WBRepo-Ship of Thieves-Remember the Magic Pt 19

[LisaG520]

That's a good idea... if he makes it through the first week... maybe he can do another...

btw... how did he do on the cruise? did he have time in the kids clubs this time?


Also... to all of the cruisers... how was the service on the ship? I'm sure pretty good, seeing as you had the Disney high honchos onboard... but I remember a few weeks back we had a discussion about that after Ian and Sukie came back... was wondering if you felt there was a difference...

We saw a marked decline in service. Our assistant server on the first cruise was horrible. On the second cruise the whole B2B transition was a disaster. To us it seemed to be a lack of communication between the cast members and the guests.

We had a flooding problem in our stateroom on the in between day. It appeared to be cleared up by the time we were able to get back in our room but imagine our surprise when getting ready for dinner we discovered our carpets around the bathroom were still soaking wet. We immediately notified our stateroom host who called maintenace. When we returned to our room several hours later nothing had been done. We called guest services who said someome would be right up. No one came. After half an hour Darrell went down to the desk. Now they want us to pack up everything and switch rooms at 11pm at night. Darrell explained we were not doing that but we would sleep in a different room so they could dry the carpets out first thing in them morning.

Darrell went to wait for pins in the morning while I went back to our room. I called guest services who said a fan would be brought up immediately. So off to breakfast I went. Can you guess what I found when I got back an hour later - No FAN!!!

After multiple calls to guest services they started trying to convince me it would just be easier to move. When I asked who exactly that would be easier for - certainly not us - they finally agreed to try a fan but assured me it would not work and we would end up moving anyway.

Surprise surprise - 2 hours with a fan and the carpet was dry and remained that way all the way back to Canada. So it took 17 hours, countless phone calls, to have a fan work in 2 hours.

Next up comes the Platinum experience. We didn't see the letter about signing up for this until the next morning (it was delivered the night we spent in another room). So we head down to guest services to be told it was full - not I'm sorry or anything. That was pretty much the last straw for us. I asked for the guest services manager and Darrell went in search of Christian. Both agreed we were definitely going to get on the tour and they would check into why there was such a problem bringing a fan to our room for wet carpets.

And what did we get for all out problems - 6 chocolate covered strawberries

Other than that we still had a great time. Palo was definitely the best service on the ship! It was awesome as always

 

[mishoe01]

I know, me too. It's killing me that I had to cancel out but I'm still sending and paying for Casey and Brittany to go. It's like I'm paying for it and I still don't get to go. But the kid is getting engaged onboard. I don't want to take that away from them. Let it be special. I'll pay and stay home. I'm such a good Aunt.

You know.....you could always pay for them to do the 4 night & then keep the 3 night for yourself???? That way....Casey still gets the benefit of being able to propose on board & having you pay but then YOU would get a cruise too (with friends)! hmmmm....something to think about, right???

 

[mishoe01]

never!!!!!

I'm only saying ONCE!!!

 

[LisaG520]

John is so going to divorce me....he said only one cruise a year now and we're already doing Hawaii......BUT tell me more about this cruise. It's on the Fantasy.....is it a western or eastern carribbean? How many other thieves are going?

Someone else has probably already answered this but just in case -

We're on it

And it's an Eastern and goes to Puerto Rico instead of St Maarten.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Lisa, I was thinkig about your room experience just the other day and was trying to figure out why yours was such a horror story and our issue was resolved so quickly (bathroom/toilet) and I think it was becausse we delt directly with maintainance (that's who I called) and not guest services or probably more to the point, housekeeping.

There were definately CMs in guest services who had no idea what they were doing...remember them trying to tell people that five cruises did NOT make you gold? I did have a 'pixie dust' experience with the manager, Garry, though what he did didn't filter down to his staff without Kathe and I having to deal with how it was mixed up by them.

I was kind of expecting transition day to be problematical. New port, so many B2Bers and remember that the 'CMs' in the port are actually outside vendors (locals) that have had only brief training on the 'Disney way'. I know that morning DCL was still not sure if the port would allow them to set up any special arrangements for the B2B folks (looks like that answer was 'no').

.

 

[LisaG520]

You're all making me exhausted! I did nothing but sleep most of the weekend....still trying to play catch up.....and I'm exhausted just reading everything that everyone else is doing.....especially all that yard work. I'm definitely not buying anything when I get to Florida.....rentals only where someone else comes and does all the work. Then I hire cleaners to come in once a week and send the laundry out to be done and I'm good to go.

There are definitely some benefits to renting. No yardwork is a big one

 

[EllaEnchanted]

We saw a marked decline in service. Our assistant server on the first cruise was horrible. On the second cruise the whole B2B transition was a disaster. To us it seemed to be a lack of communication between the cast members and the guests.

We had a flooding problem in our stateroom on the in between day. It appeared to be cleared up by the time we were able to get back in our room but imagine our surprise when getting ready for dinner we discovered our carpets around the bathroom were still soaking wet. We immediately notified our stateroom host who called maintenace. When we returned to our room several hours later nothing had been done. We called guest services who said someome would be right up. No one came. After half an hour Darrell went down to the desk. Now they want us to pack up everything and switch rooms at 11pm at night. Darrell explained we were not doing that but we would sleep in a different room so they could dry the carpets out first thing in them morning.

Darrell went to wait for pins in the morning while I went back to our room. I called guest services who said a fan would be brought up immediately. So off to breakfast I went. Can you guess what I found when I got back an hour later - No FAN!!!

After multiple calls to guest services they started trying to convince me it would just be easier to move. When I asked who exactly that would be easier for - certainly not us - they finally agreed to try a fan but assured me it would not work and we would end up moving anyway.

Surprise surprise - 2 hours with a fan and the carpet was dry and remained that way all the way back to Canada. So it took 17 hours, countless phone calls, to have a fan work in 2 hours.

Next up comes the Platinum experience. We didn't see the letter about signing up for this until the next morning (it was delivered the night we spent in another room). So we head down to guest services to be told it was full - not I'm sorry or anything. That was pretty much the last straw for us. I asked for the guest services manager and Darrell went in search of Christian. Both agreed we were definitely going to get on the tour and they would check into why there was such a problem bringing a fan to our room for wet carpets.

And what did we get for all out problems - 6 chocolate covered strawberries

Other than that we still had a great time. Palo was definitely the best service on the ship! It was awesome as always

You definitely need to copy this into a letter to them. Go to the top. They want to know what to fix. Other than the fiasco with the wet carpet.....how did you and Darrell like being on 5 aft port? Me and John love the location. Did you enjoy it at all?

 

[LisaG520]

It's a very sad day today.....my DVR died!!! Nothing but black. I have 40% of it still with recordings on it from when I was away for three weeks. Gone! That makes me so mad. It's not like it has a chip that I can transfer to a new box. So I lose everything that I recorded while I was on vaca. Bummer!

I have to take an old box out of the spare bedroom to use until I can get an appointment to have a new box put in. That one doesn't record. It's just a regular satellite box. So I can watch without recording until I get my appointment. Hopefully I won't fall asleep while watching because if I do then I miss it. I hate not watching recorded television.

I have to wait for John to get home from work anyway to switch boxes. I can't do it. So it's been a pretty quiet day around here today. No TV. I had to fall asleep listening to the Casey Anthony trial on my laptop.

You might be able to watch some of the shows you lost on the network websites or hulu.com

 

[LisaG520]

Me too....I usually start in 1 spot then say "oh, this belongs in the other room" then I go in there & do something there and completely forget about the 1st room/thing I was doing.

You mean this isn't how your supposed to clean It's totally how I do it

 

[EllaEnchanted]

You know.....you could always pay for them to do the 4 night & then keep the 3 night for yourself???? That way....Casey still gets the benefit of being able to propose on board & having you pay but then YOU would get a cruise too (with friends)! hmmmm....something to think about, right???

I would do it in a heartbeat, but then I would be divorced. John said he's NEVER going back to Nassau again. He's adament about only one cruise a year. I just can't rock the boat. He wins this round. Marriage is all about compromise. Whoever wants it more, wins each round. He's serious, so I back off.

 

[LisaG520]

I can gladly say that after almost three hours of plugging in this and unplugging that.....we found out that it's not the DVR, but the TV instead. This makes me happy. My box is good and all my shows are saved. I now have to watch them on an old 19" and believe me it's archaic. We'll wait until it's in the budget to buy a new TV. I just got home from a three week vacation and John's paycheck was salary deleted this time around since he took too many vacation days. Oh and next year we're just flying out one night before cruise and staying near the port. Then flying straight home after cruise so we don't use up too much time.

Yea the DVR lives

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Someone else has probably already answered this but just in case -

We're on it

And it's an Eastern and goes to Puerto Rico instead of St Maarten.

I'm SO tempted.....and John was going for it until he realized that it's only seven months after the Hawaiian. So....not going to work for us in 2012. We have 2013 open and available to fill. We'll see what we do then. OH YEAH, we'll be moving to Florida in 2013.....YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Then maybe we can do more cruising in a year.

 

[iankh]

I'm not cancelling anything yet....you never know --- I could win the lottery If I don't go at all.....I WILL still be taking Ms Cheri to the port & spending the night. (I would also get 1 entire week's worth of salary back in December....that would go towards Hawaii). I'll still be considering just the 3 nighter too.....I could still get 3 days salary back if I do this. We'll see....not making any decisions yet.

It's always hard to have to make the grown up decision, iknow because I had to cancel cruises. Personally, I hope you can go.

 

[LisaG520]

You definitely need to copy this into a letter to them. Go to the top. They want to know what to fix. Other than the fiasco with the wet carpet.....how did you and Darrell like being on 5 aft port? Me and John love the location. Did you enjoy it at all?

We really liked the location. Part of why we resisted moving. They wanted to move us to 7 forward - claimed it was a better room yet when you look at their charts it was actually a cheaper category!!

We received a online survey already and put it all in there. Plus we are thinking of sending a letter as well.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

We really liked the location. Part of why we resisted moving. They wanted to move us to 7 forward - claimed it was a better room when you look at their charts it was actually a cheaper category!!

We received a online survey already and put it all in there. Plus we are thinking of sending a letter as well.

Good for you....they need to know! Glad you liked the location at least. It's very private and quiet.

 

[LisaG520]

Lisa, I was thinkig about your room experience just the other day and was trying to figure out why yours was such a horror story and our issue was resolved so quickly (bathroom/toilet) and I think it was becausse we delt directly with maintainance (that's who I called) and not guest services or probably more to the point, housekeeping.

There were definately CMs in guest services who had no idea what they were doing...remember them trying to tell people that five cruises did NOT make you gold? I did have a 'pixie dust' experience with the manager, Garry, though what he did didn't filter down to his staff without Kathe and I having to deal with how it was mixed up by them.

I was kind of expecting transition day to be problematical. New port, so many B2Bers and remember that the 'CMs' in the port are actually outside vendors (locals) that have had only brief training on the 'Disney way'. I know that morning DCL was still not sure if the port would allow them to set up any special arrangements for the B2B folks (looks like that answer was 'no').

.

I think part of our problem was that the problem wasn't in our room - it was the technical closet in the hallway that had the problem and maintenance took care of that right away as well as setting up the fans in the hallway to dry that out. Our stateroom host tried several times to get maintenance up and they told him they had fixed the problem. Then guest services really didn't want to be bothered until I had a melt down at the desk!

We felt the onboard CMs were the communication problem with the B2B. If they had come back to where they left us in the terminal after escorting us off the ship and told us what they could or couldn't do it would have improved the situation but just abandoning everyone with no information was the poor part.

We didn't really feel liked they cared either. We heard all these great "Guest recovery" stories and our experience was like they did the least possible.

Are there a lot of managers in guest services? The "Manager" we were dealing with was Jennifer.

 

[Tink rules]

Jan, you're so good to understand. I even get frustrated from it lasting so long, but you always have a good answer and it makes sense. Thanks friend. When I can stay awake all day again, we will chat regularly and get back to our exercising buddy system. For now, I'm still sleeping most days. Thanks for your patience and understanding and encouragement. Hugs.

I know what that feels like.. I was saying that I can't believe that I've lived up here 6 years... and I think slept through at least 3 of those.

My first and only brand new car had no A/C. When I had to use it to do runs into Newark in the middle of the hot summer I used to keep a towel and a jug of cold water in the car. I splashed the towel with the cold water and put it around my neck the whole drive home. When it dried off, because it was a long ride, I splashed it again and I maintained my cool for the whole drive.

My first car was a vette... (a chevette... ) and no a/c either... and you should have SEEN what got wired up by my friends at the fire dept for a stereo..

I know, me too. It's killing me that I had to cancel out but I'm still sending and paying for Casey and Brittany to go. It's like I'm paying for it and I still don't get to go. But the kid is getting engaged onboard. I don't want to take that away from them. Let it be special. I'll pay and stay home. I'm such a good Aunt.

Great Aunt!!!

You know.....you could always pay for them to do the 4 night & then keep the 3 night for yourself???? That way....Casey still gets the benefit of being able to propose on board & having you pay but then YOU would get a cruise too (with friends)! hmmmm....something to think about, right???

Isn't she terrible???

I'm only saying ONCE!!!

(this is your adult side talking.. knock it off!!)

Someone else has probably already answered this but just in case -

We're on it

And it's an Eastern and goes to Puerto Rico instead of St Maarten.

I'm NEVER going to get to St. Maarten...

 

[iankh]

I think part of our problem was that the problem wasn't in our room - it was the technical closet in the hallway that had the problem and maintenance took care of that right away as well as setting up the fans in the hallway to dry that out. Our stateroom host tried several times to get maintenance up and they told him they had fixed the problem. Then guest services really didn't want to be bothered until I had a melt down at the desk!

We felt the onboard CMs were the communication problem with the B2B. If they had come back to where they left us in the terminal after escorting us off the ship and told us what they could or couldn't do it would have improved the situation but just abandoning everyone with no information was the poor part.

We didn't really feel liked they cared either. We heard all these great "Guest recovery" stories and our experience was like they did the least possible.

Are there a lot of managers in guest services? The "Manager" we were dealing with was Jennifer.

While I did not have quite the same experience, I have to agree that the service on the Wonder during our MR was not quite up to the level we had experienced on past cruises on the Magic.

 

[Tink rules]

There are definitely some benefits to renting. No yardwork is a big one

Buy a condo...

I'm SO tempted.....and John was going for it until he realized that it's only seven months after the Hawaiian. So....not going to work for us in 2012. We have 2013 open and available to fill. We'll see what we do then. OH YEAH, we'll be moving to Florida in 2013.....YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Then maybe we can do more cruising in a year.

florida rates!!!

It's always hard to have to make the grown up decision, iknow because I had to cancel cruises. Personally, I hope you can go.

 

[Tink rules]

While I did not have quite the same experience, I have to agree that the service on the Wonder during our MR was not quite up to the level we had experienced on past cruises on the Magic.

Maybe it's the Wonder, seeing as they used to do the 3/4 night cruises and not the longer ones?

I think it also has to do with all the crew members who moved to the Dream.