Sleepyluke
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 760
Ship: not sure what I went on compared to others, but if it was the same Magic, I would hate to be around you in the real world. At a very minimal calculation, the magic has seen over 1.2 million people pass through its doors. Compare that to my house that is 5 years old and MAY have seen 500 people and most of them the same over a period of the years. Do I have scratches on furniture, yes, do I have something broken somewhere, yes. I dont know how it is in as good shape as it is. Are there rust spots yes, is it overall incredible? absolutely. With some of the reviews you would think the chandelier in the lobby was hanging by a wire and about to fall down. Also, Disney was VERY disappointed in the lack of work that was done in the last dry dock to the point that they redid several things that were done at that time, so that takes away from what can be done to fix the new issues.
People: Again, I am not sure what planet some of you live on or what fantasy land you expect Disney to put you in, but there are just some unhappy people. We saw a very entertaining adult meltdown by noon on Sunday. That was with 6 more days of togetherness. All revolved around who was going to take Junior to the club to dump him off. Really, 30 seconds of your day to get rid of your kid.
I think there may be some hope for the rest of you though. Last cruise I commented that it seemed that the casual I can do what I want attitude seemed to be taking over. With the exception of a few shorts and wife beater t shirts at dinner, I think this cruise was much more in line with what I feel that Disney has been trying to maintain as far as the throw back to 30s and 40s era of cruising. There were more people dressed up for dinners. I am not trying to rehash the dress code debate, but I dont think it is appropriate for a grown man to wear a tank top and gym shorts to dinner several nights. Sorry just me. And luggage was not an issue, because he was much better dressed many times while around the ship. He was just at the next table is why I noticed.
Some people are really nice folks too and have a great time with their kids. While there were a few that seemed to fight and disagree with kids the whole time, there is a vast majority of people that I think had a great time with their kids. It is hilarious to see a dad hula hooping with his daughter, and mom playing ping pong with a son and all laughing and having a good time.
Saving loungers seemed to a little less of an issue this trip. There were crew walking around and removing towels that had been there for a while with no activity. There was very rarely a free lounger in Quiet cove, but never had a problem finding one at Goofys pool, so I just had to watch cartoons (which is fine by me!) By the way love the new loungers, much more comfortable.
Food: Food was great, Palo was FANTASTIC! Again, I am not sure what people are expecting. If you have never had something and try it and then dont like it, I dont consider that bad food, just you do not care for it. One night I did get a steak that was well done (ordered medium rare). Not the best but still actually very tender and good. Should I have sent it back, maybe, but with all the other food, I was not going to starve.
Palo: If you ever get Sylvester as your server, better take your stretchy pants. He was amazing and unfortunately kept bringing us food. We had a brunch with friends , 4 of us total, and had ordered a few things that we were going to share and each had a regular entrée. Well he decided that we needed to try a few of the other things, so food just kept coming. We ended up with 4 pizzas, 3 of the egg entrees, and 6 regular entrees, after we had all been to the buffet line at least once. Then the dessert, I went back for more stolen bread and fruit (my 3rd round of that) and then he shows up with a bowl full of the bread covered in whipped cream and fruit. Again, after everyone had been to the dessert line.
Service: This was our one let down for the entire cruise. We had our worst servers in all of our cruises. While watching all of the other tables have seemingly great service, 2 nights we did not have drinks until our head server brought them out when we had entrees. On that note, this was the first time I have ever considered the head server a functional person. Luis was amazing and talked to us and helped out the server and asst more than I have ever seen combined in all of our cruises. He brought water, drinks, food, whatever. I considered speaking with him about the service, but it was obvious he knew, and was doing what he could to help them out. In their defense we had a table of 4 sitting next to a table of 12, so they got most of the attention, so they may have considered them wonderful, all in perspective I am sure.
Stateroom: We went with an inside stateroom this time rather than a veranda to determine if we could do it and take more cruises. We survived and think that except for special cruises, we can live with going more often. We did miss the split bathroom, but we may step up to the insides with the split next trip.
Pirate
Not sure why but this was a lot different than in the past. It seemed that a lot of the music was different and even several new dance things thrown in. It ended up more of a stage show than an interactive dance party as much as in the past. Also, we were on deck 10 which we have been before and really like it. I personally like to leave a little space for the servers to be able to walk, this is not an invitation for you to stand in front of me and stare at the server like he has 3 heads when you wont move. I will let EVERY little kid in front of me, hold them up for you, what ever is needed for a kid, but not you as an adult. I got there 30 minutes ago and your lack of preparation is not my problem.
Rebooking onboard: Not sure if I kept asking the wrong questions, but I was not impressed with the rebooking this trip. If you asked a very pointed question, you may get an answer, but we were never offered any additional help or information. Probably the longest answer of 2 sit downs was when asking about the possibilities of Alaska in 2013 and the answer was that they have not decided what they are doing in 2013. We booked 2 more cruises but were never offered even one alternative pricing or date or anything. Now I will have to do all the research to see if we keep one or both. Said that she tought new iteneraries would be several moths away.
New ships: In talking to a few crew members that have been on the new ships, they do not have any urge to go back to them and are very happy on the Magic and Wonder. Said from their standpoint it is a whole different vibe and atmosphere. Yes it is still Disney and the magic touches that only they can do, but said that everything just feels more comfortable on the smaller ships. Maybe that is in part due to the shorter cruises on the Dream and may change with the Fantasy, but the 3 that I personally talked to were glad to be off of the Dream. 2 of the 3 were on the training servers teams that went to Europe to train everyone whenever all that took place.
Weather: was wonderful all week. Heard of 25-30 foot seas the week before and actually re routing this weeks trip to the Eastern due to weather. We had 3-5 foot seas and one day of sprinkles is as bad as it got. Could not have asked for better.
All for now, any questions just ask.
People: Again, I am not sure what planet some of you live on or what fantasy land you expect Disney to put you in, but there are just some unhappy people. We saw a very entertaining adult meltdown by noon on Sunday. That was with 6 more days of togetherness. All revolved around who was going to take Junior to the club to dump him off. Really, 30 seconds of your day to get rid of your kid.
I think there may be some hope for the rest of you though. Last cruise I commented that it seemed that the casual I can do what I want attitude seemed to be taking over. With the exception of a few shorts and wife beater t shirts at dinner, I think this cruise was much more in line with what I feel that Disney has been trying to maintain as far as the throw back to 30s and 40s era of cruising. There were more people dressed up for dinners. I am not trying to rehash the dress code debate, but I dont think it is appropriate for a grown man to wear a tank top and gym shorts to dinner several nights. Sorry just me. And luggage was not an issue, because he was much better dressed many times while around the ship. He was just at the next table is why I noticed.
Some people are really nice folks too and have a great time with their kids. While there were a few that seemed to fight and disagree with kids the whole time, there is a vast majority of people that I think had a great time with their kids. It is hilarious to see a dad hula hooping with his daughter, and mom playing ping pong with a son and all laughing and having a good time.
Saving loungers seemed to a little less of an issue this trip. There were crew walking around and removing towels that had been there for a while with no activity. There was very rarely a free lounger in Quiet cove, but never had a problem finding one at Goofys pool, so I just had to watch cartoons (which is fine by me!) By the way love the new loungers, much more comfortable.
Food: Food was great, Palo was FANTASTIC! Again, I am not sure what people are expecting. If you have never had something and try it and then dont like it, I dont consider that bad food, just you do not care for it. One night I did get a steak that was well done (ordered medium rare). Not the best but still actually very tender and good. Should I have sent it back, maybe, but with all the other food, I was not going to starve.
Palo: If you ever get Sylvester as your server, better take your stretchy pants. He was amazing and unfortunately kept bringing us food. We had a brunch with friends , 4 of us total, and had ordered a few things that we were going to share and each had a regular entrée. Well he decided that we needed to try a few of the other things, so food just kept coming. We ended up with 4 pizzas, 3 of the egg entrees, and 6 regular entrees, after we had all been to the buffet line at least once. Then the dessert, I went back for more stolen bread and fruit (my 3rd round of that) and then he shows up with a bowl full of the bread covered in whipped cream and fruit. Again, after everyone had been to the dessert line.
Service: This was our one let down for the entire cruise. We had our worst servers in all of our cruises. While watching all of the other tables have seemingly great service, 2 nights we did not have drinks until our head server brought them out when we had entrees. On that note, this was the first time I have ever considered the head server a functional person. Luis was amazing and talked to us and helped out the server and asst more than I have ever seen combined in all of our cruises. He brought water, drinks, food, whatever. I considered speaking with him about the service, but it was obvious he knew, and was doing what he could to help them out. In their defense we had a table of 4 sitting next to a table of 12, so they got most of the attention, so they may have considered them wonderful, all in perspective I am sure.
Stateroom: We went with an inside stateroom this time rather than a veranda to determine if we could do it and take more cruises. We survived and think that except for special cruises, we can live with going more often. We did miss the split bathroom, but we may step up to the insides with the split next trip.
Pirate
Not sure why but this was a lot different than in the past. It seemed that a lot of the music was different and even several new dance things thrown in. It ended up more of a stage show than an interactive dance party as much as in the past. Also, we were on deck 10 which we have been before and really like it. I personally like to leave a little space for the servers to be able to walk, this is not an invitation for you to stand in front of me and stare at the server like he has 3 heads when you wont move. I will let EVERY little kid in front of me, hold them up for you, what ever is needed for a kid, but not you as an adult. I got there 30 minutes ago and your lack of preparation is not my problem. Rebooking onboard: Not sure if I kept asking the wrong questions, but I was not impressed with the rebooking this trip. If you asked a very pointed question, you may get an answer, but we were never offered any additional help or information. Probably the longest answer of 2 sit downs was when asking about the possibilities of Alaska in 2013 and the answer was that they have not decided what they are doing in 2013. We booked 2 more cruises but were never offered even one alternative pricing or date or anything. Now I will have to do all the research to see if we keep one or both. Said that she tought new iteneraries would be several moths away.
New ships: In talking to a few crew members that have been on the new ships, they do not have any urge to go back to them and are very happy on the Magic and Wonder. Said from their standpoint it is a whole different vibe and atmosphere. Yes it is still Disney and the magic touches that only they can do, but said that everything just feels more comfortable on the smaller ships. Maybe that is in part due to the shorter cruises on the Dream and may change with the Fantasy, but the 3 that I personally talked to were glad to be off of the Dream. 2 of the 3 were on the training servers teams that went to Europe to train everyone whenever all that took place.
Weather: was wonderful all week. Heard of 25-30 foot seas the week before and actually re routing this weeks trip to the Eastern due to weather. We had 3-5 foot seas and one day of sprinkles is as bad as it got. Could not have asked for better.
All for now, any questions just ask.
This will be our first cruise ever. That being said, how could we go on any other cruise line but Disney? 
