Oct 30 2010 7 Night Western

[plutoluvsfifi]

When we cruised on the Wonder several years ago , we were traveling with allot of friends and their children. I made each kid a different Disney themed jar and filled each with as many jelly beans as there were days until we sailed. I gave each their jars on new years eve telling them to eat a jelly bean each day and when the jar was empty, it would be time to go.

 

[dizzi]

...like a cute idea. I agree....wait until right before you leave.

Anywho - I also feel like a Kid on Christmas morning cuz look out below but I just added another trip report onto my "things to Do list."

I am sooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the Grand Californian Hotel and what not. Never been and first time visitor too.

And that reminds me....where in the heck is my DISNEY LAND RICE KRISPY TREAT?? Never had one and looking forward to it as well.


T.T.F.N.

HHAAAAAAA........
You are gonna LOVE LOVE LOVE, GRAND CALIFORNIAN.........It is probablly my most favorite to date Hotel i have ever stayed in...... I have done alot of WDW Hotels but the GRAND CALIFORNIAN is to DIE FOR!!!!!

OUR Room had the most AWESOME VIEW.......Truly i dont know how we got so lucky......Ijust made the normal reservation, i did use points for a park view not realizing it WAS A PARK VIEW...THE PARK, CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK.......

I willfind somepics and post

BUT there is actually an entrance from the hotel right into the park.....andyeah just like that.....a hop skip and jump maybe not even that far away.....

SOOOOO COOOOLLL!!!!!!!!!

 

[dizzi]

When we cruised on the Wonder several years ago , we were traveling with allot of friends and their children. I made each kid a different Disney themed jar and filled each with as many jelly beans as there were days until we sailed. I gave each their jars on new years eve telling them to eat a jelly bean each day and when the jar was empty, it would be time to go.

AAAHHHHH i love that idea...
ILOVE JELLY BELLY's ooohhhh my favorite is the pear.

I just bought a huge tube of them at BJs

VERY COOL IDEA!

 

[podsnel]

When we cruised on the Wonder several years ago , we were traveling with allot of friends and their children. I made each kid a different Disney themed jar and filled each with as many jelly beans as there were days until we sailed. I gave each their jars on new years eve telling them to eat a jelly bean each day and when the jar was empty, it would be time to go.

Oh, i LOVE this!!! That's so cute!!! Not sure if my boys could control themselves and eat just ONE a day, though- I'm sure they'd reason that the faster they ate them, the faster we'd be leaving for the cruise!!

 

[dizzi]

view from our hotel room balconey into the park

 

[lsjones]

So, I couldn't figure out how to post a link. There are the names of those who signed up for the FE already, and the number of people in their cabin the names and ages of the groups is available on the main cruise meet thread as well:

knewton64 1
Stichgal 5
nenner1 5
tjbaggott 4
eyes4mickey 4
dizzi 4
lsjones 5
PrincessTrisha 3

I'll try to keep everyone updated when someone is added. I will have a spreadsheet available with all the information needed too. If you have any questions feel free to pm me!

 

[dizney-cruiser]

When we cruised on the Wonder several years ago , we were traveling with allot of friends and their children. I made each kid a different Disney themed jar and filled each with as many jelly beans as there were days until we sailed. I gave each their jars on new years eve telling them to eat a jelly bean each day and when the jar was empty, it would be time to go.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS IDEA!!!
I am soooooooo stealing it!

 

[dizney-cruiser]

So, I couldn't figure out how to post a link. There are the names of those who signed up for the FE already, and the number of people in their cabin the names and ages of the groups is available on the main cruise meet thread as well:

knewton64 1
Stichgal 5
nenner1 5
tjbaggott 4
eyes4mickey 4
dizzi 4
lsjones 5
PrincessTrisha 3

I'll try to keep everyone updated when someone is added. I will have a spreadsheet available with all the information needed too. If you have any questions feel free to pm me!

I think I got it . . . take a look at post #1

 

[podsnel]

view from our hotel room balconey into the park

WOW!!!! Can't wait to go there oneday...

 

[lexandme]

My son was one of the lucky recepients of Linda's wonderful jelly bean countdown jars. He would forget to eat them but I never did!
The 4 families that went together would also get together about once a month to have planning parties. That meant the guys would drink beer, the kids would play and the women would do all of the planning. We played games, ate well, (Linda and Mark hosted a great picnic in the park for us) and had a great time. Linda, I think you and I need to do this again!

 

[dizzi]

WOW!!!! Can't wait to go there oneday...

This has been one of my top vacations.......DLwith a 7 night cruise....staying in Grand californian.......Really enjoyable!

 

[plutoluvsfifi]

This has been one of my top vacations.......DLwith a 7 night cruise....staying in Grand californian.......Really enjoyable!

It sounds so wonderful. What a veiw you had from your room!

PS: My favorite jelly belly flovor is buttered popcorn

 

[tjbaggott]

Since many of you here have cruised numerous times with Disney, I'll ask this of you. Regarding our Restaurant servers:

Our first cruise on the Wonder, we had one server we saw FREQUENTLY througout the course of the meal. That was PUTU, and he was fabulous. I can't remember the other two as we Rarely saw them, but it didn't matter. It was our first cruise and had no idea how things worked till we experienced them. PUTU was really more than just fabulous, he was amazing, became like a family member. Everyone was Happy to see him come dinner time! Puto treated our 4 children, magically. He made Hats out of napkins, flowers for my daughter out of napkins, Mickey head out of ketchup, you name it, he was always doing things that amazed us and made us smile and laugh. WOW, for a first cruise, this is what we experienced..........and thus what we expected come our 2nd cruise.
Although Putu still works on the Wonder, we did not know we could have put in a request to have him as one of our servers. As it was we had new servers to us, and we were not on Putu's rotation. No matter, this is DISNEY and all Servers MUST be somewhat like Putu?????
Our two servers this most recent trip were good, they were very nice, polite, they did their work, but thats, just it, not much more. There were never any jokes, no napkin hats or napkin anything. No Mickey head with the ketchup, and our assistant server, night after night forgot to bring crayons to the table without my 6 year old asking for them. The crayon thing was not a big deal, just a little something I noticed along with the lack of the fun we'd had on the previous cruise.
Now don't get me wrong, we still smiled and laughed and had fun, just not with our servers.
So my question is, Did Putu (or we) set the bar too high, or did our recent servers really fall short of the Disney Service? I guess I'm a little confused in my expectations for the next cruise.

The fun part was, we did track down Putu, on the last evening! He absolutely probably didn't remember us, (it's been 3 1/2 years), but Still, he seemed genuinly excited we came to track him down. We took his picture with our son (the child who at age 2 caused such havoc in the dining room, we ended up scheduling him into Flounders for the remaining dinner meals), and gave him a big box of Chocolate smarties. Now if only he could transfer to the magic for next year!

 

[threeiscrazy]

Since many of you here have cruised numerous times with Disney, I'll ask this of you. Regarding our Restaurant servers:

Our first cruise on the Wonder, we had one server we saw FREQUENTLY througout the course of the meal. That was PUTU, and he was fabulous. I can't remember the other two as we Rarely saw them, but it didn't matter. It was our first cruise and had no idea how things worked till we experienced them. PUTU was really more than just fabulous, he was amazing, became like a family member. Everyone was Happy to see him come dinner time! Puto treated our 4 children, magically. He made Hats out of napkins, flowers for my daughter out of napkins, Mickey head out of ketchup, you name it, he was always doing things that amazed us and made us smile and laugh. WOW, for a first cruise, this is what we experienced..........and thus what we expected come our 2nd cruise.
Although Putu still works on the Wonder, we did not know we could have put in a request to have him as one of our servers. As it was we had new servers to us, and we were not on Putu's rotation. No matter, this is DISNEY and all Servers MUST be somewhat like Putu?????
Our two servers this most recent trip were good, they were very nice, polite, they did their work, but thats, just it, not much more. There were never any jokes, no napkin hats or napkin anything. No Mickey head with the ketchup, and our assistant server, night after night forgot to bring crayons to the table without my 6 year old asking for them. The crayon thing was not a big deal, just a little something I noticed along with the lack of the fun we'd had on the previous cruise.
Now don't get me wrong, we still smiled and laughed and had fun, just not with our servers.
So my question is, Did Putu (or we) set the bar too high, or did our recent servers really fall short of the Disney Service? I guess I'm a little confused in my expectations for the next cruise.

The fun part was, we did track down Putu, on the last evening! He absolutely probably didn't remember us, (it's been 3 1/2 years), but Still, he seemed genuinly excited we came to track him down. We took his picture with our son (the child who at age 2 caused such havoc in the dining room, we ended up scheduling him into Flounders for the remaining dinner meals), and gave him a big box of Chocolate smarties. Now if only he could transfer to the magic for next year!

We too had great servers on our first cruise. They played with the kids, actually fed them at one point, had our drinks on the table as soon as we were seated, they were just amazing. Our assistant server even brought my DH his dinner in our stateroom b/c our little one was too tired to sit through dinner. On our second cruise our servers acted as if they had not seen us at dinner the night before. It was quite a disappointment after we had so much fun on our first cruise. Our servers on the first cruise were both at the end of their contracts and didn't know if they were going to come back aboard, they were missing their families. Our second cruise we had 'green' servers. I'm hoping the servers on the Magic will be more seasoned.

 

[dizzi]

I am not sure what to think of the servers.......

On our first cruise, we were at a large table 10 people.....Seems our Head server was well seasoned had done Many years. Everyone at the table Loved her...I didnt think she was any better than any APPLE BEES server on a good day But she was happy and DISNEY FIED and did some cool things her assistant was new and every one at the table said he wasnt that great you could tell he was new.......I liked him and LIKED the FACT that he askedme every time if i wanted coffee first.....rather than assuming...OUr Head server assumed it and when he asked to make sure she got a little weird with him....And actually i did not want cofee....i like to change my drink each night. Sometimes the head server talking too much got on my nerves

Second cruise table of 4 but mostly 2.....Our servers seemed disinterested, quiet, with drawn...IS it the difference in the size table...This got on my nerves as well.

 

[podsnel]

This has been one of my top vacations.......DLwith a 7 night cruise....staying in Grand californian.......Really enjoyable!

THAT is PERFECTION!!!

We have only been one one cruise with Disney (prior to this one coming up). Our servers were fabulous- Christian and Ranzil....they were SUPER Disney-fied, magic tricks, brain teasers, 2 milks every night for DS9 right off the bat when we sat down, cut up the kids' steaks and fed them on occasion...I sure do hope they are still there!!! I do know, though, that if they are not, and I end up with anyone UN-Disney-like, I will go to the head waiter or WHOEVER it takes to be moved, to them or someone equally wonderful, if that's possible. On our cruise, on the last 2 nights, we gained a table of 10 in our section. I spoke to them, and what they told me was how LUCKY we were to have had Christian & Ranzil all week- they had had awful servers, and asked to be moved to someone else- that's how they ended up with our guys. Just something to think about in case things aren't going the way you want them to.

 

[podsnel]

Oh, I just looked at the pics ...we missed those guys soooooooooooooooooooo much after we left that ship!!

 

[knewton64]

I am not sure what to think of the servers.......

On our first cruise, we were at a large table 10 people.....Seems our Head server was well seasoned had done Many years. Everyone at the table Loved her...I didnt think she was any better than any APPLE BEES server on a good day But she was happy and DISNEY FIED and did some cool things her assistant was new and every one at the table said he wasnt that great you could tell he was new.......I liked him and LIKED the FACT that he askedme every time if i wanted coffee first.....rather than assuming...OUr Head server assumed it and when he asked to make sure she got a little weird with him....And actually i did not want cofee....i like to change my drink each night. Sometimes the head server talking too much got on my nerves

Second cruise table of 4 but mostly 2.....Our servers seemed disinterested, quiet, with drawn...IS it the difference in the size table...This got on my nerves as well.

Does the size of the table make the difference?? OR is it the people that fill the table and why?

Just curious about everyone's opinions on this.
Me? I have sat at a 6-top and had a total blast (Jan 2009 on the Wonder). Even had 2 people who were 2 tables over to my right (at a 2 top) who asked me if they could sit at our table the next night forward. Found out later that they were ALSo DISmeets people! Small world.

CYA -

 

[tjbaggott]

We had the same numbers at tables on both trips. We're a family of 6 and always were put at a table for 6. Of the two servers we had this time, our main server, the one who takes our food orders, was fairly new. She was VERY nice but always seemed like she was overly worried. So many times I wanted to tell her to just BREATHE, RELAX, lol. The assistant server, I'm not sure how long he has worked on with Disney, but he seemed busy, overly busy, never having much time for us. Now the HEAD HONCHO, DH would remember his name, but he's the one in charge of all the servers, we saw him more than we saw the guy in the same position on our first cruise. He WAS perfect, and seriously interested in how we were doing. I just couldn't bring myself to complain about our servers because afterall, they did do the food and drinks perfectly, there was just none of the EXTRA. I guess it varies from person to person, but I will take note of some of the great servers and maybe put in a request for them.

 

[knewton64]

Defination of you know you are rreeaalllyy into Disney when.....


Bad News: I have a dentist appointment today in 1 hour .

Good News: He agreed to play Disney music in the background while he is working on my teeth.



Ok.....so all of yaz b prepared 4 me to show off my perly whites in a few months.

CYA!