Important Info About 9/27 Magic Cruise

[missyoh8]

Allears......I met you in line at the cruise terminal via your son and the story of your family could not have come at a better time for me! I thank you for sharing, I needed it. I agree that some behavior was way out of line at this point on our journey, because of your sharing I never ever lost my temper!

One big question I have for you and all the disney lovers who say Disney can not control the weather................if they can't control weather, how do you think they could order those thousand dolphins when we were having our emergency drill? I am still trying to figure that one out. You would have to plan that ALL passengers would be on deck looking out and we could go through that and see it from both sides of the ship? It was either Mickey or the other big guy, to remind us all of the beauty before us!Hmmmmmmm

Something to think about
missyoh8

 

[Mjasp]

Well said All Ears... Although I do think I know what people are talking about when they talk to cast members that have different information, but I think that information is because with a hurricane it is unpredictable.

We were on the 8/28/04 10 night cruise and the captain got on sometimes twice a day and there were constant changes. Not because he didn't know what he was doing but because Frances didn't know what she was doing.

When I rebooked my 8/19/04 cruise the castmember said to me I can't believe you are OK with what happened and are not angry. My response to him was, I would rather be safe at sea than in a hurricane at sea. I, of course, would rather have been home as planned but it wasn't to be.

Joanna

 

[lbgraves]

Thank you for your refreshing view of what happened at the port. This is the very first post that I have read regarding this situation on this cruise that mentioned that all reservations were done at the hotel (I imagined you having to scramble for Palo resies after boarding late that night), movies running for the kids for entertainment, and character apperances. I'm not saying that there were no negative experiences that day...just that most of the posts seem to focus on just the negative. I pictured people standing in an empty conference room with absolutely nothing there to possibly entertain the children.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Allears, I am glad your embarkation experience was better than others. For us, we were sent on a wild goose chase by different people: we were told we had to check in at the Sheraton, but could not do so until 5 pm. I specifically asked 5 different CMs whether we could get to the Sharton (or the port) earlier than 5; each told me that there would be no one there until 5 pm, and that we would have to wait around until 5, but they did not know where the Sheraton would put us. The CMs also told us that DCL would be providing food to the pasengers at the Sheraton -- the type of food we'd expect at the embarkation meal on the ship.

When we arrived near Fort Lauderdale, we again called the 800 number (it was around 2 pm -- we figured we'd go early just in case) and were told NOT to go to the Sheraton yet, and that if we did check in at the Sheraton, we'd have to carry our luggage around ourselves. So we went to the port, checked in our luggage, and were told that we should go to the airport and wait for a DCL bus -- they would take us to the Sheraton at 5 for check in.

We went to tthe airport, found a DCL bus, and were told that we'd be taken to the Sheraton after a few more people came in on the airlines. A CM checked our names on the Magic roster and told us that there would be food at the Sheraton for us starting at 5. (We were a bit food obsessed because we hadn't eaten since breakfast, other than the snacks we packed -- the entire east coast of Florida -- our house included -- was without power, and there was no where to stop for food.) We asked her about th eprocess for the reminader of the day, and she said that we'd check in at the Sheraton after 5, board the ship at about 7, and then be allowed to make reservations for Palo's and the like.

We waited on the bus for over an hour, in a very chipper mood and excited to begin our vacation, even though we had 2 very cranky and hungry toddlers. The bus then took us to the Sheraton, where about 20 CMs were waiting. One of the CMs, Kim, who we basically kissed for finally giving us correct information, told us that they had just closed up shop at the Sheraton and that we had to go back to the port -- where we had started 3 hours earlier. She said that she had heard from a lot of people that they had been told that check in would not begin until 5 at the Sheraton, and she didn't know what to do except apologize on behalf o the company. The CMs who boarded the bus were kind enough to share their snacks with my kids, which we appreciated more than they could realize. We spent some time with them on the bus, and heard some terrible stories about the way passengers were behaving, and I felt/feel terrible for them.

I thought the scene at the Port was a bit too Lord of the Flies-like for me; passengers were behaving poorly, but some of the CMs were also behaving poorly. I saw a lot of CM snippiness toward people who were being civil; obviously, they had had it with the uncivilized people, but I saw a lot of unprofessionalism that evening.

I just wanted to give a different perspective from a big Disney supporter -- we live in the Mouse's backyard and spend a lot of time with him, but embarkation day was not one of his shining moments, in my opinion. I'm sure I would have felt differently if I had not been travelling with 2 young children, but the misinformation -- even though we kept in constant contact with DCL, and went so far as to drive to WDW after the hurricane when we had no electricity or phone service so that we could call DCL -- made it a very difficult process.

Marcy

 

[Zitofamily]

Another 9/27 cruisers input on how this was handled, much of what has already been said, but maybe a couple of new thoughts here.

I think the bottom line issue was DCL's lack of accurate communications. We had (as many now know) an early (8 AM MDT) flight from Boise on Friday, 9/24. I saw the notice about PC evacuation at about midnight on Thursday night. I was talking to DCL at 6 AM MDT while driving to the airport to "maybe" get on an airplane. Complicating the situation for us was we had our hotel at the Radisson, which of course was later evacuated. At 6 AM, I was told "ignore the evacuation order - it's only precautionary". I called again at 7 AM - was told the same thing but a supervisor did offer to allow us to cancel and rebook our cruise. I was also told that a meeting would be held and there would be a decision from DCL between 10 AM and noon on the cruise.

I didn't believe the cruise would sail on Friday and decided to not get on the airplane with my wife and two kids. We all had tears in our eyes at the airport as I explained to my kids we were not getting on the plane. I thought my best option now (since DCL didn't have information) was to wait to see what DCL would announce after the risk assessment meeting.

After arriving back at home, I called DCL again - was told again nothing has changed. I asked to speak to a supervisor and talked to "Carol". Carol then told me the meeting just ended and the cruise would be delayed until Monday and leave for PE. My original thought was to fly into Tampa on Sunday (thinking Jeanne was staying East based on what was on AccuWeather.com) but thanks to Marcy, we decided to fly into Orlando on Friday night.

The hassle at this point became finding a hotel to "hunker down" in through Jeanne. I didn't want to get on an airplane unless we had a hotel. I was on one phone re-booking airlines while my wife was on the other talking to Disney trying to get a hotel for us. A CM put my wife on hold for over 30 minutes trying to get a room for us. United Airlines earned loyalty points with me as they stayed on the phone with me the whole time while we waited to confirm a hotel room (Wilderness Lodge) before rebooking the air travel.

It worked out in the end but we spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get information from Disney and then a hotel room (no way was I taking my family to the Radisson).

My conclusion to all of this is that Disney could have made a decision sooner but everyone was at home sleeping Thursday night and it took them several hours on Friday morning to decide what they would do. IMHO, the port evacuation (which was communicated at 5 PM EDT by PC) should have opened DCL managements eyes to the need of making a decision even if it meant working through the night Thursday. Instead, they chose to let the situation fester as many cruisers were making their way to Orlando/PC area. Really, this was the issue. DCL should have made a decision before noon on Friday.

So, to sum my thoughts up - we had a great time on the cruise. However, from midnight on Thursday (when I first learned about PC evacuation order) through about 2 PM on Friday (9/24), I experienced as much stress as anyone should have to go through because DCL did not communicate well AND didn't work overtime on Thursday night to make more timely decisions. Nothing changed (from an information standpoint) between 5 PM on Thursday (when PC evacuation notice was posted) and noon on Friday. DCL management finally got to work, had a meeting, and made decision based on information they had the night before at noon on Friday. This was unacceptable.

Can DCL control the weather? Of course not (but the dolphins on Tuesday were magnificant). DCL IMO delayed making a decision in the hopes of not impacting the revenue from the 9/25 sailing. They were holding out hope that Jeanne would miss PC and delayed making decisions in the hopes of perserving revenues. They guessed wrong and made it difficult on a lot of us that were traveling on Friday.

AllEars, we got your message on our cabin door. I meant to call and say hi but the cruise flew by way to fast and I forgot. Marcy - sorry we didn't meet. Reading your posts, we may have been at Palo's for brunch on Tuesday at the same time and not know it. Thanks again for your advice on getting to Florida before Jeanne.

ZitoFamily (DH Calvin)

 

[Zitofamily]

One last post, this time on the embarkation process:

The embarkation for us wasn't the nightmare others talked about. We got on a DCL bus from the Wilderness Lodge that did not leave the Orlando area until 3 PM on Monday (was supposed to leave at 2 PM, but wasn't full so we stopped at another resort to "fill it up"). Another miscommunication by DCL - they told me on Monday morning that the ship would leave at 5 PM. I said that it wouldn't be possible given buses were leaving from Orlando at 2 PM, but they insisted that we'd sail 6 PM at the latest.

We only saw the Sheraton parking lot. No one on our bus knew anything about going to the Sheraton (DCL didn't tell us that when we got on the bus) - the bus driver had to quell a mini-riot when he told us at our rest stop that we were going to the Sheraton. Many thought that meant we were spending the night there. Again, I called DCL, got the scoop on the Sheraton and told the other passengers and bus driver what was going on. However, when we arrived at the Sheraton (probably around 6:15 PM), they told the bus driver to take us to the port. We waiteed on the bus for what seemed like about 20 minutes or so and they dropped us off at the line in front of the terminal building.

The terminal at PE was well, not the DCL terminal in PC. But our process of getting through the terminal was painless other than the 20 or so minutes we waited to get into the terminal.

We were on the Magic by about 8:30. Once we were on, went straight to get Palo ressies and learned the brunches were full. Also, times for dinner stunk. So the fact that others were able to book Palo's and other things as they "enjoyed" the Sheraton was a small issue. I also booked a massage at the Spa and again the times weren't great.

In the end, we got called to brunch on Tuesday (wait list) and really enjoyed our dinner at Palo's on Wednesday night even though it was a really early dinner (6 PM). FYI, we shared our dinner ressie with 2 other couples that could not get into Palo's (Disers Darcy and DH Tony from Ohio and Tanya and Chris from PA).

ZitoFamily (DH Calvin)

 

[fourfoxesinpa]

Darn! We had our drill in the theater and missed the dolphins. It sounds like it was magnificent!

Jamie

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Originally posted by Zitofamily
AllEars, we got your message on our cabin door. I meant to call and say hi but the cruise flew by way to fast and I forgot. Marcy - sorry we didn't meet. Reading your posts, we may have been at Palo's for brunch on Tuesday at the same time and not know it. Thanks again for your advice on getting to Florida before Jeanne.

Yes, I'm sorry! I kept meaning to come by and say hi, and the time just passed so quickly. I did see your daughter in the elevator one day. You weren't the couple who took a picture of my dh and i during brunch, were you? THAT would be funny!

Marcy

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Originally posted by fourfoxesinpa
Darn! We had our drill in the theater and missed the dolphins. It sounds like it was magnificent!

Jamie

Us, too, although I was very happy to be indoors for the drill; on our last cruise, I remember melting int he heat.

Jamie -- I think we were only a few doors down from you; when my dh saw your sign with the foxes, he said "Is that another DIS Board geek?" (Said with love and affection, of course, since we had a sgn on our door, too, with a map of Hurricane Jeanne.)

Marcy

 

[mmouse37]

Wow....back from the shortened cruise and all I can say is we did have a marvelous time!!! We also experienced some miscommunication from DCL but I made some logical assumptions on my own and it worked out OK!!!

In a way I guess it was better that we did not know what was going on with the delayed cruise until Friday around 2:00 pm. We had flown in Tampa on Thursday and spent the night and were travelling from Tampa to PC to check in at the Radisson on Friday night. Enroute to PC (about 20 miles from WDW) we were concerned about the radio broadcasts about the storm now hitting the coast (we were clueless before that). I called DCL and found out about the delay and port change. We were told that buses would leave from WDW at 9:30 am on Monday and from the airport starting in the Am and stopping at 2:00 pm.

We made some quick decisions and decided to ride out the storm in WDW, even though I called CRO and was told there were no rooms available at all on property. This is where I made my first logical assumption...I knew they had rooms so I told hubby to go to WDW. After quite a wait we found out that we could get a room at the Polynesian. I asked if DCL was doing anything about the room for displaced cruise passengers and was told only for the land/sea people....they would have their WDW rooms comped for the additional nights.

Called the central Radisson # to cancel our ressie for Friday night was told by Radisson that they were already informed by the Radisson PC location that they were automatically cancelling all ressies for Friday and Saturday due to the storm. No penalties would be imposed. Called Budget and arranged to drop off the car at MCO on Monday instead of PC location on Saturday. No problem there either.

If we had internet access I might have tried to book a room in the Fort Lauderdale area but I am glad we made the decision to stay at WDW.

Spent our first hurricane ever at WDW and felt very safe...never lost power or TV or cell phone service. After checking into our room we got a call from DCL....still can't figure out how they knew where we were as I had not told them we were now headed for WDW. Again I was told that the buses would leave the resorts at 9:30 am. This is where my other logical assumption took place...I knew there was no way the resorts would have buses leaving that early!!! I even joked with CM that DCL learned from the last hurricane that they needed to get people to the port earlier....and she laughed and said...yes we did!!! Early Saturday morning I went and spoke with the DCL rep in the lobby and she told us that the buses would not start leaving until 2:00 pm (confirming my assumption) and the airport busess would start leaving whenever the airport reopened. We felt very blessed and could not stop thinking about everyone who have been dealing with this for weeks and weeks.

We were able to have DCL pick up our bags from the Poly at 9:00 am and then we headed to airport a bit later....we had a car to drop off so we got to the airport around 11:00 and was on a bus by 1:00 with just our carry ons. We needed to switch buses midway down because part of the bus had no A/C. Got to the port around 5:00 and this is where there was chaos....I felt DCL should have learned from the last hurricane how to move the people into lines but it was a free-for-all. Many people were complaining but hubby and I found others who were just going with the flow. We joked with the CM's about some people behavior and they were so glad they could talk to people who were not yelling at them.

We had absolutely no idea about anything going on at the Sheraton....didn't even know they were busing people there. We were originally going to drive ourselves to PE to get an early start on boarding but so glad we did not..seems people spent all day at the Sheraton.

We boarded at 8:00 or so and our dinner was pushed to 9:00 pm or so...but the problem was that the first seating folks were still eating so it was sit where there is room and you will have your regular servers the next night. All was well once we got onboard although our luggage did not show up until midnight and then one of our bags were missing.....I searched all the decks thinking it may have wound up at another cabin.

We set sail after midnight....there was no sail-away and our bag was still missing....it wound up at Guest Service and I picked it up at about 1:00 am....funny thing was it was clearly marked with our name and cabin number!!! The CM apologized as he could not explain why it was not delivered....Oh well...at least now I could go to bed knowing we had all our bags....only problem was our shampoo had leaked all over other toiletries....thank goodness they were in ziplock bags.

The rest of the cruise was great.....and we had no complaints....met wonderful folks from all over. We dined with two-foxes from Colorado (Tim & Jill), who are still onboard as they were doing back to back Magic cruises. Had great dinners with them!!!

Met and told many, many others about the DIS!!!!

Oh.....and we also got conflicting info on checking bags at the port after disembarking....the Cruise Director said we could at the talk, but the sheet that came to the room with details said we could only check our bags with the certain airlines if we had purchased transfers....I went to Guest Services and asked them and they said we definately could check our bags no matter what...so...I do not know if it was because the cruise was altered or if all cruises can checked their bags at the port without transfers....I know this had been debated recently on this board.

We got off the ship at 9:00 am and a porter took us to American Airlines...there was no line and we checked our bags and they even moved our flight up from 6:30 pm to 3:00 pm!!!

The Budget shuttle line was very, very long and we looked for a taxi but they were very scarce...I had meant to put some taxi company numbers in my cell phone so I would have them but I forgot...we waited closed to 25 minutes for a taxi to show up and the woman was the most miserable person I had ever met!!! Still very glad we took the taxi because when we got to the Budget location there was no one on line and we breezed in and out.

Met friends from Florida for lunch at the Boardwalk Resort and headed to the airport around 1:15....dropped off the rental and headed to the gate...flight was delayed about 20 minutes but no big deal....

All in all it was a wonderful cruise and we thanked all the CM's we came in contact with and they were really troopers all week. WE saw many complaing at guest service but we felt fortunate and considered the whole thing an adventure...not sure how I would have felt if we had been travelling with our three kids...but were lucky all in all.

Did not get to any theme nights this time in the clubs but loved the Pirate night and we did get to British Pub night which is not to be missed...very, very funny!!!

This was the first time in 11 cruises that we did not get to CC....it was actually a very relaxing last day on the cruise....we had all day to pack and were done with that early and just enjoyed the ship the rest of the day!!!

Back to work and missing the Magic....

MJ

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Glad you had a great time, MJ!

Does anyone else still have sea legs? Both dh and I are a bit unstable (yeah, in that way, too), esp. when laying in bed. I don't recall having this problem after any other cruise.

Marcy

 

[missyoh8]

Marcy...........we are still rocking in Ohio, although the Magic is far, far away.

One thing I am trying to figure out.............we were told by our porter at Cape Canaveral that all busses were free on Saturday? We asked the CM and were told to board the DCL bus. We had not purchased transfers and were planning on renting a van? It was lovely, quiet and air conditioned and no map reading, although we had become experts at the Florida highway system running away from that darn Jeanne! Was no one else informed of this?

missyoh8

 

[mmouse37]

missy...we were not specifically told that the buses were free but were told they we absolutely could check our bags at the port with the airlines even though we did not purchase transfers. This is in contradiction to the paper that was delivered to our room with debarking procedures. It specifically stated that you could only check bags with the airlines if you had purchased transfers....I doubled checked at guest service and they assured me we could check our bags, but priority would be given to those with early flights...our flight was not until 6:30 pm...but AA offered us a 3:00 pm flight when we checked our bags at the port...they was also not line at the airline counter at the port.

I think DCL let anyone check bags and take any buses on Saturday because of the out of the ordinary circumstances of the cruise....we had already rented a car with Budget so we took a taxi to the Budget location but hubby said he thought we would have been able to hop on a bus if that is what we wanted.

I am sure next Saturday it will be back to normal with transfer fees.

I felt sorry for the Avis shuttle busload of people that were dropped off at the outer parking lot at 9:20 am for that day's cruise and told they had to wait out in the parking lot until the terminal opened up at 10:30 to check them in...they were wilting quickly in the heat!!!

P.S....no rocking at all for us which is strange!!!


MJ

 

[allears]

Marcy and Calvin and everyone else. I absolutely agree that communication has to be improved. Unfortuneately Disney suffers the same problems and every large company, too many people making over lapping decisons and ineffective communitaction. I see this in the company I work for all of the time. You would think with today's technology it would be easier to get information passed along, but the contrary seems to be the case. Perhaps a deparment head sends out an e-mail to their regular distribution list, but forgets that in a crisis situation 30 other people need to read the same thing at the same time. Subseqeuntly it gets assumed that every one gets the right inforamtion, and we know what happens when we assume.

I think Disney and all companies need to learn a lesson from this and streamline communication and perhaps set up special teams and task forces in times of crisis. I have to say we did a lot of what MJ did and made our own logical conclusions and went with those as well. At one point we were told busses wouldn't be leaving the air port until noon or later. I figured that we'd just get to the air port firist thing and see what happened. We ended up leaving at 10. Since I already figured that communications were going to be mixed up anyway, we tried to follow our instincts and go with the flow.

Calvin, it would have been cool to meet face to face. I was very excited when we saw your door sign. You weren't too far from our God-daughter's cabin. They were in the state rooms with the red baloons on the doors.

All in all, I think Disney learned a lot from previous experiences, but were still faced with some unique challenges in this situation that couldn't be reacted to as quickly as we might like. We tried to remain calm and postivie as well as trying to encourage any cast memember we came into contact with. Those CMs working at PE and the Sheraton left Orlando at 5:30 am that morning and were not due to return until after the Magic sailed. That's after enduring their fourth hurricane. I give them a lot of credit for being able to think straight at all. And I felt like I had very little room to get cranky with any of those folks.

By the way, we're still rocking in NJ too!

 

[missyoh8]

well said allears............

missyoh8

( I think I stopped rocking)