First Trip Thoughts

[myboys]

We went on the 3 night cruise 11/27-11/30 and stayed in a category 3. My impressions were:

1. The cruise was great and our 6 and nine year olds loved it. Although they only went to the clubs once each.

2. The concierge service was very helpful. They even escorted our kids to a show when our spa treatments conflicted.

3. The spa was nice but we were turned off by the unusually hard sell the massage therapists were required to make for outrageously priced oils etc... It should have been a mere introduction to the products but it was truly a hard sell. When I questioned her about it the response was - "we are required to do it." Keep in mind that Disney soes not run the spa and it is contracted out. Also certain of the items in the spa were in disrepair.

4. Food was abundant but only fair in quality. This did not bother us because we did not go on the cruise for the food.

5. Category 3 room was great. Wouldn't want the room to be much smaller although I realize there are only about 15 rooms on the boat of equal or greater size.

6. Like any cruise I am told the pools were small and very crowded.

7. Our server was adequate at best. Her attempt during the last meal to convince us to put "excellent" on the questionnaire(and how important it was personally to her) you are provided at the end of the cruise was annoying. This practice should be stopped.

 

[hilltopfamily]

Originally posted by myboys

7. Our server was adequate at best. Her attempt during the last meal to convince us to put "excellent" on the questionnaire(and how important it was personally to her) you are provided at the end of the cruise was annoying. This practice should be stopped. [/B]

I agree completely!! Our server let us know in depth on the first night, and on AT LEAST 2 more nights, the importance of marking "excellent" on our paperwork in reference to his service. In fact, he went on and on about it so much, it delayed our meal service and, IMHO, was contradictory to being "excellent".

I remember my father teaching me "actions speak louder than words" A thought for those servers!

 

[lbgraves]

I just have to say that our servers Rudy and Bayoki were excellant!!! They pampered us so much on our cruise that it was hard to return to the reality of cooking. He did say something briefly about the review being just about dinner with them & not the other experiences we had but it was during a casual conversation we were having with him after getting desert. They doted on the children while still giving us wonderful service. In fact, the last morning we all ate at Topsiders. The kids don't like donuts & pastries...which is all they had...so I ran down to AP to ask if I could get some pancakes to take to the kids. Rudy rushed off to the kitchen and returned with a plate full of pancakes. I only hope that they are still on the Magic when we cruise again.

 

[hilltopfamily]

Wow lbgraves-sounds like you had the service I was dreaming we would have. Don't get me wrong, we loved the cruise and our dining experience was lots of fun, but I did find the frequent discussion by our server on how to mark our satisfaction as "excellent" annoying and pretty phony. I had read so much on this board about the service, I think I had set my standards pretty high. Glad your experience was really great!

 

[lbgraves]

Penny, It actually took me a couple days to get use to it. I have never been called Madame before & that's all they said to me & the other woman at our table. If we didn't already have our napkin in our hand when we sat down, Rudy was right there to place it in our lap. I really tried to not expect alot because of the mixed reviews I have read on the board about servers. I was definantly surprised by our head server Nadege. She came by a couple times each night and the kids loved her! She even got me an extra desert to take back to the room the last night because I really enjoyed it. She NEVER mentioned the review to us that week like some head servers have. I am a little hesitant about our next cruise since I can't imagine everyone being as good to us as the first time.

 

[Annie12345]

Hi Lisa - Nadege was our head server last year, also... she was amazing... we weren't really expecting much from the head server based on what I'd read on these boards, but she stopped by a couple of times each night, and knew us all by name after the first day. Were you on the Wonder or the Magic? I hope she's still on the Magic when we return at the end of January....

 

[lbgraves]

Nadege is on the Magic right now. She told us that she use to be a server & Rudy was her partner / assistant server before she got promoted. She might be there in January too.

 

[delo4]

We were also very annoyed with our server. This was our fourth Disney Cruise and we never had a problem until this past cruise. Our server would ask us what the meal was like and if we said anything other than excellent, she made us say it was excellent. She would not let up! If you said anything other thqn excellent, than she insisted that you needed to tell her what was wrong and that she would fix it. While I appreciated that, some meals were just ok and it wasn't something that could be fixed by sending it back. After the third night, it became a joke at our table. She wasn't the joking kind!! I don't believe she has a sense of humor. I believe she was programming us or brainwashing us to put excellent on our comment card. What we put on our card was that we probably would have put excellent had she not driven us crazy with that word!

I know the comment card means alot and that is how they are judged, but a superior server would not have to drill that in your head. You would already know it.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[ncmvp]

Nadege was our server on our first cruise in in 2001. She and Niculai, her assistant were really EXCELLENT!!! when we went on our cruise this past April we saw her on our way to our room. She recognized us! We all hugged and talked she told us she was going to be promoted to head server. Our servers that time were Dogan and delphine and they were also excellent. We will be going on our third cruise This January and we have requested to be at her station, I hope we get her.