Magic Christmas Cruise 2010 (Dec 18th - 29th) **** PART III ****

[TheBeadPirate]

We had a great time even with service not up to par, food hit and miss and getting off the boat (late) with a head cold or sinus infection...

We all know they can and will do better (just consider us a part of the training process)

Amazing that even with the complaints I would get right back on and do it again... I think that has a lot to do with all of the great folks we met!

Thank you all!

 

[3princessMommy]

Oh, I'm such a terrible photographer...I think I only made about 20 pictures the whole cruise. So if any of you got shots of the girls or any of my bunch please email them to me at mmplum@ms.metrocast.net or facebook me. Thanks so much!

Joann, I meant to ask....what happened when you asked about the Castaway Cay 5K participation "reward" or lack thereof??

I'm sure we've got some photos of the girls somewhere - will have Aaron look and see what he can find.

For all of you who braved the 5K despite the cold and late arrival (actually I thought the temps were perfect for a run - just too cold for swimming!), I was disappointed in several things:

1) Oscar ditched us all when he finished - he didn't stick around to welcome and congratulate anyone who finished. I thought he used to wait for an hour, so was a little bummed when I finished in a RECORD 45 minutes (Hey, it was my first 5K and I'm not exactly in the best shape! )
2) They really need to put distance markers out there so that you know how far you've gone and how far you need to get motivated to get your rear-end to!
3) In the final leg - not one cast member cheered us on! I know my face was as red as a tomato - so you can be sure that we were pushing our limits - but the best cheering squad were fellow passengers. The cast members we passed, just ignored us. They should know there's a group running and at least give a thumbs up along the way. I know those of you who run marathons may think this is whining - but when we got cheers from fellow passengers it really helped me keep going. Every little bit helps.
4) It appears that the budget cuts have reached the 5K as well. There is no longer any official recognition of your participation. I was really hoping for a certificate to say that I'd done it. But when we got back and Oscar was no where to be found, we headed to Guest Services. They didn't really know anything, but promised to pass our names and room numbers to Oscar. Late that night, when Aaron was bringing in the FE, there was a Disney bag in it with a DCL water bottle inside. There was no note or certificate, so I don't know whether to thank DCL or one of my running partners....

Regardless - We did it! We may have been the back of the pack, but we did it! Congrats fellow runners!!!!

 

[pennymike]

We totally agree with many of the comments. We have been die hard DCL groupies for years, this being our 9th---all with Disney. We consider the Magic to be our "summer cabin" or "time share" or "vacation home"....call it what you will. We were EXTREMELY disappointed with the erosion of the "Magic"al quality we have returned for over and over. We definitely agree that they have over-recruited their best cast members for the Dream....hate to see what happens when Fantasy hits the water!

Our servers were not even close to up to par with what we've become accustomed to (Boy that sounds snooty, but you know what I mean, I hope!) from Disney. The worst of it was when our assistant server told my DH two nights in a row that we were done with our 5 bottle wine package, when we still had 3 and then 2 bottles remaining. He was CERTAIN we had used up our package and said he would confirm with his wine steward. A brief "oh, you are correct" each time. We also had to remind him several times for coffee and to get him to bring the wine we did have, and our table mates actually got up and went to get silverware from him FOR us once. Timing was off, knowledge was lacking, and the personal service was just not the same.

Our room steward was average at best. Didn't bring ice 2X daily as we requested, when she did bring ice, she left our water bottles strewn across the floor that had been in the bucket. We had to request products a couple times, and RAN OUT of toilet paper once. Seriously!!!???? SO unmagical.

We did see a number of areas where the Magic is just in need of some loving! It did just have a dry dock, but it is overdue for a major overhaul. The arm of the chair in the WD Theater came off in my DH's hand one night. Hmmm.......

The 5K was TOTALLY fun, but I agree with several points:
1. IF they are going to do it, it should be a little more organized.
2. How hard would certificates (or shirt numbers even) be?
3. There needs to be a route marked out better for the participants.
4. Coming back the way he directed us to go out kind of ticked off the tram drivers.......but trying to go against pedestrian traffic was pretty tough to do, especially when people don't move to the side even when they see you coming!
5. When I finished, Oscar was there along with a good sized group of participants that finished ahead of me (I finished at about 35 minutes), but it was only by chance that there was a sizable group there. I tried to cheer on everyone I saw as I retraced my way back, and tried to holler to people to make room for runners (for what it was worth!) b/c I enjoyed the reception and encouragement.


We are hoping that Disney has someone monitoring these boards (Disney being Disney, I would assume that they do!) so they can see that the perception of the top notch standing of DCL is deteriorating even among its biggest fans. We have made the comment that if this had been the cruise when we finally got some of our family members to join us for the first time, we would have been REALLY embarrassed.


ALL IN ALL.....we had a WONDERFUL CRUISE!!!! LOVED getting to meet so many friendly and familiar faces from the DIS boards! LOVED having 'neighbors' I recognized (BBQMommy Caryn and Charles Family)! ABSOLUTELY loved doing the 5K (especially enjoyed having a running partner part way, Pam (StJohnFamily), thanks!).

Hope everyone is having some luck with the abundance of laundry now at home.....I'm off to change loads myself!

Hope to see many of you again!? Dream in August 2011, anyone??

Take care!
Penny

 

[Liz Arjay]

Hope to see many of you again!? Dream in August 2011, anyone??

Take care!
Penny

We are doing the Dream for a 3 day trip September 1st. The price was really great ($299 for a Cat 11) when we booked a few months ago. I think it is still cheap because it is the start of school for many districts. Let me know if any of you will be on that cruise!

Leilani - is your daughter Alyssa? My son (Turner) thought she was great. Hopefully they can stay in touch on Facebook. The teens on this trip seemed so nice and to have lots of fun (sometimes until 3 AM! ).

Am I the only one working today?

Liz

 

[pennymike]

We are doing the Dream for a 3 day trip September 1st. The price was really great ($299 for a Cat 11) when we booked a few months ago. I think it is still cheap because it is the start of school for many districts. Let me know if any of you will be on that cruise!

Leilani - is your daughter Alyssa? My son (Turner) thought she was great. Hopefully they can stay in touch on Facebook. The teens on this trip seemed so nice and to have lots of fun (sometimes until 3 AM! ).

Am I the only one working today?

Liz

Does Laundry and cleaning house count as 'working'???? Sorry! We go back on Monday. Happy New Year!

 

[BBQMommy]

Sorry to have bailed on the 5K, with the change in time with docking, sick DH and DD, slightly petulant DD it did not work out.

Penny, I feel horrible. We got such great care from Jane, I think we got the extra juju due you With my 2 sick she made sure everythnig was just so. We went through maybe 7-8 boxes of tissue I'm sorry.

I was so pleased with the care the cast members on Decks 9 and 3, mentioned 4 of them in my review card. William from St. Vincent went out of his way to supply us with lemon and honey for DH's tea. The CMs in the club were great with DD6 for the 4 days she was there. Flu kept her out the rest of the time.

We had the same servers as Joanne. Timing was off, but got a little better as the trip went along, probably only impoved with their having fewer customers. This was our first DCL cruise and expectations were met and exceeded in some regards.

It was great seeing everyone out and about. (((Tinkmischief)))

I am basking in my best planning ever - perfectly executed: had the MK Castle playset at home, wrapped and waiting on the dining room table by out table top tree. DD6 had seen it for the first time just before the trip at Downtown Disney and fell in love. Told me she was going to ask Santa for it for Christmas. My heart grew three sizes, I swear. (OK, maybe there was a little luck ...)

For you all we did not officially meet, I bet we passed at some point. Here is BBQMommy and DD6 after Christmas. I did not know they photoshopped the cigarette and bourbon out of Walt's photo. Pity:

Caryn

 

[itutorfortravel]

Hi all, we just got back last night. Made a couple stops to visit family along the way so it took us a couple days to reach home.

We had a really good time and were sad to see it come to an end in lots of ways.

The FE gifts were amazing! Thank you to everyone! I can't believe what talent and creativity some of you have I felt like I didn't need to buy much in the gift shop because I had already gotten such wonderful and unique souvenirs to take home!

We had the same cabin steward (Tabah from Indonesia) that we had on our April 2009 Magic cruise. We loved him then and were so excited to have him again. He took excellent care of us.

Also, the kids club counselors were A++ in our book! We cruised last Christmas and I don't remember the team being as happy, warm, and friendly as they were this year. One counselor in particular, Ji from Australia, was our DD's favorite. He was a lot of fun.

Our dining team was Alicia from Trinidad and Juan from Colombia. They were pleasant (Alicia was a huge talker, which kept us from getting out of the dining room until way after 10 o'clock - LOL!), but the timing of our service was off several nights. Food was okay, not bad but not great either - except for Palo of course!

The huge downer for us was that DH got a GI illness on board. The ship doctor said it had to have been contracted on board because he didn't come down with it until the 23rd. The doctor said there had been a lot of GI illness on the previous cruise. Anyhow, because they could not determine if it was norovirus or food poisoining, my DH was quarantined for 48 hours. Not once during those 48 hours did anyone from DCL guest services (or any other dept. for that matter) call to check on my DH. I told him it was good that we all weren't sick or we would have been in bad shape. Anyhow, watching the whole thing unfold we are convinced that he had food poisoning and it likely came from Topsiders. His illness came on fast and furious with stomach cramping, throwing up and diarrhea but no fever / chills / headache like is common with norovirus. Also, DD nor I ever got sick which I think would have been a complete miracle if it had been norovirus. As a result of DH being sick not only did he miss part of the vacation, but our family unfortunately could not enjoy Chritmas Eve festivities and dinner together and we didn't even have the nice Christmas dinner on board. Even though DH could come out of quarantine on Christmas morning, he didn't feel like eating anything until the next day. What a bummer, and what a disappointment in guest services.

We may cruise with DCL again, but probably not for at least a couple years. And I will likely avoid a ship that is in transition. With so many new crew members on the Magic, it just didn't live up to the service that we were used to in the past.

Take care everyone!

Kimberly

 

[itutorfortravel]

Does anyone in this group have a DD named Amber who would have played with my DD Morgan (with bright red hair) in the kids club on the cruise? I was trying to touch base with the mom to see if the girls could be pen pals...Morgan talked a lot about Amber and how much fun they had. Maybe she had the name wrong. I looked on the FE list but didn't see any girls named Amber. DH and I saw her family around the ship many times and said hello but unfortunately never got to officially meet them. I know they were at the wine tasting our group did, as I remember seeing them there, so maybe someone here knows who they are. I think they may have sat with LizArjay and her DH at the wine tasting. The mom had blonde hair and the dad had either really short hair or was balding I cannot remember.

Thanks!

 

[TheBeadPirate]

Customs Question:

How would you all classify spices, peppercorns specifically? Food? Seeds? ???

I had prperly sealed packages and unproperly sealed ones from the Guadaloupe spice market. Our US Customs agent did not really know himself. Looked around for help for about 2 seconds, then sent us along.

Ours didn't even blink. I had spices in baggies with twist-ties. Apparently not a problem for him. I think he was stunned by the sheer amount of luggage coming off with us.

Joann- How'd the girls like their pillowcases?

Caryn- PM me your email- Rick has some video and photos for you from Magens Bay.

I had a great time, but was dissappointed that I never got my photo mat back from guest services.

It was great meeting everyone that we had a chance to meet. And we had a lovely time sitting at a table next to NaomiJ and PoohsPals- they really made our dinner time special. Thanks a mint you guys!

Lori

 

[pennymike]

Sorry to have bailed on the 5K, with the change in time with docking, sick DH and DD, slightly petulant DD it did not work out.

Penny, I feel horrible. We got such great care from Jane, I think we got the extra juju due you With my 2 sick she made sure everythnig was just so. We went through maybe 7-8 boxes of tissue I'm sorry.

I was so pleased with the care the cast members on Decks 9 and 3, mentioned 4 of them in my review card. William from St. Vincent went out of his way to supply us with lemon and honey for DH's tea. The CMs in the club were great with DD6 for the 4 days she was there. Flu kept her out the rest of the time.

We had the same servers as Joanne. Timing was off, but got a little better as the trip went along, probably only impoved with their having fewer customers. This was our first DCL cruise and expectations were met and exceeded in some regards.

It was great seeing everyone out and about. (((Tinkmischief)))

I am basking in my best planning ever - perfectly executed: had the MK Castle playset at home, wrapped and waiting on the dining room table by out table top tree. DD6 had seen it for the first time just before the trip at Downtown Disney and fell in love. Told me she was going to ask Santa for it for Christmas. My heart grew three sizes, I swear. (OK, maybe there was a little luck ...)

For you all we did not officially meet, I bet we passed at some point. Here is BBQMommy and DD6 after Christmas. I did not know they photoshopped the cigarette and bourbon out of Walt's photo. Pity:

Caryn

So sorry to hear you were all fighting illness, Caryn! Puts a damper on the vaca, for sure! I'm glad you were well taken care of by Jane. She was nice enough, just didn't live up to the standard that has been set in the past. She did improve somewhat over the 11 days, I will say.

Laughing about the photoshop observation! Hadn't occurred to me, but you are right! Kind of like they won't let you have a champagne glass in your hand when you get a photo taken by them, even if you are posing with Captain Jack Sparrow whose body composition is 40% rum.

So glad you had a great finish to your holiday!

It was a pleasure to meet you all!
Penny

 

[Liz Arjay]

Does anyone in this group have a DD named Amber who would have played with my DD Morgan (with bright red hair) in the kids club on the cruise? I was trying to touch base with the mom to see if the girls could be pen pals...Morgan talked a lot about Amber and how much fun they had. Maybe she had the name wrong. I looked on the FE list but didn't see any girls named Amber. DH and I saw her family around the ship many times and said hello but unfortunately never got to officially meet them. I know they were at the wine tasting our group did, as I remember seeing them there, so maybe someone here knows who they are. I think they may have sat with LizArjay and her DH at the wine tasting. The mom had blonde hair and the dad had either really short hair or was balding I cannot remember.

Thanks!

I am pretty sure (there was a lot of wine, remember... ) that we sat at the wine tasting with " VA Girl" Gretchen, and her husband Larry. We ended up with them at Diversions afterwards. They have 2 young daughters, I know, but I can't remember their names. I don't think they have posted yet, post-cruise. Probably still traveling.

Liz

 

[itutorfortravel]

I am pretty sure (there was a lot of wine, remember... ) that we sat at the wine tasting with " VA Girl" Gretchen, and her husband Larry. We ended up with them at Diversions afterwards. They have 2 young daughters, I know, but I can't remember their names. I don't think they have posted yet, post-cruise. Probably still traveling.

Liz

My DD definitely said that her friend was from VA, so I'll bet that's it! Thank you! I hope to connect with the mom on this thread at some point...

 

[mickeyteachers]

It was crazy getting off the ship. But, the worst part was flying home. When we got to Chicago the flight we had from Midway to Omaha was cancelled due to the weather. The lady at Southwest said we could not get another flight for two days. She told us not to worry they would bring cots into the airport for the evening. We rented a car and drove to Nebraska in the fog, snow, and ice. We finally arrived last night in Lincoln. We had to go to the airport and pick up our luggage. I have been doing laundry all day. It is snowing outside and ice. Good day for laundry. We leave again on Tuesday to fly back to California. I am glad we were able to go to Nebraska to see our oldest son.
I loved meeting everyone on this cruise. Our table mates were wonderful and the table mates around us were fun. The staff was very slow and all of the food was not hot. My husband sent is food back three times. They wanted to give him free expresso for the food being cold.
If this was my first cruise I would never cruise on Disney again. The service was so bad at Topsiders that I had to clean the table myself. When I asked one of the staff to help me he told me he was looking at the sights on the island with his glasses. I just kept cleaning the tables.
Since this is our seventh cruise and we have another cruise booked in June on the Dream I am hoping it will be fantastic. If not, then that will be our last Disney Cruise.
I have been enjoying my day looking at all of the FE gifts. I have sorted them out and put them in the proper location. I think the best part about this cruise was the DIS friends I have met and seeing the excitement on my sons face when he got something in his FE. He loved meeting his new friend and had a great Secret Santa. I also had a wonderful Secret Santa. I love all of the gifts and my husband will enjoy the apron. He likes to cook and always wears an apron when he cooks.
Thanks everyone for making this a wonderful cruise. I honestly can say Disney did not make this cruise wonderful. All of you made this cruise wonderful.

 

[minneapolismickey]

I did it! I finished that 5k and no one gave me a certificate. So... I made one. If you want me to send you a copy, please pm me with your first and last name and your address. I will print it on photo paper and send it to you!

Hope everyone arrived home safely.

 

[pennymike]

I did it! I finished that 5k and no one gave me a certificate. So... I made one. If you want me to send you a copy, please pm me with your first and last name and your address. I will print it on photo paper and send it to you!

Hope everyone arrived home safely.

You so totally rock! You beat me to it: fought with my Macbook trying to figure out how to customize a certificate today and gave up for a while. You win! Yours is MUCH cuter than I would have achieved! My DH suggests that you send a copy to this address with the comment that since they didn't do any kind of recognition, you did and perhaps they might like to consider it for the future......

DCL.guest.communications@disneycruise.com

I'll PM you....
Penny

 

[3princessMommy]

I did it! I finished that 5k and no one gave me a certificate. So... I made one. If you want me to send you a copy, please pm me with your first and last name and your address. I will print it on photo paper and send it to you!

Hope everyone arrived home safely.

Awesome Angie!!!!!

Did you get the water bottle that night from DCL???

Send me one! I'll send you a PM!

Joann

 

[kehonuamemano]

Hello everyone!
I hope everyone made it to their final destinations safely. here are my highlights,so/so, and needs improvement comments from the trip.

Highlights
• Malia (DD,4) believing we were going to Nebraska until we hit Port Canaveral and saying that this was the “Best Christmas Ever!”
• Great tablemates-it was scary how well we got along. It’s like Disney did a profile and matched the two most likely families together. Were booked our next DCL cruise together.
• Palo Brunch-It’s what everyone has been saying it is and more. Also, it was nice to meet great people of the DIS boards at the brunch.
• Blake’s role in Pub Night-a hilarious finale to an exciting cruise. I can’t believe how awesome he was—it really made the skit.
• Speaking of entertainment; John Charles and Ricky Kalmon (adult versions) WOW! These men are very talented.
• The Fabulous FE gifts---this truly surpassed all expectations and Malia was so excited to get each and every item. Everything was appreciated and perfect. THANKS!

So-So
• Although we were lucky and had seasoned servers on our rotation, Levent from Turkey and Non from Thailand; they were so busy with several large tables they barely had time to interact with us. Our requested server is on the Dream We really missed the level of service we experienced last cruise.
• Our room hostess was also very sporadic-sometimes everything was great-other times she forgot simple things like washcloths.
• The crowds of people- I totally underestimated the amount of waiting in line for everything on the ship.
• Great interactions with most people and few strange ones. One insulting interaction that led me to chant “I’m on a Disney Cruise” a hundred times and go to my happy place.

Missing/Needs Improvement
• Getting off the ship—ARRRGGGGHHHHH! We were lucky and our plane was delayed or we would have never made it on time. Speaking of the ship-there seemed to be a lot of areas under construction. Also, when we hit the big waves the night before Castaway Cay-I thought I room was going to literally break in pieces. Needless to say--we had little sleep that night.
• Sounds silly when I write it out but we were very disappointed to miss the full moon lunar eclipse on winter solstice. We completely forgot until the 22nd but I was surprised that the Captain didn’t make an announcement on the 21st. The last time this happened was in 1638 so I don’t think it will happen anytime soon
• Ditto on all counts regarding the service-I had several issues none of them resolved by guest services. Malia’s favorite youth counselors were off train for the Dream. Our favorite server gone to the Dream. Selfishly I think DCL should have waited until after our special holiday cruise to move 40 percent of their seasoned staff to the Dream.
• And finally, the pre-teens-mostly notably the ones that thought it was funny to hide under the table at the Buena Vista theatre and scare the living daylights out of me every night. On a happy note—they’re several pre-teens who we uncommonly polite and opened doors and interacted with Malia very well. However, it seems like DCL needs to work on the activities for that age. I barely saw a 14-17 except when they were being dragged to dinner, however the preteens were everywhere.

All in all a good trip. We are booked on the Fantasy for April 2012. Although we may move this up depending on hubby's R&R schedule. Sounds like we should be on the Dream instead.

 

[STLUCIELADY]

Hi all, we just got back last night. Made a couple stops to visit family along the way so it took us a couple days to reach home.

We had a really good time and were sad to see it come to an end in lots of ways.

The FE gifts were amazing! Thank you to everyone! I can't believe what talent and creativity some of you have I felt like I didn't need to buy much in the gift shop because I had already gotten such wonderful and unique souvenirs to take home!

We had the same cabin steward (Tabah from Indonesia) that we had on our April 2009 Magic cruise. We loved him then and were so excited to have him again. He took excellent care of us.

Also, the kids club counselors were A++ in our book! We cruised last Christmas and I don't remember the team being as happy, warm, and friendly as they were this year. One counselor in particular, Ji from Australia, was our DD's favorite. He was a lot of fun.

Our dining team was Alicia from Trinidad and Juan from Colombia. They were pleasant (Alicia was a huge talker, which kept us from getting out of the dining room until way after 10 o'clock - LOL!), but the timing of our service was off several nights. Food was okay, not bad but not great either - except for Palo of course!

The huge downer for us was that DH got a GI illness on board. The ship doctor said it had to have been contracted on board because he didn't come down with it until the 23rd. The doctor said there had been a lot of GI illness on the previous cruise. Anyhow, because they could not determine if it was norovirus or food poisoining, my DH was quarantined for 48 hours. Not once during those 48 hours did anyone from DCL guest services (or any other dept. for that matter) call to check on my DH. I told him it was good that we all weren't sick or we would have been in bad shape. Anyhow, watching the whole thing unfold we are convinced that he had food poisoning and it likely came from Topsiders. His illness came on fast and furious with stomach cramping, throwing up and diarrhea but no fever / chills / headache like is common with norovirus. Also, DD nor I ever got sick which I think would have been a complete miracle if it had been norovirus. As a result of DH being sick not only did he miss part of the vacation, but our family unfortunately could not enjoy Chritmas Eve festivities and dinner together and we didn't even have the nice Christmas dinner on board. Even though DH could come out of quarantine on Christmas morning, he didn't feel like eating anything until the next day. What a bummer, and what a disappointment in guest services.

We may cruise with DCL again, but probably not for at least a couple years. And I will likely avoid a ship that is in transition. With so many new crew members on the Magic, it just didn't live up to the service that we were used to in the past.

Take care everyone!

Kimberly

Kimberly, we must have been so close because we had Tabah also. He is awesome in my book. We had the 2 cabins near the elevators. Mine had the wreath on it and the kids had the Christmas tree and ornaments. We both had the big stockings from Tuesday Morning. 2050 and 2052. We probably passed each other dozens of times. I hope it wasn't one of the times I would run over to the kids cabin in my granny nightgown.
This is my crew:



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[STLUCIELADY]

This was Champagne girls! Thanks Connie!


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[STLUCIELADY]

You may recognize a few of the teens in this picture on homecoming night. My daughter Jessi is second from the left. Which one is yours?



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