June 22, 2010 - 5-night to Key West

[chiefdragon]

We are on out way to the airport. Got up at 4:30 and DD asked is this the day we leave and when we said yes she stared jumping all over the room. Goal now get on plane, meet my parents (who have all of our luggage), finally get to port to start vacation.

 

[MickeyBeast]

Wonderful trip and nice meeting everyone.....thanks for all the wonderful FE gifts and memories......

 

[brooklynfam]

great trip. im sunburnt (yes i did apply sunscreen) so much pain. how did everyone find our cruise? loved the shows, day care was exceptional, loved castaway cay. dinner was disappointing... kids had no patience for 2 hr meals and waiters werent that nice. we ask host to take a pic of family at table and he just walked off. one night my husband left earlier than me with baby cuz the baby was overtired and crying and the waiter was annoyed. a chubby guy nxt to me ordered pasta every night ( i think he tipped them extra) then the host tells him pasta isnt good for him. i asked if they had any broccoli cuz my baby loves it and the waiter said no. i wanted to tell him to go look for the broccoli wherever they found the pasta. they acted like my kids were the first ones that had an isssue with the long dinners. the main courses were horrible chicken dry, fish dishes rubber and steak tough. deserts were amazing as well as soups and side dishes. on last night food was pretty good though and alot of *** kissing was going on suddenly. i am totally not a someone who dines at fancy restaurants btw. disney should have a dinner buffet option. did anyone else feel the same way? the rest of the staff was awesome... one night we wanted cheesecake and room service said there wasnt any that night but surprised us with creme brulee cheesecake


ps thanks for fe gifts my kids loved them!!

 

[chiefdragon]

Thank you everyone for the FE. The family loved it. I guess I should tell you all the I didn't put my name on any of them (so the ones with no names are from us)

Out wait staff was awesome (Aungun and Peret) the were amazing with having our drinks ready and keeping our DD entertained at cerain parts.

DH (who shame on him is not a huge Disney fan) booked another trip for December 2011

 

[NE14DisneyWorld?]

Hi Everyone!

We had so much fun! Thanks to everyone for the great FE gifts. My granddaughter loved receiving them and giving them out.

We had a good lead server (not sure about the title, but the one that brings your food), but the assistant (the one that brings your drinks) was terrible! We were never asked if we would like a refill and when we could get her attention and asked for a refill it took FOREVER to get it. We missed two of our meals (Tritons and the second AP). In Key West we had dinner with our daughter that lives in Key Largo and her husband. We intentionally skipped AP the second night and ate at BBB - IT WAS FABULOUS! It was absolutely the best service and food we had during the entire cruise.

While onboard we booked another cruise for November of this year! This will be our first 7 night!

Again, thanks to everyone.

Tammy

 

[jilljill]

We had a GREAT cruise and I thought the food was the best I had on any DCL cruise, especially the beef. Our asst. server was a bit slow, but the server was good. We had a couple of issues that were taken care of to our satisfaction. I have to say that our head server was extremely good to us, but we knew her from last year and it also helped that the dining services manager visited out table every night to make sure everything was up to par.

 

[szek4]

We were also disappointed by our servers. It was less that they were not good, but just that every server we've had in the past (we've done 8 cruises) has been great, so we thought they were all great. Our guys this time were just OK. My son turned 11 on the cruise and the night before his birthday DH and I went to Palo so we told the server two nights before about the birthday and asked him to make a big deal, but he totally forgot. They made a big deal for an adult at the next table and we thought they'd do my son next but they didn't. We reminded him and as the dining room was clearing out for the pirate party on deck he brought a cake and just the two servers were there. Nice, but not what we expected from Disney, especially since they are promoting celebrations.

 

[jilljill]

We were also disappointed by our servers. It was less that they were not good, but just that every server we've had in the past (we've done 8 cruises) has been great, so we thought they were all great. Our guys this time were just OK. My son turned 11 on the cruise and the night before his birthday DH and I went to Palo so we told the server two nights before about the birthday and asked him to make a big deal, but he totally forgot. They made a big deal for an adult at the next table and we thought they'd do my son next but they didn't. We reminded him and as the dining room was clearing out for the pirate party on deck he brought a cake and just the two servers were there. Nice, but not what we expected from Disney, especially since they are promoting celebrations.

Sorry you were less than pleased with your servers. I hope you let your head server or dining room manager know of your disappointment so things could be corrected. Also, your head server should have checked if you were doing any celebrations to make sure they were not missed.

 

[brooklynfam]

the dining staff seemed overwhelmed. anyways i convinced my dh that the awesome day care in flounders and oceaneers is worth the poor dining svc. and we lovvvvvvvvved castaway cay. last night i was craving a piece of cheesecake at 12am like i ordered every night on the boat and today i wanted a pina colada. i do not like being back in reality!!

 

[VegasPixie]

Greetings all! We just returned from Florida (still trying to figure out which way is UP ), but I wanted to say thank you to all of you for the fabulous FE gifts; my kids were very excited to return to our room and receive them! It was also great meeting those who were able to make the meet-up on the first day--it was nice bumping into people we "knew" throughout the cruise!

As for the cruise itself, this was a wonderful experience for us. It was our 3rd cruise and our longest. We had a navigator's verandah (past cruises were Cat 9) and I have to say, while we really really loved having that verandah and experienced some spectacular mornings there, in the future I think we'll go back to Cat 8 or 9 to save the money (for excursions or more WDW time).

We were very pleased with our servers this cruise, our main server Rolly has been with DCL for almost 12 years! He was terrific! And our assistant Tobias always kept our glasses filled PLUS he spent alot of time with the kids at our table (we are a family of 5 seated with another family of 5, so 6 kids total), giving them brain teasers and otherwise keeping them laughing. And, I must mention that the main dining room person (Tektas?) always made a point of visiting our table each night to check on us; this is a first, as the past 2 cruises we never even saw that person.

Palo brunch was lovely; I think the "vegas" in us is simply burnt out on buffet-style dining though, and we wished we'd gone for dinner instead. But then again, we had such a great time with the family we were seated with: a couple with 3 girls just one year older than each of our 3 boys! My boys were a bit shy at first but the girls were very friendly and soon they were all chatting it up as if the parents weren't even there!

So all in all, a great cruise; did have one not-so-magical moment with the Oceaneer Lab staff, but I think it was more of a training issue than anything else. In fact, it seemed like there was quite a bit of peer-to-peer training going on throughout the ship, and I wondered if it had to do with training for the Dream?

Now for the unpacking... 'til we meet again!

 

[jilljill]

VegasPixie, you were very lucky to have Rolly for a server and Tektas as head server - both are excellent. We spoke we Tektas several times on this cruise since he remembered us from our cruises over the past year. He was upset we didn't request him, but has happy with the head server that we did have. I wish I had thought to request him tho. Sad that we didn't get a chance to see Rolly again.
We saw Tektas as he was getting ready to leave the ship to go home for vacation. He was happy to be heading home that day.