Missing Castaway Cay - Captain's Comments?

[cjsmith]

Well put and completly understood. I have read all the responses and my decision has not changed. I have chosen to cancel my 2/25 Western ressie and will go with another cruise line. If allowed, I will honestly compare this line with DCL next year....and if I feel that I was wrong I will be the first to admit it!!!!!!

Sorry to hear that you cancelled your Disney cruise but hope that you enjoy whatever cruise line that you're going with. Obviously more happened to you than missing CC and the cruise itself didn't live up to your expectations or desires.

Just know, no matter who you go with, things can change at a moment's notice. 2 of our ports on our 10/24/04 Princess cruise out of San Juan changed. They let us know about 3 weeks prior to our cruise that Grenada wasn't up and running and that we'd be going to Isla Margarita instead of Venezula. Isla Magarita was a joke and instead of being in port from 7 am until 7 pm we got 7 am until 12 noon. Princess gave us nothing for the changes at all. Then we docked at St Kitts and it was announced that a Federal holiday had been declared that morning due to the elections the day prior and that everything was basically closed, again we didn't even get a free drink and they didn't even offer us more to do. I chose this cruise specifically for the ports and the ports only as I was new to Princess and didn't care about that cruise line, but there was nothing I could do about everything and I ended up having a wonderful cruise, just not what I planned.
I'm giving Princess another chance this summer when we sail on the same ship through Europe for 10 nights in July!!

Again, I hope you enjoy yourself wherever you end up!

 

[allears]

I think budwmm made a good point. What if the ship managed to dock at CC, but the day was rainy and miserable? Should there be compensation for that situation?

 

[dwkwootton]

People keep suggesting DCL should have "back up" plan for when they do not get to Castaway Cay.....what do you suggest??? They already increase the activities though it seem not to most's liking....

If the crew was sick as in one posters comments then what is DCL to do...pull crew out of the air to replace them?

I really would like constructive suggestions as to what people feel DCL should have as "back up plan".....

As for sick crew members, I think its reasonable for DCL to anticipate the possibility of a flu outbreak in their crew during the height of flu season. I think your question is a good one, if its sincere and not condescending. (The pulling crew out of air part made me think your question may not have been the real deal). Its a question that all businesses have to deal with all the time and my guess is that good business practice does not suggest that management roll their eyes and wonder just what their customers expect! I'm not thinking that many of you would apply this theory to other services, be it your mechanic doesn't have your car ready the day it was promised you ... after your neighbor drops you off on Monday morning, you walk in and the desk person tells you a couple of the mechanics are out sick with the flu and your car isn't ready, would you really be content with that and just walk home?

Why not ask with the intent of exploring the question for real?

How should DCL deal with flu outbreak in their crew, leaving them short staffed for the cruise week?

Maybe it does help to answer this question if we apply the question to a mock business instead of DCL. There's often too much supercharged energy when its DCL specific. For myself, my interest level is low if this subject just reverts back to the old debate.

As for a back up plan, we had some off the cuff ideas along with other cruisers that we were having coffee with after it was announced that CC was a miss. I'm not sure any of us had the quintessencial solution (or maybe we did who knows) but we did have a few good ideas. The one note that all agreed on without any question was that the last minute scramble figuring out what to do was completely inappropriate on all counts. It should be preplanned and ready. Maybe our opinion of Disney is too high and we expect too much but we were all lifetime Disney fans and have come to expect excellence. As all know, it is a more expensive cruise than other lines and we all felt that expecting a special or memorable day was not too much to have looked for.

Our perspective was from groups of adults travelling without children and not interested at all in spending more money. We were really surprised, and not in a positive way, that the new navigator was much the same as the new navigator when we missed port a few days earlier. We weren't any more excited about froggy races in the Atrium Lobby than we were earlier in the week.

A thread on constructive suggestions for substitute stuff for a CC miss strikes me as a good idea. The deck 9 beverage station having soda added seems to be working well. If there's interest in this area, great, it might even make for a very fun thread. Again, for myself, my interest level would be low if the thread was another debate area on all the old stuff.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

I don't think that anyone wants safety to be compromised to get into CC by any means, shape or form.

The issue and we are seeing many come out to tell us is that CC is not a guarantee and it might just be missed more than you think. This needs to be disclosed during your booking. If they were to eliminate the CC stop altogether you would see a steady drop of bookings because at that point they are no longer anywhere near competitive with other cruise lines.

1) Castaway Cay is not set up properly for routine weather docking. It appears as though anything less than picture perfect weather prohibits the ship from docking.

2) Castaway Cay is heavily marketed by DCL to keep the bookings coming. It is a dirty little secret that they do miss it in routine weather. Look at the picture from the attempt on 3/2/2005 in another thread with sunny skies an <2 foot seas. So close yet unable to dock. These were not gale force winds, thunderstorms or violent weather patterns,........just a normal day. There should be some responsibility from DCL to offer some sort of a discount on future cruises PERIOD. Do you think this is going to break their piggy bank? Absolutely not, this is a for profit company. Why many of you are jumping onto DCL's defense wagon is beyond me. All that said they would not want a discount were already to CC.

You would swear that Disney is signing your paychecks.

Beenhad you have stated this "picture perfect" thing before that is just completely false.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

TDC Nala, are you reading the same thread everyone else is? What kind of question was that last post? Who would think that anyone would skip a port to cause problems with customers? Helloo.............is anybody in there?

Beenhad is just repeating himself from another thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=747956

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

So let's assume DCL agrees and does compensate passengers for missing CC. What happens, then, to the people who are unhappy about the kids clubs, the food, Palo, the nightclubs, the shows, the Spa, their second bath or their stateroom size - all things Disney also emphasizes in their marketing. Should they be compensated too?

In reading these boards there is a lot of disappointment in WDW resort stays sometimes too. Should those folks be compensated? Where would it end?

It won't unfortunately there will be people like Beenhad exaggerating their point just to get compensation. These are the same people we see screaming for action from a CM trying to rile other customers against them to prove their point. Unfortunately in buisness these people usually get compensated just to shut them up. Hopefully DCL will never succumb to this.

This is also why cruises in high hurricane season are less $$ . So Disney already discounts the next cruise but for everyone not just the complainers who feel that they are entitled to the world.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

I am the OP for this thread and as I have stated previously. it certainly was not my intention that it turn into yet another debate/slam session. Since a few folks did respond to the original post (thank you) and since it appears that it probably would not be possible to get DCL management cast members to provide commentary, I suggest that a moderator close this thread. Please!

Happy Sailing!!


BuzzMan

It would actually be great for a captain to explain how he makes his decisions on docking and how to navigate such an awesome ship

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

I was on the February 5th Magic cruise that was not able to dock. The captain tried 3 times and you could tell that he really wanted to dock. The winds were SO strong that most people were in sweat suits and no one was near the pools all day.

Each time he tried he gave a detailed account over the PA. It sorta reminds me of DCL before they had cruise directors. We used to to hear Captain Hans all the time over the PA, now you generally just hear the cruise director.

Again, safety first - its hard to believe that people have a problem with that. But any frequent air traveller knows that when a flight is delayed for mechanical problems, there is always some dolt is screaming for them to just hurry up and take off. If DCL would run the ship into the dock, or worse the ground, you could imagine the bad press.

I did not hear one person on my cruise ask for compensation. If Disney would do something wrong, I would EXPECT compensation (Like that couple that was in a porthole room and the waves crashed through the porthole window drenching the room). But for weather or other similiar issues, that is just life.

Scott

OMG where is the link to this I would love to read it? How terrifying.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Has anybody else but me noticed that there are so many posts by people who have not spent a lot of time here getting very negative? It almost seems like mnay of the on-line altercations here have been started by people with only a few posts? Now, I'm not putting down new posters, so please don't take it that way. I was simply making an observation...
I know I'm going to get slammed for this, but I still wanted to throw it out there!!

No it happenes on all boards you are completely right. Sometimes they argue with themselves (under a different s/n) to keep the threads alive.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OMG where is the link to this I would love to read it? How terrifying.

Took me a while but I found it. Here's the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=686921&referrerid=70088

 

[mmouse37]

As for sick crew members, I think its reasonable for DCL to anticipate the possibility of a flu outbreak in their crew during the height of flu season. I think your question is a good one, if its sincere and not condescending. (The pulling crew out of air part made me think your question may not have been the real deal). Its a question that all businesses have to deal with all the time and my guess is that good business practice does not suggest that management roll their eyes and wonder just what their customers expect! I'm not thinking that many of you would apply this theory to other services, be it your mechanic doesn't have your car ready the day it was promised you ... after your neighbor drops you off on Monday morning, you walk in and the desk person tells you a couple of the mechanics are out sick with the flu and your car isn't ready, would you really be content with that and just walk home?

Why not ask with the intent of exploring the question for real?

How should DCL deal with flu outbreak in their crew, leaving them short staffed for the cruise week?

Maybe it does help to answer this question if we apply the question to a mock business instead of DCL. There's often too much supercharged energy when its DCL specific. For myself, my interest level is low if this subject just reverts back to the old debate.

As for a back up plan, we had some off the cuff ideas along with other cruisers that we were having coffee with after it was announced that CC was a miss. I'm not sure any of us had the quintessencial solution (or maybe we did who knows) but we did have a few good ideas. The one note that all agreed on without any question was that the last minute scramble figuring out what to do was completely inappropriate on all counts. It should be preplanned and ready. Maybe our opinion of Disney is too high and we expect too much but we were all lifetime Disney fans and have come to expect excellence. As all know, it is a more expensive cruise than other lines and we all felt that expecting a special or memorable day was not too much to have looked for.

Our perspective was from groups of adults travelling without children and not interested at all in spending more money. We were really surprised, and not in a positive way, that the new navigator was much the same as the new navigator when we missed port a few days earlier. We weren't any more excited about froggy races in the Atrium Lobby than we were earlier in the week.

A thread on constructive suggestions for substitute stuff for a CC miss strikes me as a good idea. The deck 9 beverage station having soda added seems to be working well. If there's interest in this area, great, it might even make for a very fun thread. Again, for myself, my interest level would be low if the thread was another debate area on all the old stuff.

It may reasonable for DCL to anticipate a flu outbreak this time of year but you can only work with what resources you have....the ship only holds a certain amount of crew. I do not see how DCL could have "back up" crew waiting in the wings in case a flu outbreak happened. There is a definate space situation.....the crew have small quarters to begin with...adding more crew for a "just in case" scenario is not feasible.

As for as suggestions I was dead serious....you said you and your friends had "off the cuff" ideas...what were they....did you write to DCL and give them you ideas after your cruise? I have not seen one person describe a workable "back up plan" for when the ship has to miss a port. People keep saying DCL should have something in place so what would everybody think is a good idea? I really am curious and was not trying to be condesending. The "pull the crew out of the air" remark was flip but I really don't understand what people want DCL to do. Maybe if people did submit valid, workable ideas DCL would consider them. Believe me I know DCL has faults...I was on the Maiden Voyage and talk about a cruise with many problems.....but I did write a long, detailed letter to DCL to express my concerns but also praised them in the areas they did excel. They have since gotten their act together and continue to make improvements all the time.

I am not trying to debate...just honestly wanting to know what ideas people have for back up plans that can be submitted to DCL.

 

[cjsmith]

While I would agree with this from a consumer's standpoint (I find that DCL is quickly pricing themselves out of my cruise dollar), from DCL's standpoint, I would argue that they can charge what the market will bear. The fact that their cruises sail mostly full means that they can keep their prices and service at current levels until that stops happening.

I personally feel that they do do it better than any of the mass-market lines (I've sailed on DCL, RCCL, Holland America, and Windstar, so that's my basis for comparison), but that they don't do it twice as well, which is where their prices are heading, at least in the peak season. As such, I've been looking elsewhere. I still think it's a great vacation, but am trying to decide what I think the price difference should be between a great vacation and a very, very good one (which is how I'd classified RCCL and HAL).

I'm giving Carnival a shot this summer, since a similar cabin on their Mexican Riviera cruise costs half of what I was quoted for the Magic (for the price of a category 7 on the Magic, you could have the most expensive room on the Carnival Pride, or at least you could back when I booked last May). While I don't expect it to be as good (although I'm willing to have my mind changed on that count), I do expect it to be substantially better than half as good, if that makes any sense.

You may be surprised how much you like the other cruise line all things considered. My husband and I took a Princess cruise on 10/24/04 without our kids through the Southern Caribbean with a lot of great ports planned. (Not that we made them all mind you!) We had priced out the two of us taking a Disney cruise for the same week which is easy for us because we're only about 4 hours from the port. It was cheaper for us to fly from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan and spend the night at the Ritz Carlton there as well as be in a mini suite on the Golden Princess for the 7 nights by over $1500. I paid $2048 for the both of us in the mini suite all included, DCL wanted over twice that for a balcony cabin! Plus we got to go to 5 different ports.
Now I certainly wouldn't compare Princess to Disney, I do believe that Disney is a better cruise line, but Princess is a great cruise and we really enjoyed ourselves.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Took me a while but I found it. Here's the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=686921&referrerid=70088

LINDA THANKS SO MUCH! Wow that is amazing. Hope we don't see any of that in Sept.
Wonder how many were screaming for compensation j/k

 

[allears]

mmouse37 is absolutely right, there are only so many crew members to be had on a ship. And who would decide how many back up crew would be carried on cruises, how would you train them, where would you house them and who absorbes the cost of carrying people who might not be needed?

As a manager in customer service industry, I face this challenge everyday. If I have people who get sick and can't come to work, there are only so many resources I can tap. I can't just call in temps, they wouldn't be trained. What we do is the very best we can, but it can mean that customers have longer waits. This is a fact of life and business, even Disney business.

I think we sometimes as a culture in general, need to be a little more flexible and adaptable. And while I'm sure there are some good ideas to be had, I'm equally sure Disney has explored many of them. Though it is interesting that those who haven't run a cruise line before think they know the business better, just like some of my customers think they know how my business should work even without my 20 years experience.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Wonder how many were screaming for compensation j/k

Interesting on that particular thread there wasn't a one...

 

[dwkwootton]

mmouse37 and allears, I don't think I can run a cruise line better than Disney can. I know I did not say that and it shouldn't be necessary to make remarks like that. Nor do I have a perfect solution for DCL for short staffing for illness. But it is my belief that short staffing problems should be a problem for the company, not a situation that the consumer just has to put up with. It should not be my problem to figure out or deal with. I'll refer to the scenario question I asked earlier about your mechanic, would you be perfectly content with that situation? Could you please take the time to go back and read over this question and give it fair assessment?

I'm simply raising some fair questions in terms of my experience on my last DCL cruise. Here again, I would not have cruised 8 times with DCL, been to DW over 30 times, worn Mickey Mouse earrings at my wedding (yes I did, but they were crystal and quite beautiful) if I were anti Disney. (Just as an aside, I'm not suggesting that only lifetime Disney fanatics should be allowed to voice a displeasure.) Having suggestions or raising questions shouldn't make me fair game for unkind remarks.

There's back up plans in my businesses. And in the businesses of my friends and family. Sustitute teachers are an example of this. I'm really not sure how anything bad can be taken by this suggestion.

Like you, I'm proficient in my profession but I always welcome suggestions and ideas. I'm not sold that the world is flat.

Why don't we agree to disagree. My interest level is very low in continuing this debate and is non existant in dealing with remarks such as the last sentence of allears' post. Life's too short.

 

[mmouse37]

Who made any unkind remarks??? Never mind...I am done with this one.

 

[two-foxes]

Having suggestions or raising questions shouldn't make me fair game for unkind remarks.

Very interesting comment. Perhaps you should re-read many of your posts.

 

[dwkwootton]

Thought I'd field the last couple comments to avoid the possibility that no response on my part might be considered to be rude by ignoring someone. Here again, Carolyn (cjsmith) and I have mentioned a couple times that a forum such as this is quite susceptible for misunderstanding, misinterpretation, etc. (As in, by responding here could cause someone to conclude that 1. I'm trying to be considerate by not ignoring someone ~or~ 2. I'm looking to argue. The reverse can happen too, if I didn't respond someone could easily conclude two completely different intentions on my part.)

To mmouse37, I referred to allears' last sentence (roughly, its interesting that people who don't run a cruise line think they know the business better) as the comment that was unnecessary, unkind, unwarranted (please work with any word you like) to use in response to someone making observations or suggestions. I never said I think I know the business better. My outlook is that a suggestion for improvement can open the door to make the average good, the good great, the great excellent, etc. When you have confidence in yourself and your abilities, your mind is open to welcome suggestions for improvement and is an integral component in progress.

To two-foxes, I think you're referring to my comment to you that it sounded like you expected more from the other guy than from yourself. I felt that might be possible becuase when I tossed out the question as to why a gee, that's such a shame type response can't be given to someone who's upset about missing CC, you said (roughly) that it annoys you if they say it in the wrong way or use the wrong phrasing. I was trying to suggest that the upset person might be annoyed that they just (and usually in these cases just means a day) had a huge disappointment after spending a huge amount of money. My thought was if you could understand your annoyance at someone's comments that you could extend that understanding to someone's huge disappointment leaving them annoyed ... and that that's often the best time to send that pixie dust.

I've also received feedback regarding my comment that kids treated this harshly can end up in therapy. Some find that overstatement is a good way to illustrate one's point. Not everyone does. And again, as cjsmith and I had previously expected but were able to learn together by talking in the PM forum with each other (not at each other) it was certainly the case that this type of forum is a high risk situation for misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

Using the example that someone's kid comes home from school on what they feel is the worst day of their life (they made a careless mistake and flunked that big test they studied hours for, the love of their 14 year old life dumped them for that back stabbing redhead, and they tripped in the hallway and looked like a total clumsy idiot in front of their entire world) was to suggest that a different approach to an adult feeling like they just had one of the worst days of their life (missing CC) might be a good idea. The two thoughts are that just like the 14 year old will soon realize that this was not the worst day of their life, the CC missing adult will soon realize the same. More importantly, since what I figured was the positive ~ that these parents DON'T become hand slapping, critical, tsunami lecturing, straighten out your attitude immediately people, but probably listen to their kid with the utmost of compassion and understanding, only saying calming and soothing words, the equivalent of sending pixie dust your way ~ it seemed like a really good way to give an example of what I was trying to say.

With my earlier thought that agreeing to disagree can be a great option, the time comes when its time to say its time.

 

[Hygiene99]

57 days til we,( WESTBOUND) Cruise ... Happy Spring Jill & mm37

I dont know I kind of feel, like this you Get there You get There..

Very laid Back... Anybody who books A Cruise and Becomes disappointed that they do not Get To Any Port is Hard For me to understand,
The Nature Of The Beast..IMO. They Tell you this Right up Front..
hey this is what we are going to try to do.. And It May Rain or weather Maybe Less than Perfect..
Peter