January 3, 2011 - 5 night Bahamas Sailing

[ssanders79]

I want to make sure you can check a box to your cabin? I have my FE's in a box so they do not get squished but then thought maybe you can only check luggage? Does anyone know? Disney is closed for the holiday and we are heading out tomorrow.

I do not see why not. We've seen people check bottled water in those shrink wrapped cases.

 

[MommytoaPrince]

See you all tomorrow!

 

[FloridaDad]

Ok so I know it is probably doubtful that anyone would reply to this at this hour, but what time do people usually start arriving to the port? I've heard be there super early, I've heard it doesn't matter.... any opinions on here?

FD

 

[ssanders79]

Ok so I know it is probably doubtful that anyone would reply to this at this hour, but what time do people usually start arriving to the port? I've heard be there super early, I've heard it doesn't matter.... any opinions on here?

FD

We'll be there around 10 unless we hit traffic in Orlando. If you want to get on board and go to Parrot Cay for a sit down lunch buffet then it is good to get to the port early to get a low boarding group number. The line to Parrot Cay can become long if you are not part of the first wave.

The Disney resort guest do not arrive till around 1:30 on the busses. So I would try at the very least to avoid those groups.

See you all tomorrow, I'll be wearing a long sleeve red shirt with a silver Buccaneers vest toating around a red backpack. Oh yeah, I'm also missing most of my hair (nice way of saying almost bald).

 

[FloridaDad]

We'll be there around 10 unless we hit traffic in Orlando. If you want to get on board and go to Parrot Cay for a sit down lunch buffet then it is good to get to the port early to get a low boarding group number. The line to Parrot Cay can become long if you are not part of the first wave.

The Disney resort guest do not arrive till around 1:30 on the busses. So I would try at the very least to avoid those groups.

See you all tomorrow, I'll be wearing a long sleeve red shirt with a silver Buccaneers vest toating around a red backpack. Oh yeah, I'm also missing most of my hair (nice way of saying almost bald).

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up! We will definitely be trying for that... first question when I get on board.... where is Parrot Cay? LOL

 

[MommytoaPrince]

FloridaDad, can't wait to meet you guys

 

[ssanders79]

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up! We will definitely be trying for that... first question when I get on board.... where is Parrot Cay? LOL

When you enter the main lobby (deck 3) walk straight across and make a left (aft) and you will walk right into PC.

 

[aanderson5]

Hey everyone. We leave for port in an hour. I'm sure no one will be checking the internet at this late time but we have been without a computer for the last 2 weeks and I had to check here before leaving.

We are so excited. Looking forward to meeting you all at the Dis meet.

 

[KrisannB]

actually I am sitting at the magical express area watching people check in for the cruise. I checked in over an hour ago but waiting for my assistants to get here from Nashville. I am sure I am seeing some of you but not for sure. Hope to see everyone soon!

Krisann

 

[Bakerteam]

Not sure if anyone is on the internet who is currently on the ship but here is my story....

This is going to sound crazy but my family & I were just on the Holiday cruise. I regret not buying the scrapbooking pages and album for 2010. Also, the 2010 ornament my daughter bought me as a xmas gift broke in our luggage on the way home.

It's highly unlikely these are still available, but just in case, I was wondering if some fellow Dis' member could look and buy these for me. I'd reimbursed you.

I tried DCL guest relations but since it's a ship they cannot export anything to me.

I live in states, up in New England.

Please PM if you're able to do this for me.

 

[AverysMommy]

Welcome Back Cruisers......we are heading down in a couple of weeks. We were hoping for an update on a few things;

1. Service Quality - we hear that there are a lot of newbie servers?
2. Weather at all the ports - could you swim at the Ports?
3. Was it warm on teh cruise ship? could you swim on teh ship or was it too cold?

Thanks so much

 

[ssanders79]

Welcome Back Cruisers......we are heading down in a couple of weeks. We were hoping for an update on a few things;

1. Service Quality - we hear that there are a lot of newbie servers?
You could tell there were new people in certain positions, but it did not cause any major issues.
2. Weather at all the ports - could you swim at the Ports?
2 days at CC and I only went into the water once up to my ankles to fill a bucket up for my daughter. Way too cold for me.
3. Was it warm on teh cruise ship? could you swim on the ship or was it too cold?
Not really all that warm. Our Nassau day DD went in the Mickey pool with was in the mid-80s for a bit, but it was chilly on deck with the breeze.
Thanks so much

Personally, I was cold and wore at least a long sleeve shirt. More often than not I wore a sweatshirt. It comes down to what your personal hot/cold threshold is set at as there were a lot of people dressed in shorts and tshirts when I was bundled up. There were people in the pools and at CC.

 

[Georgia3]

Our server, Beethoven, has been with Disney for 9 years. He was the best server we ever had from all 3 cruises. We did not see much of our cabin stewart, Marvin, but he did make our cruise special.
My kids wore shorty wet suits and played in the water all day-both days. I do not think they would have lasted as long if we did not have the wetsuits.
It was not the warmest cruise I have been on but the weather was better then I thought it was going to be.
I did not feel the Disney "love" on Castaway Cay. I have a letter to write to corporate about being told we could bring seadoo's on Castaway Cay Island and we did use them on our 1st day (as well as 3 other times we were on Castaway Cay on prior cruises) to be told they are prohibited and have always been prohibited by the Head Lifeguard. 4 out of the 8 kids we had were lucky enough to use them on Tuesday. The other 4 were really upset, since we promised them they could use them on the 2nd day. I had my TA call Disney & I also called to make sure prior to packing them for this trip.
I hope you have a great Trip!

 

[Elangen]

Hi!

Just wanted to check in and say thanks to everyone. We had so much fun with the FE. My kids loved getting "mail" practically every time we returned to the cabin. Everyone was so creative and generous.

Lets see, our server was Ploman (sp?) from Bulgaria and his assistant was super cutie Goran from Croatia. They were great, but I suspect had not been long in their positions. Joao (sp?) from Portugal was our head server. He checked in with us, but didnt do much, though he did get us in to the second seating for breakfast after we missed the first seating on debarkation morning.

The first day at Castaway Cay was awesome. we went to the first beach, near scuttles cove. The beach was great, it was warm, the water was definitly cool,but once you got in it was fine, and there were lots of people in the water. The second day it was super windy and we did not enjoy it much at all. We tried the second beach that day and it was really "rocky"from all the shells - not sure if it was because of the wind or what. the water was a bit rougher, and so tougher for us and our young kids. My 5 year old loved the pools on board also.

My five year old spent a LOT of time at the Lab. She LOVED it. The baby room was not very appealing to my 2.5 year old, but, we still dropped him off a few times!

 

[Silverfox97]

Thanks to everyone for the FE stuff - I think that is DD's favorite part about cruising. Yes, she likes to check the FE constantly, but she also enjoys walking the ship and passing out FE gifts to see everyone else's FE and door magnets. The funniest thing to me - her most prized possession this trip? A blue rubbery snake from the FE!!! I would've never thought!!!

I will try to write another trip report and will post here when I do. I know we all had different experiences

Hope everyone had a great time!!

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Welcome Back Cruisers......we are heading down in a couple of weeks. We were hoping for an update on a few things;

1. Service Quality - we hear that there are a lot of newbie servers?
We got Iketut and Aly and they were bad!!! Very friendly and always had a smile but they were sooooo slow. Our water and our drink ALWAYS went empty. I finally asked our head server Wayne for a refill one night and he seemed very annoyed so the next night the refills were better. Aly would bring around the cracked pepper when we were almost finished with the meal. The earliest time we ever got our meal (entree) was 9:35. One hour and 20 minutes past sitting down. We were first in line for breakfast on debarkation day and everyone around us, who sat down 10 min after us were finished before we even got our drinks! Yes, we sat down at 8:00 and we got our DRINKS at 8:45am. 45 minutes for some milk was ridiculous. I asked Aly if he has to personally milk the cow for my milk and he just smiled.
Oh and DH asked for a beer mug refill one night and they bring him a Coors Light bottle. We said no, a mug refill and we returned the bottle to get a refill. Well, of course he was charged for it when I got my bill from guest services. So I had to go to guest services and ask for them to remove it. They couldn't remove it, as they had to talk to the head server first. Ugh. Finally it was removed...I think. Anyways, I still tipped the recommennded amounts and not sure why. I prepaid like on day 2 because I thought it would get better and it never did.

Now our stateroom host, Rolan, was AWESOME!!!

2. Weather at all the ports - could you swim at the Ports? I could. DH could not. It was cold when you entered at first but it warmed up once you were in. I thought the weather was great!!! Better than we expected but we left weather that was 10 degrees and 6 inches of snow.


3. Was it warm on teh cruise ship? could you swim on teh ship or was it too cold? I say it was warm. The very last day it was really windy so not alot of people were out.

Thanks so much

see above for my responses

 

[GraciesMommy]

Welcome Back Cruisers......we are heading down in a couple of weeks. We were hoping for an update on a few things;

1. Service Quality - we hear that there are a lot of newbie servers?
2. Weather at all the ports - could you swim at the Ports?
3. Was it warm on teh cruise ship? could you swim on teh ship or was it too cold?

Thanks so much

I saw lots of "earning my ears" badges in the terminal, but had no issues on board. Our servers were fantastic! Our host was good, but not very personable.

As far as the weather, I agree with Scott. Definitely based on your personal thresholds. I wore t-shirts and shorts and my daughter had no problems in sleeveless dresses. Both my daughter and niece swam at Castaway Cay, but I thought the water was cold. Lots of kids were swimming in the pools. We didn't so I can't personally comment.

As far as some of the "state of the Magic" posts, I thought the ship was in good condition. We did have a foul odor in our bathroom and shower, but covering the vent with a towel fixed the issue.

Have a great trip!

 

[Silverfox97]

Welcome Back Cruisers......we are heading down in a couple of weeks. We were hoping for an update on a few things;

1. Service Quality - we hear that there are a lot of newbie servers?
2. Weather at all the ports - could you swim at the Ports?
3. Was it warm on teh cruise ship? could you swim on teh ship or was it too cold?

Thanks so much

1. Service
I have a theory. I think that on the actual ship, the newbies did not wear the "Earning my Ears" tags, but trust me when I tell you, there were newbies, and I think they were mostly asst. servers. We had Head Server Wayne, Server Marcos from Chile, and Taner for our asst Server. Wayne did a great job, he was present, visible, and around. The only thing I was a little saddened by was that he couldn't gurantee that he could get us into the 8am breakfast (instead of the 6:45am breakfast), but we'd have to wait around to see who showed and didn't show. Duh - wouldn't everyone want to come later, though? I completely understand this, but we decided to go to Topsiders instead. Marcos was very good -- the only problem with him was that he was slammin' busy. I think he had to pick up some of Taner's work. In fact, I noticed that he was actually sweating. I mean, he busted ***. My only complaint was that DD orders off the adult menu, and on previous cruises, they try to bring hers out sooner, and they brought it our with our entrees (we skipped appetizers every night except for Pirate night and Palo). Marcos was able to chill a little at the end of the meal, and told us to request him when we went to breakfast &/or lunch at Lumiere's, which we did. When we had him there, he was ultra-laid back, under way less stress, and chatted with us for about 20-30 min. Taner, the asst. server, was new -- no doubt. We were an easy table - I order iced tea w/lemons, DD & DH water with lemons. I thought it was weird that he brought the bread before drinks......On the 2nd night, we realized what the deal was - the other tables that Marcos & Taner had all ordered specialty drinks - wine or champagne for the adults, and smoothies for the kids, and that is what was keeping Taner so busy. I only had to ask for another iced tea once, and he did know what we wanted without asking -- each night, we had a plate of lemons and he brought me my iced tea without asking. I heard Marcos helping him and kind of coaching him. Marcos had to clear plates a lot, and some nights he brought the bread.

Our stateroom hostess, Margaret, was superb. She did a great job. She did think DD was younger than she was (left us info on Flounder's Reef and then she set up a bed rail on the couch-bed -- the look on DD's face was horror; she wanted to know why there was a net on her bed (we never used one for her), and we promptly removed and returned it to her). She left us clean wine glasses without asking, and she even helped DD try to get the pirate tattoo off of her face. She loved DD and interacted with her so much - she deserved the extra tip we left for her!!!

Palo was not what it has been on our last 2 visits. Our server was OK, not like Marco on the Wonder we had in Aug., but not bad at all. The food was actually not as good as it had been -- there is a new chef and we could tell.

2 & 3. Weather (Keep in mind we live in Florida, and we don't do Nassau.)
OK, first day at CC, DH and I didn't even wear our swimsuits. DD did, and we let her play in the sand, and she had a great time while we took turns playing with her and resting in the hammock. We went to Cookies for lunch, then back for a nap. DH went to the shore twice to get her an sand bucket full of water, and reaffirmed that it was COLD.

Nassau day DD spent 2 hrs in the Mickey pool. I went with her, and it was OK - cool when you get out. I did go into the hot tub to warm up, but it was windy on deck.

The 2nd CC day it was straight out COLD, but the wind was the main contributer to that. There was a cold front coming in, and you could tell. This time, we all had pants on. We went with DD into Scuttle's Cove as Visitors and played in the Whale dig area, which was fun until lunch. It was cold eating lunch, but after, back to the ship for naptime, so we weren't affected by the early departure.

Sea day was also cold, but we avoid the pools anyways due to the crowds (Nassau day is our "sea day".)

I didn't expect warmth, though, and that is why we didn't pay extra for a verandah.

I will write a trip report, but that is my 2 cents so far

Edited to add:
I was glad that unlike Aug., our server, Marcos, did not lecture us on giving excellent scores on the survey at the end, and I actually liked not hearing specific recommendations. Being a repeat cruiser, to me, that sounds like a fake speech, and I am going to order what I want anyways Some people may be put off by that, where as I prefer it!! Let's get down to business, take my order and off we go!

 

[Georgia3]

Thank you for all of the awesome FE gifts. In between unpacking, the kids keep pulling out a different gift. Everyone was generous, our group of kids enjoyed looking in their FE pocket for a surprise. Boy were they surprised!
THANK YOU, going to go listen to my CD of music!

 

[wonkadeb]

Sorry we missed seeing you all at the DISmeet. We got confused and couldn't find the group. We totally enjoyed all of the gifts. Thank you! We snorkeled the 1st CC day, but they refunded us for the 2nd, since it was impossible. Our servers were okay, but very slow on refills, and did not go out of their way to do anything extra to make our time special. We really enjoyed the performers Smooth E and Michael Holli. As for the kids clubs, my son is 10 and did not like being in the lab with all of the toddlers and small children. I was surprised they did not keep the small ones in the Club. It made it hard for the 7-10 kids to do their thing in the Lab while it was overrun with the little guys. Halfway through we upgraded our boy to the Edge, and he was much happier. As for me, I am still rocking and swaying. I feel like I am still aboard, and my head is dizzy with phantom motion. Anyone else ever feel this? Is so, what did you do?