Random thoughts from the 12/7 cruise...

[Michelle]

We're in COLD Orlando now, a real shock to go from 82 degrees to 52 degrees! I guess you can call it very "Christmasy" at the moment but I am freezing when it gets below 70 degrees.

I have to rank this cruise among the BEST of the nine I have done so far. We had overall wonderful weather, I really enjoyed the ports (what I saw of them anyway!) and the crew was simply outstanding. I tried to do some different activities this time but still never managed to do everything I wanted to do (lost among those was SLEEP) but I guess that's the trade-off when you want to enjoy your evenings out.

As for the whole sickness issue, other than what people said and what was posted from the Sentinel, I honestly saw NO one sick or heard anyone say they were sick. Yes, they most definitely have high-level disinfection going on and are taking extra precautions, but I felt VERY comfortable with what they were doing and just washed my hands a lot and went on with the fun.

Some of the HIGHLIGHTS this cruise....

The adult ENTERTAINMENT staff went above and beyond, especially considering they were short-staffed this sailing. It was really fun getting to know them during the different activities, and Robin especially made sure we had a good time. I loved 80s night (the first time I had done that on a cruise) and all the other "regular" nights. Plus we tried a few of the different game shows and that was a blast too. DJ L.A. was GREAT and very responsive to requests.

The COUNSELORS in the Oceaneer Lab, especially our saint Cameron, were awesome. He took Sammy under his wing and let her have a little free time when she didn't want to do the planned activities (which she has done several times before on previouls cruises). He and the other counselors have a TOUGH job and every one of them I saw had more patience than most of the parents would with the kids!

The FOOD was really impressive overall, and I have had these menus MANY times. The quality has continued to increase each cruise and I honestly did not have a bad meal (something I have not been able to say on past cruises).

Our SERVERS, Alecksandra and Dragan, were EXCELLENT. Alecksandra has a real knack with kids (and we had three at our table) and both of them were very efficient. I also appreciated the fact that they did NOT try and push extra food on you and Dragan had the drinks for the kids ready for them every night when we arrived.

It was great meeting several DISers the first afternoon, including Ann and her family, Lisa and her family, Marianne (bunnymkc) and family and Patmcg.

A couple of the CHANGES I've noticed since past cruises....

Aside from the obvious changes due to health issues, such as the service at buffets and the drink changes, they now ASK you if they want you to have ice in your stateroom via a little card in your room. That's actually a good idea: we only use ice the first afternoon to chill some champagne and never use it after that, so it's a waste to get it. We were a little disappointed we did NOT have ice in our stateroom the first afternoon and in fact did not even see our statroom attendant until almost dinnertime, but I know that's because we were assigned a different cabin at the port (a slight upgrade) and our hostess probably did not know until the last minute that we were there.

The INTERNET CAFE has been reconfigured and takes up a much smaller space in the Promenade Lounge now. It's a little closed in but it was still easy enough to get a terminal when I wanted one.

I'm sure there are other things I wanted to note but I'm still catching up with sleep and will post more when I think of it. If anyone still has questions feel free to fire away; I have all the Navigators and think I have the movie schedule and other information people were asking about now.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

I'm so glad to hear that you're in Orlando. When I saw your name on the thread, I couldn't imagine that you'd flown back to CA, gotten home, and rushed to your computer. Glad to hear you had a good cruise. Thanks to you and Alex for checking in with us this week. Enjoy WDW! (I assume that's why you're still in Orlando.)

 

[Michelle]

Yep, that's what we're doing! After trying to catch up on a little sleep we want to enjoy the parks for a few days and do all the usual Christmas activities we do each year. Unfortunately we will NOT be in shorts for MVMCP this year, but that's okay.

 

[CathyCanada]

We had some chilly days at DIS Con too, TS2, knowing you, you will need a jacket and pants for those days!

I didn't like the new Internet Cafe set-up, too crowded and not very private. On our Oct. sailing, it seemed that there was always 2 or 3 computers with problems too. I forgot that until you mentioned it.

Sounds like the weather on Castaway Cay was better than the past couple of years.

What spa treatments did you do?

Your Twisted Sister who is happy to have you almost home!

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I am already home and unpacking so rather than start a new thread I will add my impressions to Michelle's!
I have a few good and a few bad but I will start with the good.
I can't say enough good things about the entertainment staff. I had a chance to have several one on one conversations with both Robin, who was in charge of the entertainment staff this cruise and DJ LA who seemed to be around a lot.
I learned something from both of them and that is, as a passenger, you get what you give. These people LOVE passengers that participate, have a sense of humor.
I saw so many passengers not participating, just standing back and watching and if that's what you want? Cool! But if you want to have fun jump right in, they love it.
I remember so many funny incidents... We walked in to Rocking Bar D, Robin is doing a karaoke song, he pulls my wife aside and sings to her... a few minutes later Michelle and her DH, Tim, walk in and he stops his song to announce "Michelle they (meaning Dagny, my DW and me) are at the bar!" DJ La chimes in from the booth "Now there's a suprise!"
Luigi trying to convince Dagny (or Daphny as he would say)to do Karaoke
Robin doing his Bay Watch imitation on the beach as he got a safety pin to help Michelle with a bathing suit emergency.
DJ LA teaching me to dance...
So to Robin, Brent, April, John and Luigi a HUGE thumbs up! If you help them they will make your cruise an experience.
I thought the food was MUCH better than on previous cruises. The freshness and quality of preperation were excellent.
I can only agree with Michelle on Aleksandra and Dragan our servers. They both gave great profesional service, were excellent with the kids and kept it fun.
A couple of lessons.. if you are going to drink wine with every meal get the package.. look for the daily drink specials. By following these tips you might be able to avoid a bar bill that looked like mine... when I woke up and looked at the bill the last morning the first words out of my mouth would cause a lot of ******* to appear in this thread!
Now on to the bad. There were 2 incidents that really bothered me.
The first occured the first evening. We went up to the cabin and pulled the sheets down to put our DD in bed. We had not used the beds before or pulled the sheets down. This is the ship that supposedly just got a 5 million dollar cleaning and everything was all new. There were several dark red spots on the sheet that resembled blood. They were in spots where they clearly stood out. I took a closer look and these were not stains that had been washed and were just "left over" but there was definitely a foriegn subtance on them. It is VERY hard to identify blood just by sight, a lot of other things can look like it but DW who is an experienced ER nurse and I couldn't be sure what it was. I immediately called guest services, thinking that would be a priority considering all of the problems they just had. I waited over half an hour and got no response! I was pretty angry at that point, I went down to guest services personally and asked to speak to a supervisor. A women in a ship's officer uniform came out. She looked appropriately stunned and by the time I got back to my room someone was completely stripping the bed and replacing everything. It is just absolutlely beyond me how it could have happend in the first place when supposedly everything was cleaned and new. I did get 3 or 4 phone calls after making sure everything was ok.
Unlike Michelle I did see some sick people. I posted in an earlier thread about a conversation I heard between one of the doctor's and a passenger. The last day I was passing the stateroom and they were wearing protective gear and cleaning the stateroom. One of the housekeeping staff made the comment it was a "sick" room. After they were done they left a bag clearly labeled as a "biohazard" laying in the hall for SEVERAL HOURS! I saw a kid go by and kick it!
After a few hours I went out and took a picture I could not believe this was right outside our door!

Obviously they need to work on crew training both of these incidents were simple things that should have been caught.

Overall I really did enjoy the cruise and did think it was one of the best ever! I even booked my next cruise while on board... so I don't want to make it seem like these issues spoiled things, we had a great time!

 

[my3kids]

We were on the last Magic sailing before anyone got sick, so all the biohazard stuff is foreign to me. I can't believe the sheet incident though. YUCK!

Luigi was a real highlight. I listed him as one who made the cruise particularly memorable. He did a couple of events my children were involved in....absolutely super.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Not only did our cruise get cancelled but the weather wasnt too great in FL either. A few times we needed to go to Walmart to buy more sweatshirts and pants for both DS and myself. I had packed us to go to the Caribbean and in less than 22hr notice we took what was packed. It was cold & wet.
Glad you guys had a great cruise ----

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

WebmasterMichelle - glad you had a great crusie. We are scheduled to go 12/6/03 - hope we don't have to worry about sickness then! My question to you is - are they doing away permenantly with the refillable mugs and sticking to the stickers on the KTTWC or is it just a precaution now? I think I would rather them keep the stickers, although the cup is a nice souvenior. How would this affect the AAA mugs? Would you just get a sticker too? The only thing I did like about the mugs was that we would take a permanent marker and write something on the mug to identify that it was our if it was lost (stateroom # and our initials).

Thanks!

 

[alexandrew]

for your insight. I really enjoyed reading about your experiences!

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I don't think they know yet if the stickers will be permanent, my guess is they might be. The main drawback is the cost! It's 35.00 as opposed to the mugs which were like 16?

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

I thought the mugs were always $35. That is what we paid on our cruise 3/02 - Came out to $5 per day they said, and believe me, my dh came out ahead, he drinks so much Diet Coke.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I could be wrong.. I thought they were less but I'm not sure! If that's the case I WAY prefer the stickers, no mug to lug around just pick up a drink whenever you are passing a bar!

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I have since been informed that my aging memory is indeed faulty and the mugs were 35.00 too! If that is the case I vastly prefer the stickers.

 

[mmouse37]

Another poster had brought up a good question on another thread...If they now use the sticker program and it still costs $35 for the week, it is sort of costly then...at least with the mug program you were getting a souvie mug that must be worth about $8 or $9 bucks. They should lower the price a bit then if they continue to use the sticker program.

MJ

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I think there are 2 sides to that mmouse. I can personally say I went through a LOT of cups this week! I realize they are disposable and don't cost a fortune but there is a cost involved so to be fair I really doubt they are saving any money.

 

[Disney Dreamer]

Welcome back to both of you and thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm glad to hear you both had fun.

Alex, it's a good thing that YOU turned down the bed. I can just imagine sleepy kids turning down the sheets and crawling right in. YUCK!

Michelle, this sounds like a good excuse to go shopping!! Stay warm and have a safe trip home.

 

[Michelle]

I saw items securely bagged in the hallways on occasion but I hardly think they qualified as a biohazard, even though it may be labeled that way. I'm sure that was extra caution on DCL's part with the bagging.

A few other things I forgot to add:

The FURY CATAMARAN in Cozumel was a great excursion! The boat is large and clean with a very fun crew and fun music. They had a little bit for everyone...some snorkeling (in an odd area that was right by a highway but the snorkeling was good) and then on to a beach shared by other catamarans. It was just the right amount of sun and fun, and the best part is it is an AFTERNOON excursion, as we had a hard time getting out of bed before 9:30.

In the SPA I did my usual Absolute Face & Body Treatment, which was very relaxing. Usually the massage therapists will not do deep tissue treatments but my masseuse used VERY firm pressure (which I prefer) on my back and it was as good as any massage I get at home. No hard sell on the products either.

There was no MATINEE performance of Disney Dreams this time, unfortunately. We had dinner at Palo that night so we missed DD.

PALO was great, as always too. Great servers, we had both Salvatore and Kristian during the cruise.

I only saw the MICKEY POOL closed once during the cruise due to an "accident" -- it may have been closed more often but I don't think so. I also saw no kids in diapers or swim diapers in the water.

I think that's it for now, until I think of more!

 

[mmouse37]

Alex...I had not thought about the additional cup use the sticker program would cause.....it does make sense!!! Thanks for the insight.

MJ

 

[Dagny]

I can only ditto what Michelle and Alex have said.....

our servers Aleksandra and Dragan were awesome! Aleksandra had a real knack for getting my less than cooperative 3 year old son to smile (and eat!). He has already asked whether he would see them for dinner tonight, LOL. Both were extremely attentive and personable.

The entertainment staff was awesome. April, Luigi, DJ LA (aka Brent) and Robin were simply a hoot. Of course, they loved US since we didn't mind making fools of ourselves

Unlike the others, my son HATED the club. I was really surprised by this as I expected the exact opposite reaction. I had to really convince him to spend just an hour in there. However, Monica, Allie, and Hope in the Oceanners Club were nothing less than GREAT with him! I would peek in there just to be sure that he wasn't crying and they really spent some quality time with him. I was very thankful for the few hours of "adult time" they gave me and Mom. I can't say enough about how wonderful and understanding they were!

Really had an awesome time.... wish I were still there

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Everytime someone posts it reminds me of a few other things!
The kids club... since my DD was 10 she automatically got the privilege to check herself in and out of the club. I told her right from the start if she messed it up and was wandering the ship she would be in deep trouble!
She believed me and it worked out really great. She would run back to the room and change and dash herself to the club (not realizing we always checked up on her). She has to start learning responsibility some time and this is a really safe controlled environment.
In one classic incident Michelle went to get her DD from the club to go swimming, she saw Alison and said she could come with. Alison refused to leave the club untill I was paged! I told her after that Michelle and Dagny were ok but it did give me a chuckle..and made me feel better about giving her responsiblity!