we have recently returned from our b2b on the fantasy and i thought i would answer some of the questions i have recently seen asked. i seldom pay close attention to what is going on around me so i thought that this time i would and record my experiences from this vacation. this sailing was on the fantasy out of port canaveral. keep in mind this is how it worked out for us, your experience could be different.
we arrived at the airport and went directly to the bus pick up. while there is a large area for wdw transportation the area for dcl is relatively small but easy enough to find. to get into the line for the bus we needed to show our id and our dcl packet. after that we were allowed to pass and get in the actual line for our bus transfers. there were maybe 20 people in front of us. once we reached the desk we again showed our id and dcl packet. they then stapled a red square with a captain mickey picture on it to our packet and we moved on to a third person, she was right beside the check in desk, and had to again show her our id and our dcl packet. the three people we had to present our items to were no farther then ten feet away from each other and it seemed excessive to have to show them all these items especially the third person who as there was no one in front of you when you left the desk. there must be some reason for this but i am not sure why. anyways, once we passed the third check point we went out to the bus and they looked at our dcl documents and we boarded the bus. from getting on the bus to getting to the port was just less than an hour.
once we arrived at the terminal a cm boarded the bus and explained what the procedure was. she pointed us in the direction of the side door, the same door we have always gone through, but when we walked through it there was a guest who was not happy and told the bus group that they needed to walk through the front door as everyone else had, she had to wait and so did we. the bus group turned around and went to leave the door but the cm at the door directed everyone back. the guest then apologized to the group and said she had not realized there was a different direction for the bus's. the line to get from the door to the scanner was 20 minutes. it went very slowly, they did check a lot of bags. the new sign for liquor requirements was posted very well and you could not miss it.
once through the security line things went fast. we did not enter the castaway line for registration as it was pretty full, instead we took the first timers line and walked right up to the registration desk. no waiting. we had pre filled our paperwork out so the cm only had to check it. she then gave us a boarding #2 and told us to go ahead and board. they were calling 1 to 10 at that time. so, in total it took us 5 minutes from entering the line at registration to actually boarding the ship. i should add that we always bypass the embarkation photo which helps cut the wait time.
we went to cabanas for lunch and was able to get an outside seat. i love that area. the deck was very wet and i'm not sure why because i don't think it had rained that morning. this was never cleaned up. while we were eating lunch we saw a lady slip in some food a child had dropped. a cm ran over to help her but she said she was okay but she had spilt her coffee and it needed to be cleaned up with the food. the cm was very attentive to her and helped her away but no one ever came over to clean up the water, food or coffee. it was still there when we left about half an hour later. people were just walking around it.
day 2 had the repeat cruisers gathering, the silver/platinum. we don't normally go to that because we don't find anything to interesting and more often than not find it a waste of an hour. thats just us, i know others enjoy it. we went this time, on both our cruises so i could answer some questions from it. it was held in the tube. they did provide drinks in champagne flutes, both alcoholic and non alcoholic. the food was fruit trays, cheese trays and a few tiny finger foods. nothing to fancy but they way they served it made it seem fancy. they had a wait team that floated around passing them out. minnie mouse came out and there was a ten minute period where you could have your picture taken with her. she was the character for both of the gatherings. cd ray talked for a little bit and then commodore tom came out and spoke. i have posted what he said on another thread so i will just cut and paste that here.
first person we spoke with was ray the cruise director. we have spoken with him before on other cruises so it was not hard to throw in a few questions. i asked how many were on the sailing (first of our b2b). he told me almost 3800. i then asked how many were repeaters and he told me 1818 and said it was close to 50% of the ship. when commodore tom gave his speech he mentioned how many guest there were and that on any given cruise the percentage of repeaters was between 40 and 50%.
second sailing we returned but came in late so only caught the commodores speech. this time he did not say how many cruisers were on board but did mention the % of repeat cruisers. he also repeated the comment about repeaters being in the 40 to 50% for sailings.
we had the same serving team on both sailings. on the second sailing our server mentioned that there were lots of empty tables in the second seating because there were only 3500 cruisers. she said she had been with the fantasy since its first sailing and that this was the lowest head count they have had.
our first week was rainy so we did a lot of indoor stuff which included the dvc sales meeting on day 2 as well. i mention this because the question has been asked as to wether or not they serve drinks here. they did, alcoholic, non-alcoholic and bottled water was served. anybody looking for some freebies would be interested in this meeting as well. they gave away string backpacks, portfolios with a pad of paper and a pen as well as a pirate mickey pin at the end. they also raffle off a $200 obc at the end of the presentation and you must be there to win.
the captains reception was the evening of the 2nd day. they pass trays of drinks around at two different times, 5:00 and 7:30, in the lobby atrium. you can meet some of the ships officers and you can have your photo taken with commodore tom. while it is meant to be pre dinner drinks there is nothing stopping anyone from going to both receptions.
all in all, lots of places to get free drinks.
there was a 'bright star' alert at about 2:45 a.m. on the second night. this is an alert that there is an emergency and emergency staff is needed at a certain spot. it is broadcast into all areas including cabins. they announce 'bright star' three times and give the cabin number where they are needed. i understand why it is necessary for them to broadcast this into cabins but there were several guest the next day who were not happy about it. later in the week there was another 'bright star' that happened at the bathroom by cove cafe. it was a port day so there were not a lot of people around. we were seated by the adults only pool. the cm's would not let anyone go down the left side of the ship (do not know the technical name, sorry). there were cm's running back and forth for about 20 minutes. i heard, do not know if it is true, that a lady had passed out in the bathroom and she was having heart issues. all in all, i thought they handled the emergency very well.
our dinning team was amazing, we really enjoyed them. we had the same team and the same table both weeks. i mention this because we had a round table in the enchanted garden and several people have asked about them. dh was so thrilled when we were led to them, i wasn't. he asked what my objection was. my main objection has always been that you get stared at. when people walk by the are always looking at who is sitting there. its constant. after a half hour dh said yes, he no understood what i was talking about. also, anyone hoping to get one, i would have to say that bench part is not evenly spaced. if you are sitting at the farthest back point you have lots of room however if you are sitting at the front part the table gets a lot closer to you and it can be uncomfortable. we are not overly big people but we are not tiny either. we found we had to sit farther back to be comfortable and that meant we had to sit sideways to talk were as at the four top we could sit opposite and be face to face. it was a bit awkward. again, its only my opinion but i did not enjoy them.
one evening in the enchanted garden a child threw up by the front door. i heard someone tell one of the cm's but it did not get cleaned up. people were actually walking in it. it took a father pulling over a head server telling him that it needed to be cleaned, there was no excuse for it, before it was dealt with. it got cleaned up pretty quickly then.
satellite falls--we spend a good part of our time on board in this area. only once did i see a child up there. he was about 6 and his father brought him up. dad picked him up and put him over the wall. the child then went, as children do, full force. he ran around the circle throwing up water with his hands. he then dropped himself down and began to swim/kick around in it. very very quickly a cm came over and told the dad the child had to leave. dad wasn't to happy but he took him away.
room service--people have said they are displeased with trays in the hallway however when we ordered room service we were asked by the delivery person to please leave the tray in the hall when we were finished. we were only told that when they left a tray but when they came with just a plate (two mickey bars please) we were not told this. anyways, my point is don't think badly of the people who leave the tray out, we are being told to.
alcohol purchases--i purchased alcohol in Cozumel. it was a really really rainy day so after the purchase we returned to the ship, about 10:30. the person who was recording the liquor being brought on and giving receipts was at the end of the conveyor belt that you put your items on and they xray them. it caused a line up to occur as you had to wait till she wrote it all in her book and gave you the copy. there were five people who were lined up waiting. when she was recording my items one of the people from the xray machine came over and whispered something in her ear. at the time i thought he was telling her to hurry up but thinking about it it was more probable that he was telling her i was b2b, otherwise she would not have known and it was written on my copy. we went back out later that afternoon and the drop off table had been moved up and out of the way. made much more sense.
the receipt clearly has a note at the bottom that states if you don't pick up your items at the end of the cruise then they will be destroyed and no compensation will be given. to me that said i should pick it up on the first Saturday, which i attempted to do. they have print outs from each port that show cabin numbers, names and what the items are being held. i waited in line (it was a table set up on the opposite side of the departure doors, not the customer service side). when i gave him my copy he went behind a screen that hides the liquor from view and attempted to find it. it was minutes later and he came out, appoligized for the wait, said he was still looking for it and off he went again. people were coming and going but i was still waiting. after waiting for a few more minutes i finally took the sheets for Cozumel and opened it to my cabin number where it clearly read i was b2b and was greyed out. i showed this to one of the other people gi9ving back items and asked that he please get the cm who was looking after me. they both came out with more sorrys, cant find it, so i pointed out the print out. they talked to each other and agreed that i could not have it which made sense as the pages were kind of clear. they told me i could pick it up on my debarkation. so i left.
the next Tuesday night at just after 8 p.m. i received a call in our cabin from someone in that department. he said he was sorry but my bottles had smashed. he was able to tell me what the bottles held and verify that it was what they were holding for me. he did sound a little afraid to tell me and he thanked me for taking it so well. I'm not sure exactly what he expected but it was done so its not like yelling would do anything to fix it. i asked him what would i should expect to happen now. he said the manager wasn't in so he did not know but probably an obc. what amount he didn't know but assured me the manager would look into it and call me the next day. guess what, no call the next day. Thursday morning i went down to customer service and explained what had happened to them. said i was supposed to get a call back but it never came and i really wanted to clear the matter up. i needed to know if i should repurchase or if they were going to replace it. i should tell you that it was jose cuervo tequila, nothing major, purchased for my sister. they sell it in their duty free shop so they could have just replaced it and i would never have know. anyways the cm called but the manager was still out. the cm assured me he would make sure i had it cleared up that day. i did receive messages from both him and the manager of that department before noon.
the message from the manager said he wasn't at all sure what was happening as he could not find out who the person was who called me. he said since it had happened and they were not prompt in calling me back they would apply a $100 obc to my account. i then went down to the duty free store and bought two more bottles for $35.90 (same tequila as i had) and was ahead $64. bonus!
while the cm who had originally called me said the bottles were broke he did not tell me how it happened, kind of skirted around the question. i feel they were destroyed as part of the not picked up bunch. the glass on those bottles are so thick that i just cant see how they could break but who knows. i think they have a lot more experimenting to do before they get it right. the procedures are a bit of a mess imo.
our room host for the first week was not the best. the room was not the cleanest. there was sticky stuff on the carpet. the ottoman was dirty, there was food (or something) that had run down the front. no, we did not complain. he was willing to do what was asked of him if need be so i was alright with it. he left to go hoe after the first week and the room host we had for our second half was amazing! i think it was his first cruise as he seemed to be being mentored by the room host next to him. he was very anxious to please and always greeted us by name, asking how our day was, what we had been doing. everything in the cabin shone which really brought out the fact the first host was not the best.
our first debarkation was quick. we had received a letter in our room two days before explaining what we needed to do. it told us we should disembark the ship no later than 9:a.m. the also bolded a line that said 'Please be advised that clearance for re-boarding the ship is a lengthy process and will be no earlier than 11:00 am'. it was 10 minutes from leaving the ship to the terminal. we did not have to pick up luggage so we could get right into the customs line. the customs agent we saw told us we were supposed to stay on the ship till everyone else had disembarked. i showed him the letter we had received and after he read it he told us to proceed. we then left the customs room and took the escalator back up to the dcl terminal. we were told there that there would be no registration till 9:30. at 9:30 we registered and waited in the concierge lounge until we were called to board at exactly 11. this was before concierge boarded. i believe they were let on at 11:20.
in our room we had a few items. one was a lunch type bag with a zipper which held two dcl hats, two dcl key chains, stickers and other things i can't think of right now. it had a card from cd ray. we had told him earlier that we were on a b2b and he said he wanted to make note of that so i guess the items were his personal recognition to that. we also had a card from Karl Holz. i'm not sure if everyone gets this or if it is in response to my email/call to his office. i don't remember getting one before but i just don't pay that much attention.
this is getting way to long so i will just mention one other thing. in some areas the customer service seems to have decreased however in some areas it has increased. for me, for me, it gets exhausting having to respond to staff all the time. every time you pass a cm they will say hello, ask how your day is, anything we need. i want to be left alone and having to tell our room host 5 times a day what we did, have our dining team let us know where they will be for breakfast/lunch (why didn't you come by and see me?), having to just plain say hello to 100 people a day takes a lot out of the vacation, again, for me. i had to remind dh about saying 'excellent'. for example we went to lunch at royal palace. it wasn't very busy so we had three head waiters come over to see how we were doing. the first one asked how our meal was. dh said 'very good, thank you'. the hw said 'very good, not excellent?' not only did we have three hw's come by but we had the drink server and the server come by to see how everything was 5 more times. and they always come by when your mouth is full. lol. just let me eat my lunch. i know this is silly to complain about but it really does get to be to much when you get asked the same thing over and over for two weeks. as i have indicated, i like to keep my head down and ignore what goes on around me. when its vacation I'm an introvert, let me be.
sorry this is so long but i hope it answers some questions and helps someone. these are all just my experiences, yours may be different.
we arrived at the airport and went directly to the bus pick up. while there is a large area for wdw transportation the area for dcl is relatively small but easy enough to find. to get into the line for the bus we needed to show our id and our dcl packet. after that we were allowed to pass and get in the actual line for our bus transfers. there were maybe 20 people in front of us. once we reached the desk we again showed our id and dcl packet. they then stapled a red square with a captain mickey picture on it to our packet and we moved on to a third person, she was right beside the check in desk, and had to again show her our id and our dcl packet. the three people we had to present our items to were no farther then ten feet away from each other and it seemed excessive to have to show them all these items especially the third person who as there was no one in front of you when you left the desk. there must be some reason for this but i am not sure why. anyways, once we passed the third check point we went out to the bus and they looked at our dcl documents and we boarded the bus. from getting on the bus to getting to the port was just less than an hour.
once we arrived at the terminal a cm boarded the bus and explained what the procedure was. she pointed us in the direction of the side door, the same door we have always gone through, but when we walked through it there was a guest who was not happy and told the bus group that they needed to walk through the front door as everyone else had, she had to wait and so did we. the bus group turned around and went to leave the door but the cm at the door directed everyone back. the guest then apologized to the group and said she had not realized there was a different direction for the bus's. the line to get from the door to the scanner was 20 minutes. it went very slowly, they did check a lot of bags. the new sign for liquor requirements was posted very well and you could not miss it.
once through the security line things went fast. we did not enter the castaway line for registration as it was pretty full, instead we took the first timers line and walked right up to the registration desk. no waiting. we had pre filled our paperwork out so the cm only had to check it. she then gave us a boarding #2 and told us to go ahead and board. they were calling 1 to 10 at that time. so, in total it took us 5 minutes from entering the line at registration to actually boarding the ship. i should add that we always bypass the embarkation photo which helps cut the wait time.
we went to cabanas for lunch and was able to get an outside seat. i love that area. the deck was very wet and i'm not sure why because i don't think it had rained that morning. this was never cleaned up. while we were eating lunch we saw a lady slip in some food a child had dropped. a cm ran over to help her but she said she was okay but she had spilt her coffee and it needed to be cleaned up with the food. the cm was very attentive to her and helped her away but no one ever came over to clean up the water, food or coffee. it was still there when we left about half an hour later. people were just walking around it.
day 2 had the repeat cruisers gathering, the silver/platinum. we don't normally go to that because we don't find anything to interesting and more often than not find it a waste of an hour. thats just us, i know others enjoy it. we went this time, on both our cruises so i could answer some questions from it. it was held in the tube. they did provide drinks in champagne flutes, both alcoholic and non alcoholic. the food was fruit trays, cheese trays and a few tiny finger foods. nothing to fancy but they way they served it made it seem fancy. they had a wait team that floated around passing them out. minnie mouse came out and there was a ten minute period where you could have your picture taken with her. she was the character for both of the gatherings. cd ray talked for a little bit and then commodore tom came out and spoke. i have posted what he said on another thread so i will just cut and paste that here.
first person we spoke with was ray the cruise director. we have spoken with him before on other cruises so it was not hard to throw in a few questions. i asked how many were on the sailing (first of our b2b). he told me almost 3800. i then asked how many were repeaters and he told me 1818 and said it was close to 50% of the ship. when commodore tom gave his speech he mentioned how many guest there were and that on any given cruise the percentage of repeaters was between 40 and 50%.
second sailing we returned but came in late so only caught the commodores speech. this time he did not say how many cruisers were on board but did mention the % of repeat cruisers. he also repeated the comment about repeaters being in the 40 to 50% for sailings.
we had the same serving team on both sailings. on the second sailing our server mentioned that there were lots of empty tables in the second seating because there were only 3500 cruisers. she said she had been with the fantasy since its first sailing and that this was the lowest head count they have had.
our first week was rainy so we did a lot of indoor stuff which included the dvc sales meeting on day 2 as well. i mention this because the question has been asked as to wether or not they serve drinks here. they did, alcoholic, non-alcoholic and bottled water was served. anybody looking for some freebies would be interested in this meeting as well. they gave away string backpacks, portfolios with a pad of paper and a pen as well as a pirate mickey pin at the end. they also raffle off a $200 obc at the end of the presentation and you must be there to win.
the captains reception was the evening of the 2nd day. they pass trays of drinks around at two different times, 5:00 and 7:30, in the lobby atrium. you can meet some of the ships officers and you can have your photo taken with commodore tom. while it is meant to be pre dinner drinks there is nothing stopping anyone from going to both receptions.
all in all, lots of places to get free drinks.
there was a 'bright star' alert at about 2:45 a.m. on the second night. this is an alert that there is an emergency and emergency staff is needed at a certain spot. it is broadcast into all areas including cabins. they announce 'bright star' three times and give the cabin number where they are needed. i understand why it is necessary for them to broadcast this into cabins but there were several guest the next day who were not happy about it. later in the week there was another 'bright star' that happened at the bathroom by cove cafe. it was a port day so there were not a lot of people around. we were seated by the adults only pool. the cm's would not let anyone go down the left side of the ship (do not know the technical name, sorry). there were cm's running back and forth for about 20 minutes. i heard, do not know if it is true, that a lady had passed out in the bathroom and she was having heart issues. all in all, i thought they handled the emergency very well.
our dinning team was amazing, we really enjoyed them. we had the same team and the same table both weeks. i mention this because we had a round table in the enchanted garden and several people have asked about them. dh was so thrilled when we were led to them, i wasn't. he asked what my objection was. my main objection has always been that you get stared at. when people walk by the are always looking at who is sitting there. its constant. after a half hour dh said yes, he no understood what i was talking about. also, anyone hoping to get one, i would have to say that bench part is not evenly spaced. if you are sitting at the farthest back point you have lots of room however if you are sitting at the front part the table gets a lot closer to you and it can be uncomfortable. we are not overly big people but we are not tiny either. we found we had to sit farther back to be comfortable and that meant we had to sit sideways to talk were as at the four top we could sit opposite and be face to face. it was a bit awkward. again, its only my opinion but i did not enjoy them.
one evening in the enchanted garden a child threw up by the front door. i heard someone tell one of the cm's but it did not get cleaned up. people were actually walking in it. it took a father pulling over a head server telling him that it needed to be cleaned, there was no excuse for it, before it was dealt with. it got cleaned up pretty quickly then.
satellite falls--we spend a good part of our time on board in this area. only once did i see a child up there. he was about 6 and his father brought him up. dad picked him up and put him over the wall. the child then went, as children do, full force. he ran around the circle throwing up water with his hands. he then dropped himself down and began to swim/kick around in it. very very quickly a cm came over and told the dad the child had to leave. dad wasn't to happy but he took him away.
room service--people have said they are displeased with trays in the hallway however when we ordered room service we were asked by the delivery person to please leave the tray in the hall when we were finished. we were only told that when they left a tray but when they came with just a plate (two mickey bars please) we were not told this. anyways, my point is don't think badly of the people who leave the tray out, we are being told to.
alcohol purchases--i purchased alcohol in Cozumel. it was a really really rainy day so after the purchase we returned to the ship, about 10:30. the person who was recording the liquor being brought on and giving receipts was at the end of the conveyor belt that you put your items on and they xray them. it caused a line up to occur as you had to wait till she wrote it all in her book and gave you the copy. there were five people who were lined up waiting. when she was recording my items one of the people from the xray machine came over and whispered something in her ear. at the time i thought he was telling her to hurry up but thinking about it it was more probable that he was telling her i was b2b, otherwise she would not have known and it was written on my copy. we went back out later that afternoon and the drop off table had been moved up and out of the way. made much more sense.
the receipt clearly has a note at the bottom that states if you don't pick up your items at the end of the cruise then they will be destroyed and no compensation will be given. to me that said i should pick it up on the first Saturday, which i attempted to do. they have print outs from each port that show cabin numbers, names and what the items are being held. i waited in line (it was a table set up on the opposite side of the departure doors, not the customer service side). when i gave him my copy he went behind a screen that hides the liquor from view and attempted to find it. it was minutes later and he came out, appoligized for the wait, said he was still looking for it and off he went again. people were coming and going but i was still waiting. after waiting for a few more minutes i finally took the sheets for Cozumel and opened it to my cabin number where it clearly read i was b2b and was greyed out. i showed this to one of the other people gi9ving back items and asked that he please get the cm who was looking after me. they both came out with more sorrys, cant find it, so i pointed out the print out. they talked to each other and agreed that i could not have it which made sense as the pages were kind of clear. they told me i could pick it up on my debarkation. so i left.
the next Tuesday night at just after 8 p.m. i received a call in our cabin from someone in that department. he said he was sorry but my bottles had smashed. he was able to tell me what the bottles held and verify that it was what they were holding for me. he did sound a little afraid to tell me and he thanked me for taking it so well. I'm not sure exactly what he expected but it was done so its not like yelling would do anything to fix it. i asked him what would i should expect to happen now. he said the manager wasn't in so he did not know but probably an obc. what amount he didn't know but assured me the manager would look into it and call me the next day. guess what, no call the next day. Thursday morning i went down to customer service and explained what had happened to them. said i was supposed to get a call back but it never came and i really wanted to clear the matter up. i needed to know if i should repurchase or if they were going to replace it. i should tell you that it was jose cuervo tequila, nothing major, purchased for my sister. they sell it in their duty free shop so they could have just replaced it and i would never have know. anyways the cm called but the manager was still out. the cm assured me he would make sure i had it cleared up that day. i did receive messages from both him and the manager of that department before noon.
the message from the manager said he wasn't at all sure what was happening as he could not find out who the person was who called me. he said since it had happened and they were not prompt in calling me back they would apply a $100 obc to my account. i then went down to the duty free store and bought two more bottles for $35.90 (same tequila as i had) and was ahead $64. bonus!
while the cm who had originally called me said the bottles were broke he did not tell me how it happened, kind of skirted around the question. i feel they were destroyed as part of the not picked up bunch. the glass on those bottles are so thick that i just cant see how they could break but who knows. i think they have a lot more experimenting to do before they get it right. the procedures are a bit of a mess imo.
our room host for the first week was not the best. the room was not the cleanest. there was sticky stuff on the carpet. the ottoman was dirty, there was food (or something) that had run down the front. no, we did not complain. he was willing to do what was asked of him if need be so i was alright with it. he left to go hoe after the first week and the room host we had for our second half was amazing! i think it was his first cruise as he seemed to be being mentored by the room host next to him. he was very anxious to please and always greeted us by name, asking how our day was, what we had been doing. everything in the cabin shone which really brought out the fact the first host was not the best.
our first debarkation was quick. we had received a letter in our room two days before explaining what we needed to do. it told us we should disembark the ship no later than 9:a.m. the also bolded a line that said 'Please be advised that clearance for re-boarding the ship is a lengthy process and will be no earlier than 11:00 am'. it was 10 minutes from leaving the ship to the terminal. we did not have to pick up luggage so we could get right into the customs line. the customs agent we saw told us we were supposed to stay on the ship till everyone else had disembarked. i showed him the letter we had received and after he read it he told us to proceed. we then left the customs room and took the escalator back up to the dcl terminal. we were told there that there would be no registration till 9:30. at 9:30 we registered and waited in the concierge lounge until we were called to board at exactly 11. this was before concierge boarded. i believe they were let on at 11:20.
in our room we had a few items. one was a lunch type bag with a zipper which held two dcl hats, two dcl key chains, stickers and other things i can't think of right now. it had a card from cd ray. we had told him earlier that we were on a b2b and he said he wanted to make note of that so i guess the items were his personal recognition to that. we also had a card from Karl Holz. i'm not sure if everyone gets this or if it is in response to my email/call to his office. i don't remember getting one before but i just don't pay that much attention.
this is getting way to long so i will just mention one other thing. in some areas the customer service seems to have decreased however in some areas it has increased. for me, for me, it gets exhausting having to respond to staff all the time. every time you pass a cm they will say hello, ask how your day is, anything we need. i want to be left alone and having to tell our room host 5 times a day what we did, have our dining team let us know where they will be for breakfast/lunch (why didn't you come by and see me?), having to just plain say hello to 100 people a day takes a lot out of the vacation, again, for me. i had to remind dh about saying 'excellent'. for example we went to lunch at royal palace. it wasn't very busy so we had three head waiters come over to see how we were doing. the first one asked how our meal was. dh said 'very good, thank you'. the hw said 'very good, not excellent?' not only did we have three hw's come by but we had the drink server and the server come by to see how everything was 5 more times. and they always come by when your mouth is full. lol. just let me eat my lunch. i know this is silly to complain about but it really does get to be to much when you get asked the same thing over and over for two weeks. as i have indicated, i like to keep my head down and ignore what goes on around me. when its vacation I'm an introvert, let me be.
sorry this is so long but i hope it answers some questions and helps someone. these are all just my experiences, yours may be different.
We did not find many people staring at us, in fact we were probably staring more at people walking past especially Formal night as i love to see the woman's dresses.
