January 25th Fantasy Sailing Modified

[plutolovr]

The January 18 sailing didn’t get a credit for the mechanical issues that affected our trip. He January 25th sailing is getting a credit.

You are getting a refund for port taxes for the missed ports.

 

[mousefan73]

Haven't skipped a beat - Fantasy and its speed issues. Looks like the severity meter has been notched up. They will probably put a bandage on it for now, but it's a flawed ship - and really needs an extended dry dock. Or they should simply swap out its longer-distance itineraries for something closer by.

Isn’t that what they are doing. Switching Dream/Fantasy itineraries ?

 

[neutie88]

We just got off the Fantasy this morning. My biggest complaint is that we were not told anything about the technical issues, nothing. I have not seen the port fees refunded on my CC yet (we got a letter stating it was $37.40 per person for both ports combined), BUT, we did have a mysterious $150 shipboard credit that was applied on 1/18, the first day of the cruise. It may be something we earned, but we could not account for it, so thought maybe it was a mistake. Of course we were not going to say anything about it . But I have not heard anyone else from the cruise (our FB group) mention it. So maybe it was a fluke, or maybe DCL preemptively applied the "goodwill" credit without any communication to everyone and no one has caught it?

 

[MomOTwins]

We just got off the Fantasy this morning. My biggest complaint is that we were not told anything about the technical issues, nothing. I have not seen the port fees refunded on my CC yet (we got a letter stating it was $37.40 per person for both ports combined), BUT, we did have a mysterious $150 shipboard credit that was applied on 1/18, the first day of the cruise. It may be something we earned, but we could not account for it, so thought maybe it was a mistake. Of course we were not going to say anything about it . But I have not heard anyone else from the cruise (our FB group) mention it. So maybe it was a fluke, or maybe DCL preemptively applied the "goodwill" credit without any communication to everyone and no one has caught it?

Disney announced they were giving the credit to everyone.

 

[Macmaro]

We just got off the Fantasy this morning. My biggest complaint is that we were not told anything about the technical issues, nothing. I have not seen the port fees refunded on my CC yet (we got a letter stating it was $37.40 per person for both ports combined), BUT, we did have a mysterious $150 shipboard credit that was applied on 1/18, the first day of the cruise. It may be something we earned, but we could not account for it, so thought maybe it was a mistake. Of course we were not going to say anything about it . But I have not heard anyone else from the cruise (our FB group) mention it. So maybe it was a fluke, or maybe DCL preemptively applied the "goodwill" credit without any communication to everyone and no one has caught it?

Did you use a travel agent? I suspect that's where the onboard credit at the start was for. I saw the refund of port fees on my bill in the app almost immediately after they announced it. There was no credit applied to our stateroom and I would not have expected it. We were not impacted by “technical issues." We missed the 2 ports because of weather. Disney cannot control. Yet.

 

[jenmsmith]

Disney announced they were giving the credit to everyone.

That’s for the cruise embarking today, not the one just finishing that the PP was on.

 

[tarheelz]

I am hopeful some clarity is extracted from DCL regarding the Jan 18 cruise.

I am a Disney Fan-Boy but this trip was anything but magical. Something was broken on this ship. Crew were getting seasick, we couldn’t stabilize for tendering, and the only explanation for missed ports was “dangerous conditions.” Of course other ships were docking and tendering AND even we tendered a medical emergency off at Georgetown.

Missing back to back Caribbean ports has never happened before to DCL according to Leslie. Apologies aplogies apologies from Leslie and crew, as expected. Then the only official response to the entire cruise’s troubles, was the “missed ports” form letter that had been oddly modified to account for two missed stops.

The final ball dropped was the 8:30 am announcement of the cancellation of the Castaway Stingray Adventure due to “Operational Difficulties” as we are waiting to get off the ship. That isn’t nature. DCL screwed this up too. DCL had to know this yet provided us no advance notice to permit rebooking.

Of course we also just had normal bad luck. Couldn’t have the Jack Sparrow show due to conditions. Couldn’t have two sets of fireworks. A steward who was nice, but inexperienced and seasick. A serving team with a great server but two injured/sick assistants leading to mangled wine and dinner services...

We had two other couples with us on this cruise. They will never be back. The friendliest crew on the seas only goes so far.

 

[louiesmom]

I am hopeful some clarity is extracted from DCL regarding the Jan 18 cruise.

I am a Disney Fan-Boy but this trip was anything but magical. Something was broken on this ship. Crew were getting seasick, we couldn’t stabilize for tendering, and the only explanation for missed ports was “dangerous conditions.” Of course other ships were docking and tendering AND even we tendered a medical emergency off at Georgetown.

Missing back to back Caribbean ports has never happened before to DCL according to Leslie. Apologies aplogies apologies from Leslie and crew, as expected. Then the only official response to the entire cruise’s troubles, was the “missed ports” form letter that had been oddly modified to account for two missed stops.

The final ball dropped was the 8:30 am announcement of the cancellation of the Castaway Stingray Adventure due to “Operational Difficulties” as we are waiting to get off the ship. That isn’t nature. DCL screwed this up too. DCL had to know this yet provided us no advance notice to permit rebooking.

Of course we also just had normal bad luck. Couldn’t have the Jack Sparrow show due to conditions. Couldn’t have two sets of fireworks. A steward who was nice, but inexperienced and seasick. A serving team with a great server but two injured/sick assistants leading to mangled wine and dinner services...

We had two other couples with us on this cruise. They will never be back. The friendliest crew on the seas only goes so far.

I completely agree with you. I am a huge Disney fan. We have sailed before but this whole trip was a cluster. By Jamaica day, Leslie didn’t have anything else to add on ship. The entertainment wasn’t there, etc. the mechanics did affect our trip.

 

[MonaMN]

I am hopeful some clarity is extracted from DCL regarding the Jan 18 cruise.

I am a Disney Fan-Boy but this trip was anything but magical. Something was broken on this ship. Crew were getting seasick, we couldn’t stabilize for tendering, and the only explanation for missed ports was “dangerous conditions.” Of course other ships were docking and tendering AND even we tendered a medical emergency off at Georgetown.

Missing back to back Caribbean ports has never happened before to DCL according to Leslie. Apologies aplogies apologies from Leslie and crew, as expected. Then the only official response to the entire cruise’s troubles, was the “missed ports” form letter that had been oddly modified to account for two missed stops.

The final ball dropped was the 8:30 am announcement of the cancellation of the Castaway Stingray Adventure due to “Operational Difficulties” as we are waiting to get off the ship. That isn’t nature. DCL screwed this up too. DCL had to know this yet provided us no advance notice to permit rebooking.

Of course we also just had normal bad luck. Couldn’t have the Jack Sparrow show due to conditions. Couldn’t have two sets of fireworks. A steward who was nice, but inexperienced and seasick. A serving team with a great server but two injured/sick assistants leading to mangled wine and dinner services...

We had two other couples with us on this cruise. They will never be back. The friendliest crew on the seas only goes so far.

We just got off the Fantasy too. It was still a fun cruise but missing two ports and having the ship rocking SIGNIFICANTLY for much of the time was a definite challenge. The cast and crew did their best, but if we hadn’t been able to get off the boat at Castaway, I think there would have been a mutiny.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I will say we had a wonderful surprise. Believe was supposed to be tonight but they moved it to Wednesday (supposed to be Jamaica day). Leslie, the CD, said she didn't know what they were going to do tonight. They ended up scheduling something called a Farwell show with no description. We went to see what it was. It started with a ventriloquist (he was on all week because they could not change performers since we missed the ports) then Leslie said they worked something up for us. They brought out the 5 principals of the Frozen show and they sang the new songs from Frozen II. It was AMAZING!!!! Really amazing.

That's pretty cool! A nice addition to the lineup.

 

[Intr3pid]

We will have to wait until November and hear any reports When the Dream is on a 7 night eastern and needs to run at full speed for a couple days and see if there are issues.

The issues are compounded in the rougher winter waters.

 

[neutie88]

Did you use a travel agent? I suspect that's where the onboard credit at the start was for. I saw the refund of port fees on my bill in the app almost immediately after they announced it. There was no credit applied to our stateroom and I would not have expected it. We were not impacted by “technical issues." We missed the 2 ports because of weather. Disney cannot control. Yet.

So, yes, this was an onboard credit from our TA. I forgot we did not use our placeholder on this cruise, as it was FL Res GTY rate. So that explains the amount, which was about $100 higher than I thought we were getting from the TA.

 

[mmouse37]

We board the Fantasy Saturday and hope things are better by then!!!

MJ

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We board the Fantasy Saturday and hope things are better by then!!!

MJ

Please let us know. I know you've lots of experience on the various ships, so a good source of whether things are better or worse than they've been in the past.

 

[insureman]

I am hopeful some clarity is extracted from DCL regarding the Jan 18 cruise.

I am a Disney Fan-Boy but this trip was anything but magical. Something was broken on this ship. Crew were getting seasick, we couldn’t stabilize for tendering, and the only explanation for missed ports was “dangerous conditions.” Of course other ships were docking and tendering AND even we tendered a medical emergency off at Georgetown.

Missing back to back Caribbean ports has never happened before to DCL according to Leslie. Apologies aplogies apologies from Leslie and crew, as expected. Then the only official response to the entire cruise’s troubles, was the “missed ports” form letter that had been oddly modified to account for two missed stops.

The final ball dropped was the 8:30 am announcement of the cancellation of the Castaway Stingray Adventure due to “Operational Difficulties” as we are waiting to get off the ship. That isn’t nature. DCL screwed this up too. DCL had to know this yet provided us no advance notice to permit rebooking.

Of course we also just had normal bad luck. Couldn’t have the Jack Sparrow show due to conditions. Couldn’t have two sets of fireworks. A steward who was nice, but inexperienced and seasick. A serving team with a great server but two injured/sick assistants leading to mangled wine and dinner services...

We had two other couples with us on this cruise. They will never be back. The friendliest crew on the seas only goes so far.

It seems like bad weather was the issue with the tendering and port cancellations. That's the captain's call and I would rather him be on the conservative side with those choices. I remember a captain in the early 70s made a bad decision to use a flat bottom landing craft as a liberty boat in rough seas at anchor and numerous marines were killed when it flipped. Sorry to be so morbid but safety should be the priority and in this case it sounds like a good decision. .

 

[tarheelz]

It seems like bad weather was the issue with the tendering and port cancellations.

What makes you say that? Crew members were expressing surprise in Grand Cayman as the weather was generally clear. In Jamaica the weather was crummy but other ships were making port.

That's the captain's call and I would rather him be on the conservative side with those choices. I remember a captain in the early 70s made a bad decision to use a flat bottom landing craft as a liberty boat in rough seas at anchor and numerous marines were killed when it flipped. Sorry to be so morbid but safety should be the priority and in this case it sounds like a good decision. .

Is Capt. Marco just more cautious than other cruise captains -- to the point of leaving his crew in disarray faced with a unique situation in the history of the Fantasy? OR is it that Capt. Marco was dealing with a damaged vessel and moderately inclement weather exposed its mechanical failure?

Anyway, no disagreement me from me if this was all just weather-related. That, however, is looking less and less likely to have been the case.

 

[jlwhitney]

We board the Fantasy Saturday and hope things are better by then!!!

MJ

we board sat also and def worries a bit.

 

[MonaMN]

What makes you say that? Crew members were expressing surprise in Grand Cayman as the weather was generally clear. In Jamaica the weather was crummy but other ships were making port.



Is Capt. Marco just more cautious than other cruise captains -- to the point of leaving his crew in disarray faced with a unique situation in the history of the Fantasy? OR is it that Capt. Marco was dealing with a damaged vessel and moderately inclement weather exposed its mechanical failure?

Anyway, no disagreement me from me if this was all just weather-related. That, however, is looking less and less likely to have been the case.

The port at Grand Cayman was closed by the time the Fantasy arrived (closed shortly ahead of our arrival - you can look this up online), though ships that arrived earlier may have been able to get passengers to port.

Jamaica was a kind of crummy day... being unable to dock may have been related to the mechanical issues... but only Disney knows...

 

[mevelandry]

On the Fantasy right now making our way to Port Canaveral and really didn't know there were any issues. There was a dive crew under the ship while we were in Castaway today. We had a super rough night last night with rocking. A few of the crew were even complaining about it the rocking. One person said he had been on the Fantasy for 7 years and it was the first time he felt motion sickness.

I just assumed it was weather related. We were unable to stop at Grand Cayman or Jamaica. We didn't get off at Cozumel so today was the first time we stood on dry land @ CC.

That's sad. GC is such a wonderful port.

 

[lklgoodman]

We were also on this cruise. It was our 2nd time to do the WC cruise. On our first WC cruise in 2017 almost all GC excursions were cancelled due to rough seas, however they were able to do tendering. We decided to stay on the ship. We also stayed on the ship in Jamaica. We have another WC cruise booked for 2021. Before this cruise I was thinking of cancelling the 2021 cruise and booking one on the Magic. While we still had fun and I really want to make it to GC and Jamaica some day, this cruise has me wanting to switch to the Magic even more. I'd rather take the chance of missing ports on a ship I haven't been on in a long time.