We just did this on 8/14, and did not receive anything until the day of our arrival. I called several times, and was finally told that I would not receive anything until we got to the hotel. My only problem with that was that the cruise was on our check-in night. Anyway, I called the week before I left to confirm times, and was told I needed to arrive at the Contemporary at 8:30 for 9:00 Wishes. That didn't make sense, how were we going to do the dessert buffet, pictures etc in 30 minutes?? I even hung up and called back to ask a different CM, same answer as the first time. So, when I checked in, I asked the front desk to check my reservation for me. They could pull up everything except the Grand Gathering info because it's in a different computer system, and the two systems don't communicate. The front desk CM directed me to go the the conciege desk, and said they could help me. They were extremely helpful and dialed the phone for me to speak with the GG people!
Seriously, she was very nice and helpful, but also couldn't pull up the info in the computer. Well the CM on the phone told me I needed to be at the Contemporary by 7:45, and should be 10 minutes early just to be on the safe side. This was the time I was planning for, knowing the 8:45 time would not be correct. Anyway, about 5:30 as we were feeding the kids, there was a knock on the door and there was a CM who handed me my itinerary. Are you kidding me?? What if we'd still been at the park and were silly enough to go with the 8:30 time??
That's the only complaint I have about the event though. The cruise itself was FABULOUS!! The dessert buffett was moved inside due to rain, but it stopped raining in time for the cruise. The character interaction was great, and our pirate captain was a blast, and really interacted with my DS6 who talked his ear off! Even funnier, was the next night at the HDDR, our Pirate Patch turned out to be moonlighting as Six-bits in that show!
Very funny when he walked by our table and recognized each other.
The event itself was very organized once we arrived at the Contemporary and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, but I do wish they'd get better communication between the various computers and CMs. Please feel free to ask if you have anymore questions.
Kim
