Walt, I'm sorry you didn't make it on the ship, although it sounds like you had a great vacation.
As I posted in my original "Live" post, the embarkation day was difficult for us, but we stayed cheerful and calm (except for one moment, which I'll describe in a minute) and put it all behind us once we boarded. Even though we did not make it to the Sheraton (we were told we couldn't go until 5, but thenm were turned away at 5), we were able to get Palo ressies for brunch and dinner, thanks to my newfound ability to sprint when needed.
We had a fabulous cruise. Ad I know this will be an unpopular statement, but i think DCL went above and beyond what they needed to do with respect to credits and refunds -- the 40% off, $300, and $25% off a future cruise made this vacation almost embarrassingly inexpensive for us. We calculated that it would almost cost us less to cruise on the 9/27 Magic with all of the "incentives" if we booked a future cruise than it would to have stayed home.
My husband said yesterday that this was the best vacation he's ever taken. Coming from a man who I dragged around the world with me for 10 years before we had kids, that's a pretty amazing statement. I thought DCL outdid themselves. As soon as we walked up the gangway to the ship, everything that had happened for the past 6 plus weeks disappeared for us -- the CMs onboard the ship were very, very "on".
The highlights for us:
-- Palo's, Palo's, Palo's. I can't believe I've never eaten there before. I'm also 5 pounds heavier than I was last week, and I blame it all on our waiter, Sasha.
-- The Oceaneer's Club. What an amazing, amazing place. IMO, the DCL cruise is worth every extra penny if you have kids over the age of 3, because no one can beat those kids' programs.
-- The Golden Mickeys show at 2:15. I LOVED going to a matinee show, and I hope DCL does this more often for days at sea. I spent the first 25 years of my life in New York City, and I love matinees. My kids loved it, too, and the timing was perfect.
-- Pirate Night. I thought this was fabulous, and loved how everyone kept their bandanas on during dinner and through the deck party.
I saw that someone has already written a letter to DCL; I will be writing one, too. But I decided that my letter will be positive and will compliment those CMs who really made our trip magical, and complimenting DCL on the changes we noticed since our last sailing in 10/02. I've addressed my compaints about embrakation day here, but I want to make sure that DCL knows what a wonderful vacation we had and how wonderful many of their CMS are.
Marcy
P.S. I had one moment where, as my husband described it, he saw a blood vessel burst in my head. When we were on the bus and finally made it to the Sheraton (after being at the port and airport for 3 hours, and on the bus for about an hour and a half, waiting to go to the Sheraton for "5 o'clock check in"), a bucnh of CMs came on board and told us they had closed the Sheraton check-in. One of the CMs, named Kim, sat across from me and explained what had happened. I said to her, "Please, Kim, please tel me that you're kidding." She saw the tears well up in my eyes (which was from exhaustion, disappointment, and holding my breath to try to calm down -- thus my husband's comment), and she was very sympathetic. After that, the CMs were very open with us about THEIR horrific day, including people holding their babies while they cursed at the CMs. Ugh. Kim said, "Well, part of our job is to take that type of behavior." I told her that no, no one's job is to be treated like that; I think that's when the CMs became our buddies.
Bless them for sharing their snacks with my girls, though -- I'm not sure how much longer the kids would have lasted sans food.