a bottle and unscrewed the cap!!! ROFL I nearly died laughing since he had it all nicely wrapped in a napkin and all... if you are serving me screw cap wine for goodness sake at least try and present it on a decanter or something, overall if this is supposed to be the elite restaurant!

I think that was the only so-so dining experience we had. DH told Jeff our head server and he was up in arms about it. He is so sweet he wanted to call the manager at Palo right away, but we didn't want to make a fuss since we really were having a lovely time.

 

[Dave and Micha]

Wow, well at least someone got busted. All I am saying is I think, as a whole, the crew did a very poor job enforceing the age requirements. Of course there were people on the crew, like Lee in Rockin Bar D, who were great at enforcement.

How can you say...as a whole? You just told about two or three incidents out of an entire cruise and mentioned two names. How does that make the "whole crew" culpable? We were on the ship for two weeks and never saw anyone under age in any areas during the first week and saw Teesa tell kids to leave Rockin Bar D the minute they walked in the door the second. If they had done a POOR job AS A WHOLE I guess we would have seen many more violations. So I suppose I find that statement unfair.


Furthermore...did any of you say anything to anyone about what you saw? Why didn't you say anything to Brent about what you witnessed in Diversions? If I had seen Brent or the bar staff serve someone that had brought a child into the adult area, I would have said something.. not just sat there. There is definitely a large group of people who think that rules are for other people, but if no one ever says anything WHILE a rule is being broken, the staff may not think that anything is wrong. "Saying something" also doesn't have to be a big production, just a simple, short word to Brent and I am fairly certain that the problem would have been rectified.

That all being said, I have to agree with Jules... that the second week was very different than the first in regards to families and their kids and it was during this week that I realized it isn't children that I dislike, it is their parents that I hate.

During the shows the second week the rudeness of the people while the show was running was unbelievable... and sorry Canadians... but your French Canadian countrymen were the WORST offenders. We moved our seats a couple of times because the people just would NOT shut up! It wasn't even the kids most of the time, it was the stupid parents who felt compelled to talk loudly with their children the whole time. I wanted to throw them overboard.

 

[donmil723]

Oh so you missed the mom and dad changing their five year old on a lounge chair at the cove in the middle of the day then.

Yep!

And I agree with Dave. If I see or experience something that upsets me during the cruise, I will speak up then so the matter can be taken care of and I can enjoy the rest of my cruise. But, honestly, I can't remember anything that really bothered me, at least not enough to speak to anyone about it.

 

[DMMarla07860]

We were on the ship for two weeks and never saw anyone under age in any areas during the first week and saw Teesa tell kids to leave Rockin Bar D the minute they walked in the door the second.

Yeah the only time I saw kids in Rockin' Bar D was one night and Tisa told them to leave.

The first week I was like wondering where everyone was, so different from the second week.

 

[ChocoKat]

How can you say...as a whole? You just told about two or three incidents out of an entire cruise and mentioned two names. How does that make the "whole crew" culpable? We were on the ship for two weeks and never saw anyone under age in any areas during the first week and saw Teesa tell kids to leave Rockin Bar D the minute they walked in the door the second. If they had done a POOR job AS A WHOLE I guess we would have seen many more violations. So I suppose I find that statement unfair.


Furthermore...did any of you say anything to anyone about what you saw? Why didn't you say anything to Brent about what you witnessed in Diversions? If I had seen Brent or the bar staff serve someone that had brought a child into the adult area, I would have said something.. not just sat there. There is definitely a large group of people who think that rules are for other people, but if no one ever says anything WHILE a rule is being broken, the staff may not think that anything is wrong. "Saying something" also doesn't have to be a big production, just a simple, short word to Brent and I am fairly certain that the problem would have been rectified.

That all being said, I have to agree with Jules... that the second week was very different than the first in regards to families and their kids and it was during this week that I realized it isn't children that I dislike, it is their parents that I hate.

During the shows the second week the rudeness of the people while the show was running was unbelievable... and sorry Canadians... but your French Canadian countrymen were the WORST offenders. We moved our seats a couple of times because the people just would NOT shut up! It wasn't even the kids most of the time, it was the stupid parents who felt compelled to talk loudly with their children the whole time. I wanted to throw them overboard.

Agreed in all accounts.
In the case of the family at the Cove pool we were just passing by on our way to do something else I believe, so we didn't go out of our way to find a CM and tell them about it. If we had been in the pool area I'd definitely have said something. Hindsight I should have said something anyway, but I did leave a note on my eval form about enforcing the age limits and a note with our head server about Palo not being up to standards.

The talking through the shows was amazing I agree, I remember you and Micha actually were sitting behind us in one of them when a kid and his parents wouldn't stop talking you moved away, good choice! They kept on yapping through the whole thing!

Apart from what I already listed the whole crew at the Magic made our days amazing. So much so that at the end I made sure to leave thank you notes in the shape of postcards from our hometown to a bunch of different CM's and I ran out of space to name them for making our trip magical on our eval forms.

They work very hard every single day and they always had a smile on their faces for us. We actually spent a bit of time talking to Clayton one night, come to find out he lived in Cancun for quite a while and had visited my home city, so we had some stuff to talk about. He was a riot once we got him out of his professional shell for a bit. And I must say he makes that uniform shine, he is hawt!

 

[aan1701]

Let me clarify, after I saw the lounge chair changeing incident, I did seek out Brent. This was in St. Croix when I spoke to him about the amount of children in the adult only areas. He told me I was the fourth person of the day to complain and about the 20th person to complain about it this cruise. He assured me that things would be solved as he was planing a meeting about with his managers. The Diversions incident was the last night when I was pub night. So the way I look at, he did nothing to solve the problem. I am with you Dave. I do not blame the kids, I blame the parents. I also have to put blame on Brent. If you have that many people complianing about a problem, then there must new problem. So on the last night when he, and his assistant walk right by one of those problems and do nothing, he also becomes a problem since he is the Cruise Director. I also say the crew as a whole because in all the times I saw kids in the adult areas, only once did I see anyone wearing a Disney name tag speek up and say anything. That was the drink server Lee I'm Rockin Bar D. So I guess I had a different expereance than you guys. All I know in 5 cruises with DCL this was by far the worst when it came to age enforcement. To answer the question about how to contact DCL, just go to their web site and click on contact us.

 

[ChocoKat]

Thanks for talking to Brent about it!
I appreciate it for one.

I think I know which kid in Diversions you are talking about, and really Pub Night is def not a night to have your kid at Diversions. It is all in good fun adult humor that kids wouldn't understand and shouldn't have to be talked through if you catch my drift.

 

[aan1701]

Thanks for talking to Brent about it!
I appreciate it for one.

I think I know which kid in Diversions you are talking about, and really Pub Night is def not a night to have your kid at Diversions. It is all in good fun adult humor that kids wouldn't understand and shouldn't have to be talked through if you catch my drift.

Well the Diversions thing happened while the show was ending they did leave about 9:40. I guess I really should have said the Brent did a very poor job of addressing the problem. I mean after over twenty people complain, and the day after I did and I still saw the same dad lingering in the cove area with his kid in a stroller after I was assured this was going to be addressed, is (in my eyes, so maybe not yours so please do not rip me) doing a very poor job.

 

[ChocoKat]

*sigh*
Work was torture today I am working on a project that involves a cruise giveaway and I was downloading all these stock photographs that just made me miss the Magic and the islands.

I can't wait to get the bounce back offer booked so I can get a date to look forward to

 

[Dave and Micha]

That is interesting about the pool thing... I suppose it must have been on the day we stayed in our cabin and enjoyed our balcony...which we seemed to do more the second week than the first.

Also interesting that you mention Brent because although we liked all the staff, we did not like him. He never smiled or said hello unlike the assistant cruise director. He was not approachable at all from our point of view.

I will relate one episode that made me a little angry and I did get up and do something about it. The singer Alice... the one who did the Circle of Life and Rhona Rivers had friends on the first week of the cruise. We made the mistake of sitting next to her during the sailaway buffet and she was sitting there TRASHING her entire cast to her friends and she was NOT quiet about it. This was a 180 from our first fantastic impression of the ship and at first I thought she was joking with her friends... but it went on for about 20 minutes. I said to Michael... not only is that unprofessional in the first place, but to be doing it out where guests can here is completely out of order: you do NOT air work related gossip in passenger areas. It messes with the magic.

In any case, I told Michael that I was going to say something to her about it and he told me not to.

The next day we went up to the Quiet Cove pool and she was there with her 3 friends and about 5 people from the cast. They had all taken places on the lounge chairs which meant that guests couldn't use them. That BOILED me. I have no problems with cast members in guest areas, but they should have the sense to know that the facilities are for the paying guests FIRST! Well, then they moved to the pool, leaving there stuff on the chairs so not only were they all in the middle of the pool, loud and laughing, but they were still keeping chairs from people who were looking for a place to sit.

I went to the house phone and called down to Guest Services and they sent someone up immediately. The guy walked through, but didn't say anything to any of them because I suppose he didn't know about the chair thing and they were all in the pool.

Later, they were all in Palo. One of the friends had shown up in a Tshirt and sandals for dinner. They were drunk and loud and PJ was pissed off. I asked him why he didn't ask them to leave and he said he didn't want to make a bigger scene and would take it up with her manager.

I definitely wrote a letter to Disney about HER!

 

[aan1701]

Dave I am so happy you wrote in about her after reading your story. The pool thing was almost like clockwork, everyday about 4 in the afternoon this guy shows up at the cove with his kid in a stroller and just hung out a little. You are so right too about Brent. I will air I have never thought much of him, after the Panama cruise I thought he had changed, but in retospec it looks like all her cares about is the behind the scenes stuff insted of listing to guests and there concerns.

 

[DMMarla07860]

Also interesting that you mention Brent because although we liked all the staff, we did not like him. He never smiled or said hello unlike the assistant cruise director. He was not approachable at all from our point of view.

That's funny what you said about Brent was so different when My dad and I saw him around he would smile and talk with us. I didn't find him to be the best CD I've had on a cruise, would have loved having Christiaan, but I can see why people like brent though. Loved his accent

 

[ChocoKat]

Never made any small talk with Brent, Clayton was very approachable to us, he would ask us how we were doing and if we were enjoying themselves whenever he saw us pass by.

Thanks for writing about those incidents Dave, if it had been me I'd have been appalled as well.

The whole lounge saving thing is so silly, you either lounge or swim people!
I feel bad for people that actually were looking forward to one of the loungers though!

On a good note, we met some really nice people on board, fellow DISers whenever we actually managed to say hi, and also random peeps. We met this young fella at the Quiet Cove, he had sat with his family next to where we had parked our belongings (tucked in the very corner of a bench so people could sit on it since we were not using it), and we got to talk to him while we dried off and retrieved our stuff after soaking in the tub and pool.

He had lost his legs and part of his arm in an accident we believe, but he was sooo sweet, so cheerful and just generally happy to be there, it was a pleasure to talk to him! We kept bumping into him and chatting it up. Makes you see things in perspective. DH even bumped into him again when he had "lost me" at Cast Away Cay, turns out he had lost his family as well and they had a laugh about it.

Ah fun times!

 

[Dave and Micha]

Exactly... Clayton was one of the nicest people on the ship...always ready with a smile, a handshake, etc. When he saw us back the second week he crossed the Rockin Bar D to us, approached and said... "Hey, you're back. Fantastic... glad to see you again and hope your second week is as good as the first." Now THAT is a cruise director. Brent looked thru us every time he saw us and the second week was no different.

What kind of gets me even more now that I think about it is that I took the time to meet with Guest Services and the Head of Security after the fight that occurred next to our table in Animator's on the last night of the first cruise. I wrote down what I saw and offered to be a witness on the staff's behalf shoud that be necessary. Brent saw me going into the meeting and knew what we had done, yet he still never took the time to so much as pee in our coke. Hmpf.

 

[ChocoKat]

Oh My!
A fight at Animators?! WHat?

Can't think of a single reason why I'd like to get into a fight at dinner, in a beautiful ship on the last day of a cruise.

Do tell if you'd like, this is like ship gossip

Now I am kicking myself for not taking photos with Clayton *sigh*
What makes me laugh is that my DH was the first to say "Wow, that man really looks good in a uniform"