sweetpee_1993
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
- Messages
- 3,918
I've been on 20 cruises total since September 2011: 15 on Disney, 3 on NCL, & 2 on Royal Caribbean. We had 1 cruise that had enough off-puting experiences that we seriously questioned our next booking. It was the first leg of our Wonder b2b double dips in September/October 2014. I won't say the cruise was a completely terrible cruise. My brother joined us for that cruise and we had a great time with him. Those memories are priceless now that he's passed away. But, at the end of that first half the hubby & I were very, very close to debarking with my brother & sons (who weren't sailing the 2nd half of the b2b), loading up our Tahoe, and walking away from the 2nd cruise. It was very close to happening. Can you imagine a willingness to walk away from thousands of dollars? We both wanted to just go home really bad. We didn't in the end. We stuck it out on the next leg for a couple reasons. It was our first sailing on the Wonder. What if that bad one was a fluke? We were booked on the Panama Call the following spring and wanted to make sure it wasn't just a fluke. If the 2nd part of the b2b had gone as poorly we would've cancelled the Panama Canal. We didn't want to do that! I think the biggest thing that got us to stay was how much we didn't want that poor experience to be what we thought of the Wonder. We wanted to love her that much. We stayed and it made all the difference on the 2nd half. Thankfully!
What was so bad about that Wonder cruise:
- First, this Wonder sailing was the first after the Panama Canal. I heard that a lot of people got sick at the end of that Panama Canal sailing which explained why it took so long for boarding our sailing to begin. I read that the crew did an extra deep sanitation during the turnaround. The PC terminal was so packed. Boarding didn't begin until closer to 1:00. It was crazy. No complaint. Necessary. I don't want to get sick!
- Second, once aboard we wanted to change our dining rotation. Easy-peasy, right? Just go to the dining change location & they'll hook it up. Oh they were accommodating. We were instructed to go to the podium at the desired restaurant when it was seating time, talk to a specific person (don't recall the name), and they would get us seated. Okay. We did exactly as instructed. Super jazzed to be there. There did seem to be some scrambling going on the seat us. I could tell once we were at our table that we were assigned a serving team that had already begun their service with a couple other tables. We were out of sync with what they were doing. No, we did not arrive late. The servers, both assistant server and main server, seemed extremely EXTREMELY displeased with our presence. If we'd been rushed to catch up with their service that would've been understandable. No, they were rude. Indifferent. The server would ask us what we wanted as if someone was twisting his arm to say the words then watch everything going on everywhere in the room except where we were. Completely disengaged. You weren't sure whether or not to speak because you couldn't tell if he was going to hear what you said. Took an eternity to get any drinks. I'm not even sure refills ever happened. It was the WORST experience I ever had in any restaurant ever. We thought perhaps the following nights when we were expected and in-sync with the servers' service, when were weren't *surprise* plopped in their laps, maybe it'd be better. Nope. Same disenganged begrudged service every night. I think it even got worse the final night. I was so disgusted with it. We didn't remove the dining room servers auto-gratuities but we did NOT leave them extra cash as we typically do. I made sure to leave a very detailed poor note about them in the comment card as well. We specifically requested to NOT have them as our servers the second half of the b2b as well. The bad thing is that I've sailed the Wonder many times since this particular sailing. I've seen those 2 servers again a few times. The most recent was in November of last year. The terrible assistant to the worst server caught my eye. She kept staring at me. It was very uncomfortable. Maybe I just looked familiar to her & she was trying to place my face. Maybe I was feeling paranoid that she knew or remembered I'd left such a bad comment on the comment card. Either way, it felt like she was glaring at me and it definitely wasn't with affection. If looks could kill I wouldn't be typing this right now. So there's THAT.
- Third, I don't think we ever saw our stateroom host. At all. It was so weird. I've had some that were busy and we'd only see in passing. This one was like magic. I call it the phantom host. The room got serviced (eventually). Could've been done by a team of enchanted birds & mice for all I know. LOL!
- Fourth, some people may think this is a silly thing but hear me out. No, this wasn't just a Wonder issue on that sailing although it's something I discovered during that cruise and left a lasting impression. I'm a big Lilly Pulitzer fan. BIG. I have quite an extensive collection of Lilly clothing, accessories, etc. that I've invested in. For those that don't know, Lilly can be pretty pricy stuff. Dresses typically run around $200 each +/-. Shorts are in the $60+ range. Silks, linens, etc. With the investment in the pieces from the collections and recommended care, most of the time I have my Lilly clothes dry cleaned. Expensive? It can be. But I've found if I am careful in how I care for the pieces I can enjoy them then resell when new collections release. I'm always rotating my Lilly pieces this way. Buy. Sell. That's how I afford to indulge. Soooooo, I sail with Disney a lot. I send my clothes in for dry cleaning on the ships a lot because they can't be laundered. Well, I was packing up the last night of the craptastic Wonder cruise (we were moving staterooms the next day) when I noticed writing in permanent ink on the back of a tag on one of the dresses. In fact, it was stateroom numbers from my last 3 cruises written directly on the tag in permanent ink then crossed out. I was livid. Did it affect the article of clothing's wear? No. You couldn't see it when wearing the clothing. However, I buy/sell/trade this stuff. It's how I afford to rotate my wardrobe. Passionate collectors see writing on a tag in permanent ink and it devalues the piece. It's less-desirable compared to an identical piece that does not have the writing. I frantically inspected all the Lilly clothes I'd brought with me and sure enough. EVERY piece that had been sent for cleaning on any Disney ship had been written on. We stood in line at Guest Services that last night for a LONG time twice to address this. It was crazy. Not a fun way to end a cruise. The ship could not resolve the issue because the claim was beyond what they are authorized to handle. I had to deal with shoreside (more hassle) after I got home. Yes, eventually I was compensated a fair/reasonable amount for the damages to north of $800 in pieces of clothing. I have NEVER seen this method for identifying articles by dry cleaning service before or since. Other large resorts & cruise lines either use paper tags looped through the clothing tag or the stick-on labels on an inside seam. This is NOT a regular practice. So NOW, even though I've been assured numerous times that the procedure has been changed, whenever I fill out a dry cleaning slip on a Disney ship I write in really large, bold letters with underlines & asterisks "DO NOT WRITE ON ANY PART OF ANY PIECE OF MY CLOTHING" I dunno, it was just kinda the straw that broke the camel's back on that cruise. I was so over it all. I just wanted to take my ball, go home, and forget any of it ever happened.
There were several other things that cruise that were just off. Sirly bartenders. An overall feeling that the crew was totally over being on that ship, too. I think maybe they were coming off a rough time at the end of the previous PC cruise or something. Maybe? I don't know. It was just an overall negative vibe I'd never experienced before or since.
So, yeah, that was the one cruise I look back on without favor with the exception of the fact that I was there with my brother. That was the last cruise we'd ever have together. My one *off* cruise out of 20 across 3 cruise lines, 8 ships, 6 years was on the Wonder in September 2014. The crazy thing is I've sailed the Wonder 3x since this bad experience and it's been just fine every other sailing. I think we had a fluke. I guess those will happen sometimes.
Ps.
No, I don't go online to leave bad reviews all over the place. When I think things are wrong I will be very vocal on discussion boards like this because I know the companies will be looking. They do. I'm fussing to a particular audience without skewing reviews with petty grievances.
Pps.
In all my sailings we've also had a single, solitary bed bug. Yup. We've had that happen, too. LOL! It was a Disney ship. I felt it was handled pretty well all things considered. Still had a perfectly fab cruise. Just thought I'd mention that because that's the one thing people will typically gasp about and potentially set a terrible tone. It was a thing that happened but with excellent handling we felt was a minor hiccup. See? I'm not a petty complainer.
What was so bad about that Wonder cruise:
- First, this Wonder sailing was the first after the Panama Canal. I heard that a lot of people got sick at the end of that Panama Canal sailing which explained why it took so long for boarding our sailing to begin. I read that the crew did an extra deep sanitation during the turnaround. The PC terminal was so packed. Boarding didn't begin until closer to 1:00. It was crazy. No complaint. Necessary. I don't want to get sick!
- Second, once aboard we wanted to change our dining rotation. Easy-peasy, right? Just go to the dining change location & they'll hook it up. Oh they were accommodating. We were instructed to go to the podium at the desired restaurant when it was seating time, talk to a specific person (don't recall the name), and they would get us seated. Okay. We did exactly as instructed. Super jazzed to be there. There did seem to be some scrambling going on the seat us. I could tell once we were at our table that we were assigned a serving team that had already begun their service with a couple other tables. We were out of sync with what they were doing. No, we did not arrive late. The servers, both assistant server and main server, seemed extremely EXTREMELY displeased with our presence. If we'd been rushed to catch up with their service that would've been understandable. No, they were rude. Indifferent. The server would ask us what we wanted as if someone was twisting his arm to say the words then watch everything going on everywhere in the room except where we were. Completely disengaged. You weren't sure whether or not to speak because you couldn't tell if he was going to hear what you said. Took an eternity to get any drinks. I'm not even sure refills ever happened. It was the WORST experience I ever had in any restaurant ever. We thought perhaps the following nights when we were expected and in-sync with the servers' service, when were weren't *surprise* plopped in their laps, maybe it'd be better. Nope. Same disenganged begrudged service every night. I think it even got worse the final night. I was so disgusted with it. We didn't remove the dining room servers auto-gratuities but we did NOT leave them extra cash as we typically do. I made sure to leave a very detailed poor note about them in the comment card as well. We specifically requested to NOT have them as our servers the second half of the b2b as well. The bad thing is that I've sailed the Wonder many times since this particular sailing. I've seen those 2 servers again a few times. The most recent was in November of last year. The terrible assistant to the worst server caught my eye. She kept staring at me. It was very uncomfortable. Maybe I just looked familiar to her & she was trying to place my face. Maybe I was feeling paranoid that she knew or remembered I'd left such a bad comment on the comment card. Either way, it felt like she was glaring at me and it definitely wasn't with affection. If looks could kill I wouldn't be typing this right now. So there's THAT.
- Third, I don't think we ever saw our stateroom host. At all. It was so weird. I've had some that were busy and we'd only see in passing. This one was like magic. I call it the phantom host. The room got serviced (eventually). Could've been done by a team of enchanted birds & mice for all I know. LOL!
- Fourth, some people may think this is a silly thing but hear me out. No, this wasn't just a Wonder issue on that sailing although it's something I discovered during that cruise and left a lasting impression. I'm a big Lilly Pulitzer fan. BIG. I have quite an extensive collection of Lilly clothing, accessories, etc. that I've invested in. For those that don't know, Lilly can be pretty pricy stuff. Dresses typically run around $200 each +/-. Shorts are in the $60+ range. Silks, linens, etc. With the investment in the pieces from the collections and recommended care, most of the time I have my Lilly clothes dry cleaned. Expensive? It can be. But I've found if I am careful in how I care for the pieces I can enjoy them then resell when new collections release. I'm always rotating my Lilly pieces this way. Buy. Sell. That's how I afford to indulge. Soooooo, I sail with Disney a lot. I send my clothes in for dry cleaning on the ships a lot because they can't be laundered. Well, I was packing up the last night of the craptastic Wonder cruise (we were moving staterooms the next day) when I noticed writing in permanent ink on the back of a tag on one of the dresses. In fact, it was stateroom numbers from my last 3 cruises written directly on the tag in permanent ink then crossed out. I was livid. Did it affect the article of clothing's wear? No. You couldn't see it when wearing the clothing. However, I buy/sell/trade this stuff. It's how I afford to rotate my wardrobe. Passionate collectors see writing on a tag in permanent ink and it devalues the piece. It's less-desirable compared to an identical piece that does not have the writing. I frantically inspected all the Lilly clothes I'd brought with me and sure enough. EVERY piece that had been sent for cleaning on any Disney ship had been written on. We stood in line at Guest Services that last night for a LONG time twice to address this. It was crazy. Not a fun way to end a cruise. The ship could not resolve the issue because the claim was beyond what they are authorized to handle. I had to deal with shoreside (more hassle) after I got home. Yes, eventually I was compensated a fair/reasonable amount for the damages to north of $800 in pieces of clothing. I have NEVER seen this method for identifying articles by dry cleaning service before or since. Other large resorts & cruise lines either use paper tags looped through the clothing tag or the stick-on labels on an inside seam. This is NOT a regular practice. So NOW, even though I've been assured numerous times that the procedure has been changed, whenever I fill out a dry cleaning slip on a Disney ship I write in really large, bold letters with underlines & asterisks "DO NOT WRITE ON ANY PART OF ANY PIECE OF MY CLOTHING" I dunno, it was just kinda the straw that broke the camel's back on that cruise. I was so over it all. I just wanted to take my ball, go home, and forget any of it ever happened.
There were several other things that cruise that were just off. Sirly bartenders. An overall feeling that the crew was totally over being on that ship, too. I think maybe they were coming off a rough time at the end of the previous PC cruise or something. Maybe? I don't know. It was just an overall negative vibe I'd never experienced before or since.
So, yeah, that was the one cruise I look back on without favor with the exception of the fact that I was there with my brother. That was the last cruise we'd ever have together. My one *off* cruise out of 20 across 3 cruise lines, 8 ships, 6 years was on the Wonder in September 2014. The crazy thing is I've sailed the Wonder 3x since this bad experience and it's been just fine every other sailing. I think we had a fluke. I guess those will happen sometimes.
Ps.
No, I don't go online to leave bad reviews all over the place. When I think things are wrong I will be very vocal on discussion boards like this because I know the companies will be looking. They do. I'm fussing to a particular audience without skewing reviews with petty grievances.
Pps.
In all my sailings we've also had a single, solitary bed bug. Yup. We've had that happen, too. LOL! It was a Disney ship. I felt it was handled pretty well all things considered. Still had a perfectly fab cruise. Just thought I'd mention that because that's the one thing people will typically gasp about and potentially set a terrible tone. It was a thing that happened but with excellent handling we felt was a minor hiccup. See? I'm not a petty complainer.
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for everyone's future cruise
