Important Info About 9/27 Magic Cruise

[MarcyIn Florida]

If you were scheduled for the 9/25 (now 9/27) Magic:

I spoke with DCL at 3:30 eastern and they told me the following:

DCL will now bus everyone to the Sheraton at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and NOT the port. If you are driving, you MUST go to the Sheraton. They will check everyone in at the Sheraton because Port Everglades does not have the room or facilities to do check in.

Check in will begin at 5 PM. They will not be boarding the ship at 1. They expect the ship to leave at 8 pm.

The address for the Sheraton is 1825 Griffin Road in the FLL airport.

I encourage you to call DCL yourselves to conform this information. I know that those who get this news will be disappointed in not being able to board the ship early; this effectively means that we lose about 6 hours on the ship on embarkation day.

 

[CM_Mom]

Marcy, did you suggest that they get that info posted on their website ASAP?

Sorry you won't get to board earlier. I know how much everyone looks forward to the first afternoon at the pool and getting to know the ship.

Have a MAGICal trip anyway.

 

[dharma517]

I hope it isn't for the Wonder since we would only have a 2 day cruise then!!! I am on hold with Disney right now but who know how long that might take.
Jenn

 

[TheGottis]

Originally posted by dharma517
I hope it isn't for the Wonder since we would only have a 2 day cruise then!!! I am on hold with Disney right now but who know how long that might take.
Jenn

Spoke to a CM - The above change is ONLY FOR THE MAGIC.

The Wonder will begin boarding at 1pm.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I hope you all have a stress-free and Magical cruise. Be careful enroute!

 

[HumanCookie]

You guys better check this, http://www.broward.org/hmreport.htm.

According to that list, Disney Wonder leaves at 9 AM and Disney Magic leaves at Midnight.

 

[Cruise04]

That's the info that the Disney Cruise site has also - Magic leaving at midnight.

Here's the 6pm update on the Cruise site:

Disney Magic Seven-Night Cruise, September 25, 2004
Because Hurricane Jeanne is impacting Port Canaveral, the Disney Magic will now depart from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades at 12:00 midnight on Monday, September 27, on a five-night voyage. The itinerary will be:

Monday: Depart from Port Everglades
Tuesday: Day at Sea
Wednesday: Cozumel, Mexico
Thursday: Costa Maya, Mexico
Friday: Day at Sea
Saturday: Return to Port Canaveral
Ground transportation will be provided to Fort Lauderdale from various Walt Disney World Resorts throughout the afternoon, from Port Canaveral departing throughout the day until 2:00 pm, the Orlando International Airport throughout the day until 4:00 pm and the Miami International and Ft. Lauderdale Airports throughout the day until 4:00 pm. In addition, transportation will be provided back to Fort Lauderdale from Port Canaveral at the end of the cruise if your car is in Fort Lauderdale. Special incentives will be offered to those who choose to sail on this cruise.

Hope this helps if you haven't checked the site lately.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Was anyone else told this (about the Sheraton)?

 

[dinnysuw]

marcy-spoke with DCL and yes you are to ckeck in at the sheraton. supposed to be entertainment and food. we have been outrunning the storm since arriving on friday-now we don't leave till midnite and they are trying to call it a 5 nite cruise! did you hear that those on the magic that returned 8 hours early on friday were put up in disney resorts,treated to breakfast and transportation, plus 50% off future cruise. we were told when we arrived on friday after being told be DCL to come on down everything is fine, to find our own accomodations, they are full (because they were putting everyone on the magic in the resorts!) i am getting this off my chest before i board because i do not want to ruin the little vacation that i have left. disney dropped the ball on those who came in on friday-we were told to come, then dumped! been to orlando-then PC-then Ft. Lauderdale-then Fort Myers, then back to Ft Lauderdale. fortunately hooked up with Missyoh8 and we have been able to share info and get the same hotels so it makes it more bearable! oh well, don't know when we'll have a disboard meet or if brunch and high tea is still on! see you on the boat!
darcy

 

[KMovies]

The offers for both situations are different, and I believe, generous.


The ship leaves at Midnight; however, you can board at 1 PM. Yes, it is a 5-night cruise - even though the ship doesn't leave til Midnight.

COST: 40% refund (you only pay 60% for the cruise) / 25% off future cruise / $200.00 state room credit. Really, a pro-rated refund would be 29% for 2 of 7 nights - so you are getting 11% more.

The shortened cruise ...

6 nights on ship and 1 night at WDW

COST: 0% refund (they pay 100% for the cruise) / 50% off future cruise / $0.00 state room credit.

*******

For the 5-night cruise, who should pay for the other two nights accomodations? Here's what I think. You should!

Why, because you are getting compensated for the lost 2-days. If they substituted the accomodations and food for those 2-days, then you wouldn't be entitled to a refund for those two days.

Use the 40% refund for the first two night's accomodations, meals etc. You are still ahead the future discount and the stateroom credit.

If you didn't like the offer, then cancel and get 100% of your money back and everything is even. You would pay 0 for 0 days vacation.

 

[paulmc80]

Well all offers are what they are.

But a cruise cannot simply be adjusted by the number of "days." A day is accepted to be 24 hours. This 9/25 shortened cruise to 5 nights is not 5 days.

Adjustments should be done by hours actually aboard ship, nights lodging, entertainment and meals. For a regular 7-night DCL Magic cruise this would average about 160 straight hours as it departs at 5p.m. debarking the following Saturday 9:00a.m.

In the case of a shortened cruise you'd calculate the hours and adjust per nights of lodging, meals, and entertainment appropriately. Additional meals received/not received, entertainment received/not received and other variables such as the sea conditions can be used to accuartely adjust the cruise cost or discount based on amount paid per hour.

I just have a meticulous side for making adjustments of this kind. DCL's adjustments of fares are not giveaways.

 

[dinnysuw]

The ship leaves at Midnight; however, you can board at 1 PM. Yes, it is a 5-night cruise - even though the ship doesn't leave til Midnight

no we CANNOT board at 1pm-please follow along-wonder docks first, disembarks, cleans then boards and sets sail at 8pm-THEN the Magic can dock and embark. kinda hard to board a boat that is out to sea!

 

[dinnysuw]

"If you didn't like the offer, then cancel and get 100% of your money back and everything is even. You would pay 0 for 0 days vacation."
are you serious? we are in florida, been here since friday outrunning a damn hurricane, airports are closed... cancel get our money back ,what a great idea! had i been given that offer before i came down maybe i would have, but instead i was told to come on down everything is fine leaving as scheduled! please don't sit there and analyze figures and make justifications of things you know nothing about-we were left high and dry by disney in the middle of a hurricane. the almighty dollar was much more important to them than us. i would gladly have canceled and rebooked-we made several calls to DCL before coming down. do you not think i immediatley wanted to leave? but there is an issue of flight availability-can't just walk on. i am not going to defend my feelings or opinions on this board again, i never judged anyone from the Frances cruise, they needed to vent and so they did. i can't believe someone has enough time on their hands to figure out % and such.

 

[ganurse]

well i can say that i am bored at work and just reading all of this fun stuff. what a happy place disboards has become. i was on the francis cruise and enjoyed reading all of the venting from those who travelled and were disappointed. i had a blast on my crusie, even though it was far from perfect. i hope and pray you guys can have a good time and can adjust your attitudes, especially if you have kids. its hard to stay positive when everything has been so disappointing. i look forward to your trip reports.
yes, i am only responding because i am bored and have nothing else to do!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

I think Disney's doing a wonderful job of trying to keep up with everything, but you have to admit that it's a bit frustrating to change the boarding time to 7pm. Think about how difficult it's going to be to take your children, who have been travelling all day and sitting in a hotel all evening, to board a cruise ship, go through the muster training, and get them to bed. Not only is that vacation day shot, it's going to require additional vacation days to alleviate the stress!

At that point, I'd really almost rather that they shifted the entire boarding process back to Daytona (at least it'll be painless), and let us board first thing the next morning. I don't care about extra compensation at this point. I just want an enjoyable vacation with what's left of it.

(Marcy's husband, who is perusing the boards for changes to the cruise, again... just to be safe...)

 

[nancygop]

Well, I guess there will always be a selected few who will stick up for Disney down to the bitter end...................me not being one of them!

I was on the ill-fated 9/04 7 night Magic that became the 4 night. DCL dropped the ball on that one with their lack of communication and I figured they would learn by their mistakes......................think again. From reading these boards about the 9/25 cruise they are screwing people up all over again. Maybe they should get out of the cruise line business, just stick to the theme parks.

 

[dinnysuw]

Originally posted by ganurse
well i can say that i am bored at work and just reading all of this fun stuff. what a happy place disboards has become. i was on the francis cruise and enjoyed reading all of the venting from those who travelled and were disappointed. i had a blast on my crusie, even though it was far from perfect. i hope and pray you guys can have a good time and can adjust your attitudes, especially if you have kids. its hard to stay positive when everything has been so disappointing. i look forward to your trip reports.
yes, i am only responding because i am bored and have nothing else to do!

so glad our misfortune is bringing you happiness-right now i am just grateful that my family survived this weather! as far as adjusting my attitude, my children have been having a ball-i use these boards to vent-this is a forum-please don't assume that my "attitude" is effecting my children-they are the reason I have tried so desperately to get the right info, is that to much to ask? i am sure i will again get someone who feels that i am being negative-or are we not allowed to talk negatively on these boards-i didn't realize Disney owned these boards as well!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Ladies and gentlemen, I know this discussion has, unfortunately, taken place on many occasions over the last 6+ weeks. There will always be thing that Disney does wrong and things that Disney does right; I assume that we are all checking in at the Sheraton ballroom today because DCL has learned from their mistakes on the earlier cruise that left from Port Everglades, and hoped to make this a more controlled environment with food and entertainment. In a way, trying to bring Port Canaveral's ambiance to Fort Lauderdale.

For those who are not on the cruise, please understand that this has been stressful in that things have changed many times and sometimes, in the case of when we are departing, it seems that this is information DCL knew or should have known as soon as they made the decision to leave out of PE. (If only one ship can dock and they planned to have both the Wonder and Magic leave after 1 pm the same day, then clearly someone would be boarding late.) Add thatto the fact that many people, particularly non-Floridians, were sitting through their first hurricane. When you are stuck inside with your kids all day, sometimes this is the place where people need to vent.

On the flip side, DCL has offered to compensate us generously. We considered NOT cruising today, but realized that it was cheaper to cruise today and be able to book with a 25% discount on a future cruise than not to cruise today. I'm not sure what else DCL can do for anyone on the Magic -- they still have a bottom line to worry about, and they still have responsibilities to their shareholders.

For those of you who are not feeling very pro-Disney today, please consider that, in the middle of this 4th fiasco, DCL was able to put a child with cancer on the Magic because her cruise on the Wonder had been shortened. Maybe they can't spread Magic to all of the people all of the time, but they sure can do it when it counts. I, personally, will be kissing my children extra when we sail out tonight.

For those of you on the cruises today, please, once you get past the hassles of getting to the port and the stress involved with it, take a deep breath and start your cruise with excitement. My husband, who posted earlier, is already afraid that I'll yell at people who excercise mob mentality at the Sheraton. Let's practice courtesy and random acts of kindness today -- we'll all feel better if we take deep breaths and enjoy ourselves rather than letting the stress of the past few days overcome us.

Marcy

 

[Laurarn]

Dinnysuw...No, I think what you have are folks that are looking at it objectively, without the emotional involvement. Everyone in Florida (and traveling to Florida) is emotional right now. It's been a long 6 wks. I know its been been very frustrating for alot of you. We have listened to and know that you need to vent. However, for those of us that are not there at this time trying to get onboard, what we see is a lot of schedule changes and Disney giving refunds or incentives(which supposedly, they don't have to do). I'm not a "Disney does no wrong" type, but I feel that in the overall scheme of things, they are trying their best to help folks in a situation that they have no control over. I think it ends up being a "hit or miss" whether you have a positive experience or not. It's almost impossible to completely please 2000+ folks in a time like this. I also believe it all comes down to personal attitude. We'll be leaving on our cruise shortly, and I'm already reserving myself to being flexible. Maybe we'll embark at PC, maybe PE. Maybe we'll go to our ports, maybe not. I have to go with my father's wisdom, "only you can make yourself happy".
Sorry to hear that your vacation isn't what you planned, but hope that now that you were able to vent and get it "off your chest", you can now have a fun and happy vacation. Try to hang in there.

 

[Laurarn]

MarcyinFlorida...that was a wonderful post. I second that!