March 13, 2011 - DREAM

[kkruser]

Made it home tonight after two flight delays this afternoon. DS said we could have done a couple of more rides, as we left Animal Kingdom too early to make the flight that was over an hour late taking off. We spent three nights at Pop Century and made the rounds of Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom.

Dream was beautiful. Missed seeing all of you at the Dismeet. Hope everyone made it on without too much frazzle. What a mess!

We had an eventful morning before the cruise started. The last two of our party had a 6:20 AM flight from DFW to MCO and missed the flight. We used the hotel computers, called, called, and called some more. There were no flights to purchase at any amount. We also called Disney transportation, as they had booked transfers with Disney. They were SOOOO helpful, and after two standby's our folks made it on the third, and were on the bus to the ship while we were still waiting in the terminal with our numbers in hand.

We walked for almost two hours in Nassau to find the Pirate's Museum which we finally found after giving up and starting to walk back towards the ship. DUH!

Last night of the cruise, GD #2 threw up at 1 AM. DIL tried everything to get the washers to work. No one could/would help in customer service, but a nice stateroom person came and changed the bedding promptly.

Son and DIL got word that their house had been sold on March 18 after being on the market only since March 11. Yea!

Everything else went smoothly until this morning. GD #2 disappeared for 20 minutes in the hotel. Another hotel guest found her crying and walked all over the hotel looking for us as we walked all over looking for her. We finally found her when we stood still waiting for security. Whew!

Enjoyed the cruise, but it was too short. It was also way too crowded everywhere including climbing the stairs. We've been on huge ships before, but we have never experienced the crowds we saw on Dream. Advice to future Dieam cruisers: Eat in Cabannas on last morning. Service in the restaurant was slow, and food selection was lacking!!!

I'm still feeling the motion of the ship!

 

[HappyontheLake]

DD#3's allergic reaction was nothing compared to DD#1's food poisoning on Saturday at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Thankfully it didn't progress too far and she was able to sleep it off. We blew off our breakfast reservations at Boma and had room service -- so much less stressful.

The ship was crowded -- don't know when we will cruise again after my trip with my daughters in July. I priced June 2, 2012 and Dec 2012 but with two staterooms just too much. And since we have the secret vacation in July 2012 (need to book that this week) don't think we will do another big vacation in 2012. Maybe 2013 cruise -- but we can only do peak times. UGH

The work on the house looks great -- room colors for the girls are awesome, extra shelves are fabulous, housekeeper got a lot of deep cleaning detail work done. Great to come home to a perfectly clean house!

 

[Chernabog381]

Let me first say we have already booked our next cruise with Disney for Spring Break 2012 (on the Magic as I'll not do another big ship with them until they have it nailed down)...That being said the service on this cruise had a few very high points (Jay and Wemick were just fantastic!) and a few of the lowest. The family motto became "no more broken" I had an officer at the Guest Service say ,"well there are 4,000 people on this ship", when I went to complain about them loosing our pillow cases. What you other 3997 folks had to do with misplacing the pillowcases and sharpies I'm not sure? My mouth just fell open. An officer at GS with no Customer Service skills? Um, let's not compare who is more frustrated on this point sir, you are getting paid and I paid for this! I will also NEVER prepay tips again. The Assistant Server was HORRID by the 2nd night the Server an assitant server from another section were doing his job even with all the mistakes there is no excuse for rudeness he never even said hello...the issues where taken care of by others in the end. By the last night I was so upset I did not want to leave the tip for him I wanted to leave it for those who picked up the added work. I was told another trip to guess where? Guest Services for about the 7th time...They told me there was NOTHING that could be done after I explained I in NO way wanted this individual to have any of my money they said they could VOID it but that the money was just gone? If one more person at Guest Services told me "it isn't us" or there is "nothing we can do" I think my head would have blown up...Just soooo many little things that could and SHOULD have been handled better. So overall we still had a great vacation but if this had been our first Disney cruise? I don't think we would have booked another...here is hoping the Magic will live up to its name, The DREAM sure did NOT!

 

[I'mWong]

I'm sorry so many people had problems. We had a great trip. Our issue was that our TV didn't work from day one. We were able to see on demand shows, so that was nice, but no regular channels. We reported this and they did tell my husband to unplug it from the back and do some various things, which he did, but it still didn't work. He thought that was a bit odd they suggested he did his own troubleshooting, but oh well...he would have done it at home too! They definitely are a new group of workers. They will get better. I think they are a bit overwhelmed, really. I read online that it takes about 6 months to a year for them to work through everything on a new ship.

I thought the last day at the pool was pretty ridiculous as far as the crowd goes, but other than that, I didn't experience any long lines or waits for anything. The Aquaduck was amazing. I love both the Magic and the Wonder too, so I just really enjoy Disney cruises. I would gladly go on any of them, given the opportunity.

I do wish we would have had an opportunity to meet up with everyone before sailing. Neither of my kids went to their groups because they are both on the bashful side. They were both hoping to meet someone at the meet so that they would have someone to go with. The mixup with the computers at the beginning pretty much ruined that chance for either of them. I kept trying to encourage them to atleast go and take a look, but neither of them did. I am sure they would have enjoyed themselves.

The FE exchange was fabulous! Thank you all so much for the gifts. They really made my kid's day. I hope everyone got theirs from us and enjoyed them. I don't think I missed anyone, if I did, I apologize. If there wasn't a bag hanging, we left it by the door. I did not want to have to take any of them back home! You are all a creative bunch. My kids were so excited about the Canadian candy. We thought the Smarties would be like the Smarties we get here in the US, but they are actually more similar to our M&Ms. We really enjoyed each and every gift. Your thoughtfulness made our trip even more special. So many beautiful memories. Can't wait to get some pictures back so we can fill the paperbag scrapbook. I have wondered for a while about those and now I actually have one!

We got back yesterday after spending a few nights at the Animal Kingdom. I am sad to report that my precious grandmother passed away just before midnight last night. She was a wonderful lady who taught me so much about the Lord. She is now pain free in Heaven and for that I am grateful. She will be missed. She turned 93 last week. I thought she would live to be 100 and so did the doctors. She fell a few weeks ago and broke her hip and had surgery. While she was in the hospital, they discovered she had a large tumor on her colon and they removed that. I guess the two surgeries in such a short time was too much for her. Hard to believe she is gone. I have so many wonderful memories of her from my childhood.

Hope everyone has a great week back at work. It was really hard to get up this morning.

 

[Tx<3sDisney]

Sorry to hear of the bad experiences. We had a great time! Booked again on the Dream for June 2012! I really can't say that anything was really bad on the cruise for my family. My daughter (4) is really shy and really didn't want to stay in the kids club, she only spent a little while in it on the Wonder, which really isn't much different than this time. My son (15) had a blast and is already missing all the kids he met, not sure if any of your children spent much time in the Vibe, but he surely did and absolutley LOVED it and everyone he met. Our servers were really good, we even saw our server Kabello from the first cruise and were going to see if we could request him, but decided to give Sunil and Tommy a chance, and they did an amazing job as well. Our food was always very timely and they ensured everyone was pleased with it! The only complaint I really had was the weather the first two days, it was too cool for us to enjoy the pools really. The last two days were much better. Sea day the pools were packed, and I personally think the lay out makes it look more crowed now that Mickey's pool and the Goofy pool (or whatever it's name is) were back to back on this boat. I never saw it too crowded in the adult section and very rarely waited in much a line for anything. I did not find the service to be bad to us on any level or less than what we had received on our previous cruise. All in all, we are one very happy Texas family. The only depressing thing, is we did see a wreck on I-10 on the way home and hear it was a family from Cypress, TX. I read that the 13yo did not survive the crash and that the others a 15yo son who was driving and their parents were still in the hospital...My prayers are with the family, I hope everyone else pulls through. When we passed the accident, the cops were going through the family's luggage, it just broke my heart.

 

[I'mWong]

That is such sad news about the wreck. Where did it happen? It seems like everytime we drive to Disney we see an accident either on our way there or home. I am glad to say we didn't see one this time, but your news breaks my heart. What a tragic ending to a nice vacation.

 

[I'mWong]

Double post, sorry.

 

[my3sonstx]

pulling into subdivision now We went to Magic Kingdom and astros spring training. We all had so much fun and LOVED the FE. I would of liked to book another cruise, but ran out of $ and didn't want to push my luck with the hubby. He did love it so much that I think we will be back 2013.

 

[CDN-DisFan]

Welcome home everyone!
I tried to post last night but it disappeared on me and I couldn't be bothered to re-type everything.
Any way, I wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the great FE gifts. This was our first time doing FE's and we really enjoyed it. Everyone came up with such great ideas! We still haven't fully looked through everything. We listened to the mixed CD's on the way home and although they weren't at all what we were expecting we really enjoyed them!
I'm glad the kids liked the smarties. I heard that they don't have them in the states, which is why I included them.
We thought the ship was beautiful and had a great time. The kids loved the clubs (Lab and Edge) and of course the Aquaduck was awesome! We had great service, although did notice dinner was a little slower coming after the first night but not slow enough to bother us we just noticed it was faster the first night. We do tend to be pretty easy to please though. We didn't really find it too crowded except for the Donald and Mickey Pool area which was a little rediculous on the sea day. The adult pool was great (I was skeptical from the pics) but it seemed to be just the right size. We also hung out at the front of the ship a couple of times when the kids were in the clubs and it was pretty deserted on the Nassau day. It seemed like a bit of wasted space to me. I think another water area (like Carnival waterworks), a flow rider or something would be good up there to help take congestion away from the pools. I also noticed there were never any teens in the outside teen area which is a shame since it looked like a great area
We were a little underwhelmed with the Pirate Party. We loved how they did it on the wonder with the show before building up to the fireworks and then Mickey coming in to save the day. The whole thing seemed much more geared to adults on the Dream.
4 days was just too short! There were so many things we didn't do. We didn't even make it to the district except to just pass through.
We didn't re-book because next year we are planning a trip with my cousin and his family (kids are the same age as ours) and we are leaning towards DisneyLand in California. We have never been there so that will be a whole new adventure. I would also like to try Royal Carribean (maybe Oasis or Allure) so I don't think we will be back on Disney for a while but you never know!

 

[I'mWong]

Welcome home everyone!
We listened to the mixed CD's on the way home and although they weren't at all what we were expecting we really enjoyed them!
I'm glad the kids liked the smarties. I heard that they don't have them in the states, which is why I included them.

I just put some of my favorite songs from the years on those CDs. I tried to make them more upbeat, but most of them were just songs I loved. Many from the 80s which is my favorite music. I was in high school then, and still love those same songs. Glad you liked them. I am sure everyone thought they would all be Caribbean songs, which I thought so too, when I started, but found out I really don't have much of that music.

 

[CDN-DisFan]

I just put some of my favorite songs from the years on those CDs. I tried to make them more upbeat, but most of them were just songs I loved. Many from the 80s which is my favorite music. I was in high school then, and still love those same songs. Glad you liked them. I am sure everyone thought they would all be Caribbean songs, which I thought so too, when I started, but found out I really don't have much of that music.

I LOVE 80's music so they were great! I was expecting Disney music, songs with the word Dream in it or Carribean music (which would have been fine too) but all the 80's tunes were a nice surprise

 

[juliebug1997]

We had our door covered in pictures and stuff but never saw anyone else in our part of the ship with doors decorated. There was a family with two staterooms further down that used tape to put up some little signs.

We booked a five night for June 29, 2012 on the Dream. We talked about doing one of the Med. Cruises (20% off? Hello!) but we couldn't really make the dates work.

 

[Spiffie]

My kids absolutely loved the FE! They almost killed each other getting to the door to see if we got anything new!

But, I didn't get a paperbag scrapbook! That stinks!!!

We had a fabulous time. Didn't feel the crowd until Sea day at the pool. THAT was horrible!

Our server team - Anastazia and Raluca were FABULOUS!! Our food was INCREDIBLE (late seating). Our stateroom hostess - Val - was AMAZING! My only complaint was the Dining Room Host - whoever that is - we never saw that person. So, when we went to turn in our tip sheet, I had written that down on our sheet, and GS told me not to feel obligated to tip him if he didn't do his job. I was glad they didn't just blow it off.

However, now that I am home (got home last night after 3 days in WDW) I have some horrible stomach virus.

 

[my3sonstx]

I am so sorry for those that didn't get my scrapbooks. There are four or five of you. I let my hubby and kiddos deliver and they ended up running out. We looked everywhere and couldn't find anymore. After unpacking today I found them! If you didn't get yours please pm me your address and I will send it to you. SO SORRY!!

 

[Disney's Fan]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who participated in the FE! My family and I absolutely LOVED all of the cool things people gave. It was really a highlight of the trip for us...my teens were as excited as little kids to check the FE. I am amazed at the creativity of you DisBoard folks.. I even got some great ideas of things I could do for next time, whenever that is. (BTW...the paintbrush for the sand works really well!!! Living close to the beach it will come in handy at home, too!) And thank goodness for the pirate stuff because I didn't pack a thing for that and wanted to participate after seeing all the cute costumes. Thanks, again, for ALL of the neat things. I'm simply amazed at all of you...

 

[kkruser]

I'm Wrong: I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. Glad to read that she is with her Savior!

We also had TV problems, but our stateroom attendant Val had someone work on the TV the first day, and the problem was resolved in the evening. The next morning it quit working, and she made a point of asking us how it was doing. We told her, and she said she had several folks with the same complaint. We found the TV in good working order upon our return and the rest of the voyage. Spiffie--you are right. Val was fantastic!

We also had the great serving team of Collin and Izabella. Izabella went above and beyond to befriend the granddaughters.

Granddaughters LOVED the Oceaneers' Club and told us all evening after Castaway Cay how they got to spend the entire sea day at the Club.

The Pirate's Party was frightening to us because of the lack of crowd control. We started off on top of the covered pool, but went up to deck 12 because of all the small children running around. Decided to get out of their way and leave them to their fun. Upstairs was nice until so many people decided to stop on the stairs and others kept milling around. We were on the second row behind the railing, and one man passing behind me kicked my ankle sending me reeling. He caught me to keep me from falling and told me to be careful moving back because a long line of people were moving behind me???? I was standing still until he walked into me. There was a ship's officer next to us. I would have expected him to tell people to move off the stairs at the very least. The show was terrific.

We also encountered crowd problems at Flo's cafe. Folks put towels down on the tables to reserve them and went to swim. Not cool when folks want to actually sit down to eat or when one of the grandmas in our group wanted to find a seat and supervise our six-year-old in the splash area. Celebrity has "chair police" who constantly patrol for those who try to reserve chairs and tables without being present for long periods of time.

We encountered another crowding problem in the movie theater on sea day. There were several shouting matches going on around us between folks trying to save seats for their families and late comers who could not find enough seats for their entire group to sit together.

We always take the stairs on cruises even from deck 2 to the top. Usually, we have the stairs mostly to ourselves. Not so this cruise. Kids were running up and down without looking out for other passengers in their path. Also, we found the corridors to always be crowded with lots of folks moving in the public areas. We sailed Celebrity Equinox in '09. It is a mega ship, but we only found crowded corridors when they had the "sidewalk" sales on the last sea day or before/after dinner.

I found Disney's seating of guest in Cabannas to be a great idea. However, RCI and Celebrity have Disney beat with their smaller square stations allowing access on all sides and are randomly scattered throughout the buffet area. Cabannas' stations were divided up well, but more space around the stations would be a plus.. DIL told me she saw someone ask for ice cream at the desert station. I tried it the next day, and the young lady manning the station said the only ice cream available was the soft serve out past the pool. I settled for a chocolate desert and later found DIL enjoying the ice cream I wanted. The lady had been replaced by a man who knew where the ice cream was kept! We also found the space between tables in the dinning rooms to be very tight. Our server who had worked on all three ships commented that his working space was more narrow on Dream than on the other ships. But weren't the dinning rooms beautiful? We really loved the design of the Enchanted Garden.

I also want to commend Disney on the virtual port holes. We usually stay in a balcony stateroom, but decided to go with the less expensive room on this trip. I kept trying to look out the side of the port hole forgetting it was not real!

We enjoyed our experience because we love to cruise, and enjoyed time with family. As we usually sail as a senior couple without kids, I expect we will stick to Celebrity and occasionally RCI for the itenerary and the activities geered more to our taste when we travel without children. We booked our airfare for our next Celebrity cruise in January. Looking forward to seeing the beautiful scenery of the Southern Caribbean islands.

 

[mkathyrn220]

We got home last night after the cruise and spending three days at WDW. We had some problems on the cruise also - mostly those already mentioned. My daughter is usually pretty easy going and I thought she was going to go over the counter at Guest Services one night. I suppose it is mostly due to the newness of boat and crew but I think a lot of ruffled feathers could have been soothed by better service at GS. The delay at boarding got my DH in a snit and it took the first day and a half for him to get over it. The shows were tremendous and the diving at Nassau was good. The FE was wonderful - such creative people - it was always fun to see what was on the door next.

When we got to AKL it got even worse for us. I had booked a "Great Package" online that was marketed as a great chance to see WDW at a huge discount. I booked a package that included a savannah room, park hopper tickets, and a dining plan. When I got there and checked-in I was told that the reservation said room only and that the amount I had already paid was for a "standard view" room. I won't bore you with all the details but it will be our last trip to WDW.

We have, however, booked our next Disney Cruise on the Magic next spring break. We are doing the seven day Caribbean along with the same family members. We are looking forward to that already.

 

[I'mWong]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who participated in the FE! My family and I absolutely LOVED all of the cool things people gave. It was really a highlight of the trip for us...my teens were as excited as little kids to check the FE. I am amazed at the creativity of you DisBoard folks.. I even got some great ideas of things I could do for next time, whenever that is. (BTW...the paintbrush for the sand works really well!!! Living close to the beach it will come in handy at home, too!) And thank goodness for the pirate stuff because I didn't pack a thing for that and wanted to participate after seeing all the cute costumes. Thanks, again, for ALL of the neat things. I'm simply amazed at all of you...

I am so glad you posted! After reading of the wreck on I10 that killed the teenage boy from Cypress, I was hoping you would post so I would know your family was okay. I am so saddened by that tragedy, but most grateful that your family was not involved.

We loved the FE too. I am so glad we participated. You are right, there are some awfully creative people out there. My kids loved it too and they are a teen and a tween. I must admit...I liked it too! Obviously there is no age limit to FUN!

 

[I'mWong]

When we got to AKL it got even worse for us. I had booked a "Great Package" online that was marketed as a great chance to see WDW at a huge discount. I booked a package that included a savannah room, park hopper tickets, and a dining plan. When I got there and checked-in I was told that the reservation said room only and that the amount I had already paid was for a "standard view" room. I won't bore you with all the details but it will be our last trip to WDW.

They obviously had some issues at AKL. We had a Savannah room that was finally ready a little after 5PM! Once we got into the room, the pull-out bed wouldn't come all the way out. It took them over an hour to fix that. Then after purchasing a $40 pizza from Giordiano's and putting all but one slice into the fridge for the next day, we discovered the fridge didn't work...the next day! I love AKL too, so I was really disappointed. I am sorry your experience was bad, too. I think yours sounds even worse! I will admit, the hotel did make it up to us.

 

[kkruser]

Sorry to hear about the problems at AKL.

I forgot to mention in my long disortation how much we appreciated the folio system for photos on the ship! Except that many of the pics taken of our whole group ended up in only one family's folio. I will say that those who had more photos available bought more photos. We have experienced pictures available with room keys before and with facial recognition as well. We even had the pictures available for viewing and ordering through the interactive room TV in the past, but we have never had such a great system for locating the pre-printed photos!

Speaking of interactive room TV: Our shipboard account always showed $0 balance on the TV. We never received a copy of the account outside our room. Had to go to Guest Services on the last morning to get one. We like to review the account early to head off problems. All other ships we have sailed put an updated copy in the room at least by the last evening of the cruise. Disney could save a lot of headaches by making the account available through their TV system.