WBRepo-Ship of Thieves-Remember the Magic Pt 19

[HollyTyler]

We did get a table on our own which was great since basically we're both miserable and antisocial.

My sister lives in Dairy Ashford but doesn't drive. Ironically I know Houston really well. My parents followed my sister and retired there.

Yes, Southwest from Midway to Houston is very cheap. When I was trying to figure out what to book I was attracted to the pricing for the cruise, plus Houston is so easy from Chicago.

We were also interested in the ports as they are places we've never been to.

I wonder how well Galveston is going to do as a port for Disney. They must be there for a reason. I suppose there demand out of that market.

I'm just waiting for them to sail out of Chicago. They can pick up Holly, John, and Kathe along the way out to the St Lawrence Sea Way,

Perfect!

 

[katypop]

MAJOR CONGRATS TO SUKIE!!!

We're so PROUD to have a published Author among us!!! (we all get 10% off autographed copies, right?)

Yes....Congrats to Sukie...Ian, please let Sukie know how proud we are of him

Thank you too for your review of the Wonder. No need to apologize, I appreciate your honesty. I think I understand what you mean about it being a great cruise BUT...

By the way, a co-worker just returned from a visit to the the great city of Chicago She went with her sister, left husband at home LOL, and loved your city She took the train and raved about the train ride, the city, the people, the buildings...

Someday I am hoping to venture out and see Chicago too...hope we will be able to have a mini-meet

 

[HollyTyler]

Yes....Congrats to Sukie...Ian, please let Sukie know how proud we are of him

Thank you too for your review of the Wonder. No need to apologize, I appreciate your honesty. I think I understand what you mean about it being a great cruise BUT...

By the way, a co-worker just returned from a visit to the the great city of Chicago She went with her sister, left husband at home LOL, and loved your city She took the train and raved about the train ride, the city, the people, the buildings...

Someday I am hoping to venture out and see Chicago too...hope we will be able to have a mini-meet

If you do, let me know and I'll drive over to crash the party. It's not very far.

 

[HollyTyler]

Went to bed at 8pm last night, should have tonight too, trying to catch up a little online since I wasn't online anywhere last night. Need to catch up on 3 cruise threads, but that will have to wait. Too tired tonight!

 

[katypop]

If you do, let me know and I'll drive over to crash the party. It's not very far.

Went to bed at 8pm last night, should have tonight too, trying to catch up a little online since I wasn't online anywhere last night. Need to catch up on 3 cruise threads, but that will have to wait. Too tired tonight!

Holly, will definately let you know if a Chicago dismeet is in the works If we are able to make a Niagara Falls meet work this summer, Chicago will have to wait, for me at least, until 2012.

Hope you get rested up. I'm off to bed too. I'm behind on all the threads

 

[Tink rules]

I am very familiar with the route to Galveston. I spent 42 weeks there on a project back in 1985, flying down on Sundays and flying back on Fridays.

From what I've been reading it has become really built up as a cruise port. RCL and Carnival sail out of there. Knowing Disney they must see that there's gold in them thar hills and there must be the market for it.

We could very well end up changing our plans but at least for now we've got our 10% discounts certainly the prices were right. A lot of 2012 will be driven by Sukie's schedule for the book promotion.

Ohhh you'd be surprised how built up it's gotten down there...

 

[ibouncetoo]

I REALLY need to get another job......the negativity in this office is really getting to me & driving me

there are people hitting their desks all the time, *****ing with every single phone call they get, complaining about every single little thing. OMG!! I'm struggling enought as it is.....and this is so not helping.

Ian - have you found me a position yet?? (he told me he's been looking).

My jaw is literally hurting....I'm clenching my teeth (which the dentist will love) to hold my tongue. I don't want to say things I shouldn't & I certainly don't want to scream.

Oh, I so know how you feel. I'm constantly biting my tongue. I have to keep reminding myself I still have two years of cruises to pay for!

I also have another 7-night on the Fantasy booked but I have to think on this one and what I want to do. I'm just not sure. But as I told Sukie, it's easier to book and get the discount and then rearrange later, rather than not having the discount at all.

I, of course, want you to be on the December Fantasy cruise I"m booked on, as does Dianne. I'm betting she will chose the 7 day Fantasy over the Hawaii...but she has till the end of the Nov B2B to decide.

We are planning to rebook while on the B2B, not sure what exactly maybe the Fantasy next year that is stopping at PR.

.

I offer for your consideration, 12/15/12. There were lower prices that week back when I booked AND you will be on a Disney ship when the world ends on 12/21/12 (if the ancient Mayans were right). Some of us on the meets thread are refering to it as the "end of the world...or not...cruise!.

.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Caught up reading but the REAL REASON I stopped by tonight was to let you all know that:

Castaway Cay Private Cabanas can be booked on-line now!
​

Deb, as Platinums we could coordinate booking two next to each other on the Nov B2B three day cruise and maybe Cheri too so ALL our friends (OK 20-30 people) could par-tay! $70 per person doesn't seem to bad for an all day 'excursion' Let's not mention this on the B2B thread at this time, but I don't think this news will be kept low key for long!

.​

 

[LuvBaloo]

Finally getting back to our thread and its a new one!

Congrats to Sukie!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Deb & John's new great granddaughter!

I'm definitely interested in the royal wedding and can remember watching Charles & Di's with my grandmother. Can't see getting up at 3am to watch it on the ship though. If we were at home when it was on, I'd have recorded and tried to get my girls excited about it.

Congrats to all who have booked Hawaii. We definitely won't be doing that cruise as the date just doesn't work for us.

 

[granmaz]

Well to me it's thrilling because it's a true love story that is a part of history. And the most curious part is that Kate is a commoner. It's the Cinderella story in real life. It's joyful and renews hope. I think it's splendid and I can't wait for the day. It, coincidentally, is the 20th anniversary of mine and John's first date. Twenty years ago we went to a wine tasting. On the 29th this year we'll be in Sanoma CA doing a wine tasting. So John and I will very much be celebrating right along with Will and Kate.

That's why I have to watch it on CNN onboard early in the morning before my excursion. If it's 11 am in England, is it 6 am EDT? My excursion doesn't meet until 8 am. Then I'll have the recording at home too. That will be all day long. I wonder what channel will have the best coverage. Maybe the BBC. Any thoughts Marilyn?

Well I don't look at it as romantically as that Deb, but just enjoy the whole rigmarole!! I think Kate will handle things better than Diana did and of course times have changed since then anyway.

Unfortunately over on the West coast you might not get good coverage, possibly only CNN. BBC World Service and CNN went off and on all the time on the PC due to broadcasting rights etc, but CNN was on the most. I hope something is showing.

Your new granddaughter is very cute!!!

Oh good, I'm glad to hear that. Me and John have only been to LA once after the PC and we did all the touristy things. This time we're going to San Diego for a day and having an awesome brunch for another day. Not sure what we will do for two additional days, but we'll find something. John doesn't want to go back to DL. He says we have already done it and he likes WDW better.

While we're onboard we get to go to San Fran. So I'm happy that I'll get to do San Diego, LA and SF all in one trip.

We had a few nights in San Diego after the PC cruise and really loved it. So much to see and do. The aircraft carrier was fantastic, but a lot of walking and steps of course so might not be the best thing to do. There is a fantastic viewpoint, Cabrillo Monument. If it is a clear day I would thoroughly recommend a drive up there. It isn't far and you can see all over San Diego, inland and down to Mexico etc. Stunning.

 

[granmaz]

Ian, your thoughts on the Wonder are just the same as ours and Cheri's on our PC cruise, and I am so disappointed to hear nothing has changed after all these weeks. I hope you complained in some way as they need to know. It seems like they must think everything is hunkydory!!!

Goodness me, once they cream some more crew off for the Fantasy I dread to think what it will be like!

 

[UKANGEL]

[COLOR="Green] after the excursion we're meeting Karen/been2marcelene and Ted for dinner.


[/COLOR]

Please say hi to Karen for me, Deb, I don't know if she'll remember me but we had such lovely chats all those years back!

.....and many congrats on the birth of your new ggd, Lily, she's a little poppet! a future CG!




.

 

[iankh]

Ian, your thoughts on the Wonder are just the same as ours and Cheri's on our PC cruise, and I am so disappointed to hear nothing has changed after all these weeks. I hope you complained in some way as they need to know. It seems like they must think everything is hunkydory!!!

Goodness me, once they cream some more crew off for the Fantasy I dread to think what it will be like!

Marilyn,

I didn't complain on the ship because there was nothing to pinpoint I did however get really snippy at guest services over the cancelled excursion and the debacle with our Palos reservations.

I thought about it last night and copied an excerpt of my posting and emailed it to DCL letting them know it was an excerpt of something I had posted publicly.

I think they needed to know that they lost the edge that makes their product distinct. There is a vast difference between a top-notch cruise with Disney characters and a Disney cruise, because then the differentiator becomes the characters. That's not enough of an advantage because it's not so hard to find other top-notch cruise at much lower prices if the characters are not so important.

 

[iankh]

Ian, your thoughts on the Wonder are just the same as ours and Cheri's on our PC cruise, and I am so disappointed to hear nothing has changed after all these weeks. I hope you complained in some way as they need to know. It seems like they must think everything is hunkydory!!!

Goodness me, once they cream some more crew off for the Fantasy I dread to think what it will be like!

Also, funny you mentioned it because while waiting to book some new cruises I got into chatting with a woman who was also a repeat cruiser. She said the same thing about how the Fantasy will dilute DCL's experienced staff base. She also heard that there were quite a few new staff who have come to realize that that are not quite happy with what they signed up for and will not sign on again. So there must be an impact if there are new staff that don't want to be there.

 

[LisaG520]

I am very familiar with the route to Galveston. I spent 42 weeks there on a project back in 1985, flying down on Sundays and flying back on Fridays.

From what I've been reading it has become really built up as a cruise port. RCL and Carnival sail out of there. Knowing Disney they must see that there's gold in them thar hills and there must be the market for it.

We could very well end up changing our plans but at least for now we've got our 10% discounts certainly the prices were right. A lot of 2012 will be driven by Sukie's schedule for the book promotion.

Any plans yet for a tour outside of IL to promote the book? That would be awesome

 

[LisaG520]

Went to bed at 8pm last night, should have tonight too, trying to catch up a little online since I wasn't online anywhere last night. Need to catch up on 3 cruise threads, but that will have to wait. Too tired tonight!

I only try to keep up with this one and read the others whenever time allows. This makes Michelle happy

 

[LisaG520]

I offer for your consideration, 12/15/12. There were lower prices that week back when I booked AND you will be on a Disney ship when the world ends on 12/21/12 (if the ancient Mayans were right). Some of us on the meets thread are refering to it as the "end of the world...or not...cruise!.

.

If that one stops at PR that is definetly one we will book - Dec is the time frame we were hoping for. And Darrell will totally appreciate the whole Mayan connection

 

[LisaG520]

Deb and John - Congrats on the new great grandbaby

 

[iankh]

Any plans yet for a tour outside of IL to promote the book? That would be awesome

I think something will happen but we don't know what. This is process that is happening very, very slowly, although published friends of Sukie keep telling him the can't believe how fast it's happening for him.

He's now hard at work on his next book.

 

[granmaz]

Marilyn,

I didn't complain on the ship because there was nothing to pinpoint I did however get really snippy at guest services over the cancelled excursion and the debacle with our Palos reservations.

I thought about it last night and copied an excerpt of my posting and emailed it to DCL letting them know it was an excerpt of something I had posted publicly.

I think they needed to know that they lost the edge that makes their product distinct. There is a vast difference between a top-notch cruise with Disney characters and a Disney cruise, because then the differentiator becomes the characters. That's not enough of an advantage because it's not so hard to find other top-notch cruise at much lower prices if the characters are not so important.

It is so difficult because actually on the cruise complaining actually makes the negatives more and makes you think about them all the time rather than enjoying the cruise.(Hope you understand that!!) It was so hard to put a finger on what was wrong and we came up with all sorts of theories. We had the whole large number of untrained crew, crew who were onboard who didn't really want to be going to LA, a ship full of crew not used to doing long cruises and therefore more interacting with guests, crew who were upset at the lack of send off at PC, etc etc etc. However, all that should have settled by now.

When there were all the complaints after our last PC cruise on that thread, plus negatives of similar experiences on the Magic, there were loads of people who just don't ever see any negatives at all and don't like to hear of them. I love DCL, I have cruised 7 times so far and have 2 booked, but I can see the problems to be sure.

I so agree about the other cruise lines. Though we have only cruised DCL, we were beginning to look at all the other exciting itineraries out there with other cruise lines. There are some amazing cruises and I think we will be booking those in the future. I have to count sea days though as I only like cruises with a whole load of them!!!

Also, funny you mentioned it because while waiting to book some new cruises I got into chatting with a woman who was also a repeat cruiser. She said the same thing about how the Fantasy will dilute DCL's experienced staff base. She also heard that there were quite a few new staff who have come to realize that that are not quite happy with what they signed up for and will not sign on again. So there must be an impact if there are new staff that don't want to be there.

There were loads of complaints on our PC and afterwards. I guess the servers etc got it in the neck all the time and I would think have got very fed up with being told to up their game to Disney requirements. It can be very demoralising all the time.