From WDW to DL With Love - January 06, 2011 part 5

[dolphingirl47]

We had without a doubt best service ever & I think best menu ever! Loved our tablemates immediately. So enjoyed meeting everyone. Ryan had the time of his life on board & with friends in LA. Still minus a suitcase thank you DCL! I got very sick yesterday, went to Urgent Care & got some meds. Hope to be on the up side soon. We need a reunion cruise! I miss everyone already. How about stopping by for dinner my daughter won't mind!! Jasmine would love to see you!

I hope you feel better soon and that your suitcase turns up.

We had fantastic service. Over the years we had some fantastic servers, but the server that we had this time round was hands down the best. I also loved the food. We had one cruise on the Wonder in 2008 and the food on this was sometimes barely edible, but the food on this cruise was fantastic. Graham was shocked when I said that I think it was actually better than on the Magic. He never would have expected me to say that something could be better than on the Magic.

Our stateroom host was an absolute star. I can't wait to see her again in October. We night have to kidnap her.

I thought the embarkation lunch was not as well handled as it could have been. We waited about 90 minutes only to find Parrot Cay half empty with couples sitting by themselves on tables of 8 or 10. On the Magic they always ask if people are happy to share.

The pin releases could have been handled better and I was a bit disenchanted with the variety and quantity of the character interactions. My favourite character is Stitch and all cruise he was only out once for professional photos and that was at 9:30 when we were still at dinner.

On the whole we had a truly magical cruise and given half a chance, I would do it again in a heart beat.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

That is nasty! We did not participate in the FE but got a few things anyway...thanks! We did give out anything we had doubles of, along with some pencils we had purchased, to the orphans who greeted the ship in Manzanillo. I hope this is OK. Does anyone know if they sent the characters out or anything? That would have been very Walt. We certainly didn't sell any FE's!

I don't know about Manzanillo, but in Cabo we got chatting to one of the locals and he was proudly telling us that Mickey and Minnie and some other characters were coming to see disabled kids and their family for a party. The line in front of that venue was quite something.

Corinna...I have had a number of people comment on the items I made in your jewellry workshop. I LOVE THEM!!! I so enjoyed our visit as well. I have a feeling our paths will cross again.

I am glad that you enjoyed the workshop. I hope that we will meet again, too.

Corinna

 

[carmie3377]

Does anyone know if they sent the characters out or anything? That would have been very Walt.

In Costa Rica, my son was pitching a fit about not getting a wooden train and those poor kids were just begging of a glimpse of anything Mickey. One looked at me and said "picture, picture" and pointed to my camera. I was confused, why would they would me to take of picture of them? Then another kid waved a DCL postcard and said that he meant they wanted a picture of Mickey. I apologized as I didn't think I had anything and then went through security. I felt really bad so I dug in my bag and finally found a welcome letter from Castaway Club that had the back view of costumed Mickey and the ship in the background. I had DH take it back to them since he can speak Spanish and I wanted him to explain that that was all we had. He said the grandmother was VERY thankful. I felt so guilty that my son was acting the way he was for not getting this toy and all these kids wanted was a picture. If I had had time to run to my room and grab postcards and anything with character pictures, I would have but we didn't.

Anyway, as we were boarding the boat, some CMs were leaving with stickers for the kids. I think sending out the characters would have been awesome!

 

[aan1701]

Alan - We, too, complained about the scheduling of the boat race and Friendship Rocks at the same time. They were the only two things that were a finale of two weeks worth of activities and I was disappointed that they were at the same time. My three older boys went to the boat race with DH and the other two went to Friendship Rocks. I tried to do both, but ended up missing most of the boat race. I didn't ask Clayton to do anything about it. I just told him that it shouldn't have happened and they need to do a better job next time. I thought he felt bad about it and that he was sincere. A few minutes later I was clearing my lunch tray and Clayton took it from me. He proceeded to spill the soy sauce on his pants. I felt bad about that, but on the side we all laughed and said it was Karma! Hope I made you laugh.

No I did not laugh as I really like Clayton. I was so shocked by his answer. Maybe he was just tired from such a long cruise or maybe a little upset that hecwas the ACD and not the CD. I don't know, just I know he is a good guy and I think he was just having a bad day. At least I hope that's all it was.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

In Costa Rica, my son was pitching a fit about not getting a wooden train and those poor kids were just begging of a glimpse of anything Mickey. One looked at me and said "picture, picture" and pointed to my camera. I was confused, why would they would me to take of picture of them? Then another kid waved a DCL postcard and said that he meant they wanted a picture of Mickey. I apologized as I didn't think I had anything and then went through security. I felt really bad so I dug in my bag and finally found a welcome letter from Castaway Club that had the back view of costumed Mickey and the ship in the background. I had DH take it back to them since he can speak Spanish and I wanted him to explain that that was all we had. He said the grandmother was VERY thankful. I felt so guilty that my son was acting the way he was for not getting this toy and all these kids wanted was a picture. If I had had time to run to my room and grab postcards and anything with character pictures, I would have but we didn't.

Anyway, as we were boarding the boat, some CMs were leaving with stickers for the kids. I think sending out the characters would have been awesome!

It was a bit embarressing at cr, the kids were shouting that they wanted mickey to me, heck, I wish I could have went and got him for them, I nearly gave a girl at one of the stalls my wonder badge as she couldnt stop looking at it but then what about the other that was there, I felt bad.

No I did not laugh as I really like Clayton. I was so shocked by his answer. Maybe he was just tired from such a long cruise or maybe a little upset that hecwas the ACD and not the CD. I don't know, just I know he is a good guy and I think he was just having a bad day. At least I hope that's all it was.

I know you dont like brent Alan and I have to be honest I always thought I liked christian the best, but after having both for 14 night cruises I really do think brent is better, for instance, My neice who cruised with us for years loved brent and christian, on the ta I spoke to brent and asked if I left a card at GS could he leave a note on it for her, he did and it was returned to my room, I cant tell how pleased she was, she asked me to get one from christian also, I asked him, he said yes and I left a 4 buck postcard at GS with a note on it. It was not returened to me, ofcourse it might not have been his fault but it didnt surprise me when I didnt get it.

 

[valbob89]

The pin releases could have been handled better and I was a bit disenchanted with the variety and quantity of the character interactions. My favourite character is Stitch and all cruise he was only out once for professional photos and that was at 9:30 when we were still at dinner.

On the whole we had a truly magical cruise and given half a chance, I would do it again in a heart beat.

Corinna

Corinna - It was a delight to meet you on this trip. Did you get the LA pin that last morning? If not, I have an extra. Just let me know.

Val

 

[sak0526]

That's funnny because I saw Alice with my own eyes!! I was walking by Studio Sea when the Tea party was going on. Granted, they did not call it "Tea with Alice" but she was there.
We went to the Princess Tea party with my daughter, that is something completely different. My daughter only last about 30 minutes because she only likes Cinderella, she loves Alice for some reason, not sure why as she's never seen the movie.

There was somone on board as character looking like alice but it couldnt have been

Another sick one? There seems to be a pattern here of sick people. I am just beginning to get my voice back.
I hope you feel better soon.

did you listen in the theater? everyone was coughing and such. we got off the plane saturday and went to walk in clinics. i'm doing better but dh is still pretty sick. didnt interefere with our enjoymenet though!

I hope you feel better soon and that your suitcase turns up.

We had fantastic service. Over the years we had some fantastic servers, but the server that we had this time round was hands down the best. I also loved the food. We had one cruise on the Wonder in 2008 and the food on this was sometimes barely edible, but the food on this cruise was fantastic. Graham was shocked when I said that I think it was actually better than on the Magic. He never would have expected me to say that something could be better than on the Magic.

Our stateroom host was an absolute star. I can't wait to see her again in October. We night have to kidnap her.

I thought the embarkation lunch was not as well handled as it could have been. We waited about 90 minutes only to find Parrot Cay half empty with couples sitting by themselves on tables of 8 or 10. On the Magic they always ask if people are happy to share.

The pin releases could have been handled better and I was a bit disenchanted with the variety and quantity of the character interactions. My favourite character is Stitch and all cruise he was only out once for professional photos and that was at 9:30 when we were still at dinner.

On the whole we had a truly magical cruise and given half a chance, I would do it again in a heart beat.

Corinna

funny, we WERE asked if we wanted to sit with someone at embarkment lunch!!

It was a bit embarressing at cr, the kids were shouting that they wanted mickey to me, heck, I wish I could have went and got him for them, I nearly gave a girl at one of the stalls my wonder badge as she couldnt stop looking at it but then what about the other that was there, I felt bad.

I know you dont like brent Alan and I have to be honest I always thought I liked christian the best, but after having both for 14 night cruises I really do think brent is better, for instance, My neice who cruised with us for years loved brent and christian, on the ta I spoke to brent and asked if I left a card at GS could he leave a note on it for her, he did and it was returned to my room, I cant tell how pleased she was, she asked me to get one from christian also, I asked him, he said yes and I left a 4 buck postcard at GS with a note on it. It was not returened to me, ofcourse it might not have been his fault but it didnt surprise me when I didnt get it.

yeah, who knows if they gave it to him.
The CMs at every port took their character "friends" to volunteer opportunities - they visited, oh i'm trying to remember if it was hospitals or orphanages. So while it was a shame mickey didnt go out to see local kids AT the ports, He and others did go out.

maybe my standards arent so great, but i thought all 3, brent, christiaan, and clayton, were great! of course i had no problems! and i want the captains job, as it seems all he did was walk around the ship cause i ran into him everywhere!! LOL and jk of course!

 

[granmaz]

We arrived in San Diego yesterday afternoon after a great 4 nights at DL. Our studio at VGC was lovely with a great park view including World of Color. Bad part was the construction work below our window, waking John at 5am! We met some friends there and ate at Club 33, so all in all a fun weekend. Great weather too.

Been to USS Midway this morning and for a walk round too. What a super 'attraction' the Midway is, we both loved it. Now we are shattered!

Flying back over to Orlando on Friday for a few weeks. Really having a fantastic vacation.

 

[ChipperMerlin]

We just got home and I am waaaaaay behind in reading all the posts. In the meantime, I would just like to say thank you to all the participants in the FE group. Every surprise was terrific - I've done FEs before, and this had the best goodies ever! Thank you, again for making us feel special.

 

[sak0526]

We just got home and I am waaaaaay behind in reading all the posts. In the meantime, I would just like to say thank you to all the participants in the FE group. Every surprise was terrific - I've done FEs before, and this had the best goodies ever! Thank you, again for making us feel special.

speak speak --- how was the 2 day???

 

[ChipperMerlin]

I was at the drug store two blocks from my home yesterday, and ready to pay for my purchases. The customer in front of me was wearing a SmugMug hat and a SmugMug jacket. Turns out he & his father founded SmugMug and he's the CEO. The company is located here in Mountain View, CA.

What makes it even funnier is that he used to come over and play Magic with our son when they were both in high school. AND I used to do html typing for his dad's first company back in the late 1990s.

Small world, isn't it!

 

[Happy Goofy]

Val and Bob thanks for posting the pictures of the Champagne Girls. you know that is part of the pictures that I lost when my card went bad.


Shirley- I saw the Chilhuly Glass sculpture at the Bellagio- It was beautiful. Now I need to find a trivia game that asks that question.

Tomorrow we leave for our FL home and take with us a lot of wonderful memories. We spent two days with the couple we met on the 08 cruise and saw the beautiful Red Rock Canyon. There is a lot more to Las Vegas than casinos.

 

[TxMermaid1]

In Costa Rica, my son was pitching a fit about not getting a wooden train and those poor kids were just begging of a glimpse of anything Mickey. One looked at me and said "picture, picture" and pointed to my camera. I was confused, why would they would me to take of picture of them? Then another kid waved a DCL postcard and said that he meant they wanted a picture of Mickey. I apologized as I didn't think I had anything and then went through security. I felt really bad so I dug in my bag and finally found a welcome letter from Castaway Club that had the back view of costumed Mickey and the ship in the background. I had DH take it back to them since he can speak Spanish and I wanted him to explain that that was all we had. He said the grandmother was VERY thankful. I felt so guilty that my son was acting the way he was for not getting this toy and all these kids wanted was a picture. If I had had time to run to my room and grab postcards and anything with character pictures, I would have but we didn't.

Anyway, as we were boarding the boat, some CMs were leaving with stickers for the kids. I think sending out the characters would have been awesome!

I thought it was great of the kids to come meet the boat. I gave out several of my pins I had on my lanyard with mickey, stitch and other characters on them. The kids got so excited.

 

[JenKatt]

Mike from concierge told me that at least in Costa Rica, the characters did get off the boat and meet the kids at the port. We saw the Wonder as the lead story on the news channel while we were eating lunch in Costa Rica. It was a huge deal. Our tour guide told us most of the kids never think they'll see Mickey Mouse in real life, not to mention knowing who most of the characters are since they don't get alot of the movies/ television.

 

[tinkryansmom]

While we were on our tour in Costa Rica the guides wife called him and said the Wonder was on the news. She met him down at the pier with their two little ones. We were glad Mickey and the Gang made it out. We did not have anything to hand out either and felt bad.

Carmie - I hope the lesson is not lost on our children. Ry did not get it why people were so excited. We explained just like Jenn said - she was quite thoughtful on the matter.

Izma!! You are back!! How was the rest of your trip!?

 

[DCL_FAN_TAC]

To each of you on-line & the many of you we met in-person...thanks for the memories!! This trip was my family's favorite -- from the planning to the being there -- and enjoying each moment with all our DIS friends/family!!

Special shout-outs to Jenn & Jeff, Val & Bob, and all our FE & Postcard friends!! We appreciate all your efforts -- amazing Meet/Greet/Drinks, website and beautiful gifts left in our FE hangers -- but mostly the friendships!

We are a low-maintenance travel family -- all our bags arrived & departed as expected, our stateroom host was prompt & attentive, our dining team was attentive & enjoyable. There were bumps along the way, things we would have preferred to being done differently but nothing that wouldn't keep us from reliving the experience if we were given the blessed opportunity. The only bummer...all 3 of us have a horrible cold/chest congestion bug...DD presented 1st in Manzanillo, DH in PV and me on the final day...we're muddling thru but have relasped twice (or just can't seem to get it out of our system) -- now on Zpacks and heavy duty cough/chest congestion drugs and have NO energy especially to unpack & do laundry

We are booked on Dream for my DSister's wedding in June and looking forward seeing the new ship. Also anticipating the 2012 schedule - can't wait to see where Magic & Wonder will go!!

Again, it was a pleasure to sail with you and we wish you WONDERful future!

The Cater Clan -- Tahara, Wally & Cassie

 

[RRBB]

When it comes to the deck parties, this is one of the declines I am talking about. The last two PC cruises the deck parties had great deck buffets after them. Not this time.

We skipped the tropical party but did go up for Minnie's Mexican Fiesta. We thought it was strange that it was just a bit of dancing around and that was it, no food or anything. Not that we needed more to eat, but it just seemed lacking.

We had without a doubt best service ever & I think best menu ever! Loved our tablemates immediately. So enjoyed meeting everyone. Ryan had the time of his life on board & with friends in LA. Still minus a suitcase thank you DCL! I got very sick yesterday, went to Urgent Care & got some meds. Hope to be on the up side soon. We need a reunion cruise! I miss everyone already. How about stopping by for dinner my daughter won't mind!! Jasmine would love to see you!

I hope you - and everyone else that has turned up sick - gets better soon. Not a fun way to end a vacation at all.

There was scarce amounts of butter on the ship. You just had to ask your server for it and they had to know where to look for.

We always had butter on our table at dinner. DS ate most of it every night so our asst. server had to keep bringing more. Maybe that's why you never had any.

Anyway, as we were boarding the boat, some CMs were leaving with stickers for the kids. I think sending out the characters would have been awesome!

When we got back on the ship after our excursion, we heard Christiaan announce that the Mickey and some of his friends went to a children's hospital.

I know you dont like brent Alan and I have to be honest I always thought I liked christian the best, but after having both for 14 night cruises I really do think brent is better, for instance, My neice who cruised with us for years loved brent and christian, on the ta I spoke to brent and asked if I left a card at GS could he leave a note on it for her, he did and it was returned to my room, I cant tell how pleased she was, she asked me to get one from christian also, I asked him, he said yes and I left a 4 buck postcard at GS with a note on it. It was not returened to me, ofcourse it might not have been his fault but it didnt surprise me when I didnt get it.

DS decided that Christiaan is one of his best friends on the ship. We actually ran into him several times and had some nice conversations with him, too. And he made sure we got the address to send mail to the ship.

 

[aan1701]

Well when it came to Christiaan I took his chalange of six degrees of Kevin Bacon when it comes to Jeff Bridges. I saw him after the 8:00 showing of Tron in Wavebands. I told him my link was Michael Sheen in Tron: Legacy, who stared in Frost/Nixon with Kevin bacon. He told me the best he could do is four links. He wrote down mine so he would never forget.

 

[TJFrack]

Ha! Yes!
That is nasty! We did not participate in the FE but got a few things anyway...thanks! We did give out anything we had doubles of, along with some pencils we had purchased, to the orphans who greeted the ship in Manzanillo. I hope this is OK. Does anyone know if they sent the characters out or anything? That would have been very Walt. We certainly didn't sell any FE's!


We gave away some fish extender stuff such as pencils, pens and paper along with postcards, pens and stationery packets that we requested from guest services to the kids in Manzanillo. The kids gave me hugs, shook my hand and sang us a song in spanish. It was great! It was such a blessing to give this stuff and they were so greatful. The teacher told me they were waiting to see mickey off the back of the boat. That disney was arranging it, but not sure if it happened.

I have some pictures posted of the kids on my facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046750&id=39301043&l=7f734e2467

 

[szubieta]

Hi...sounds like everyone had a great time. Did anyone get the chance to post the navigators for the cruise yet or am I jumping the gun??