I will keep this report short and to the point. We started out the cruise with a send off by Dolphins and a Coast Gaurd Helicopter escort. The two days at sea were Dismal grey but the indoor activities brightened our outlook. We discovered Topsiders for Dfinner. If you get fed up with the Formality of Dressing up for Dinner the atmosphere at Topsiders for Dinner is every bit as warm and friendly (A lot less crouded also) than any dining room. We ate dinner there twice, both times we had superior service and food. We had some problems with our dining rotation at the beginning of the cruise. We wanted to be linked with the Dis group and the staffs idea of linking was to change our late seating to early seating in an opposit rotation of the Dis Group. Well after 4 tries we finally got the rotation we wanted with the Dis group on Early dining.
In every wonderful experience a little rain must fall, Both literally and figuratively. We had several days of downpours on our sea days but the weather at the ports of call were excellent. On board we had an Asian Coalition (As I called them) Disney bent over backwards to make these 600+ guests have a magical experience while sacrificing some of the pixie dust that shoild have been the other guests. I understand that their culture suggests a comfort zone different from ours, but a group of six deep walking the entire length of a corridor at a snails pace and not letting anyone pass is frustrating, so is the idea of when the elevator would open they are ME FIRST shoving into the elevator making it impossible for amy one to get off to manke room for them. The most annoying and frustrating thing that they caused was a shortage of food for the regular guests in the Late dining. The Coalition had arranged their own menu with Disney beforehand, then to compound the problem they also wanted to choose from our menu. Then when they would order their food, they would do the Asian Shuffle and change seats to "Visit with their other friends" when their food arived at the table it was totallly different people than who had ordered. The last straw affected the 600 kids on board more than the adults. They had Meditation every day at the Walt Disney theatre. Since this happened in the afternon or morning, Disney cancelled the matinee of Disney Dreams to accomodate the group. Teh bright side to having them there is that they refused to go to Palo's. So we got ressies for two nights Our Server was EXCELLENT. her name was Louise from the UK and she was so great I presented her with a WWWD pin to commemorate our pleasure with her service and guest experience.
Speaking of Palos, I have to mention the Champagne down your back brunch that I had. We no sooner were sat down and got our menus when two full glasses of COLD champagne were dumped down my back. While it would have been refreshing if I was outside, it was soggy and cold inside. They comped my brunch and paid for the cleaning of my shirt. The service was mediocre (No Louise) even after the christening. To give an example I asked to have my croissant toasted, I wanted to fill it with cream cheese and salmon, well it was sent ourt for toasting and 2 minutes later they took away my plate with the cream cheese and salmon and never got the croissant back.
The other shining light on the cruise was a Castmember called Joshua. he was at Mickeys Treasure Ketch, his help and assistance was well beyond anything we had encountered on the cruise. He is in charge of the Pin trading so if you see him on the Magic say Hello. He also was presented with a WWWD pin which he wears proudly.
Thanks go to Ginger, she arranged a detour at St. Martin to the island of Anguilla. The cost was a little high, but it was worth every dollar. The 3 mile stretch of beach she arranged was pristine and we had it all to ourselves. This beach excursion was better than we had imagined, even better than anything Disney could dream up, and really filled the void when we found out we would miss Castaway Cay.
A word of caution....If you book transfers as we did (3 part airport to port, port to resort, resort to airport) MAKE SURE YOU GET SOME KIND OF VOUCHER FOR YOUR TRANSFERS. We lucked out with the port to resort, but had to pay $30.00 from the resort to the airport. Even though I paid $126.00 for the transfers DCL said they never should have been made, they cannot go from the port to the resort after a 7 day cruise nor can they go from the resort to the airport. As you can imagine a letter is in the writing along with photocopies of the confirmed transfer information.
All in all we enjoyed ourselves so much that we took advantage of the onboard special and rebooked for next years Halloween cruise 10/26/01.
In every wonderful experience a little rain must fall, Both literally and figuratively. We had several days of downpours on our sea days but the weather at the ports of call were excellent. On board we had an Asian Coalition (As I called them) Disney bent over backwards to make these 600+ guests have a magical experience while sacrificing some of the pixie dust that shoild have been the other guests. I understand that their culture suggests a comfort zone different from ours, but a group of six deep walking the entire length of a corridor at a snails pace and not letting anyone pass is frustrating, so is the idea of when the elevator would open they are ME FIRST shoving into the elevator making it impossible for amy one to get off to manke room for them. The most annoying and frustrating thing that they caused was a shortage of food for the regular guests in the Late dining. The Coalition had arranged their own menu with Disney beforehand, then to compound the problem they also wanted to choose from our menu. Then when they would order their food, they would do the Asian Shuffle and change seats to "Visit with their other friends" when their food arived at the table it was totallly different people than who had ordered. The last straw affected the 600 kids on board more than the adults. They had Meditation every day at the Walt Disney theatre. Since this happened in the afternon or morning, Disney cancelled the matinee of Disney Dreams to accomodate the group. Teh bright side to having them there is that they refused to go to Palo's. So we got ressies for two nights Our Server was EXCELLENT. her name was Louise from the UK and she was so great I presented her with a WWWD pin to commemorate our pleasure with her service and guest experience.
Speaking of Palos, I have to mention the Champagne down your back brunch that I had. We no sooner were sat down and got our menus when two full glasses of COLD champagne were dumped down my back. While it would have been refreshing if I was outside, it was soggy and cold inside. They comped my brunch and paid for the cleaning of my shirt. The service was mediocre (No Louise) even after the christening. To give an example I asked to have my croissant toasted, I wanted to fill it with cream cheese and salmon, well it was sent ourt for toasting and 2 minutes later they took away my plate with the cream cheese and salmon and never got the croissant back.
The other shining light on the cruise was a Castmember called Joshua. he was at Mickeys Treasure Ketch, his help and assistance was well beyond anything we had encountered on the cruise. He is in charge of the Pin trading so if you see him on the Magic say Hello. He also was presented with a WWWD pin which he wears proudly.
Thanks go to Ginger, she arranged a detour at St. Martin to the island of Anguilla. The cost was a little high, but it was worth every dollar. The 3 mile stretch of beach she arranged was pristine and we had it all to ourselves. This beach excursion was better than we had imagined, even better than anything Disney could dream up, and really filled the void when we found out we would miss Castaway Cay.
A word of caution....If you book transfers as we did (3 part airport to port, port to resort, resort to airport) MAKE SURE YOU GET SOME KIND OF VOUCHER FOR YOUR TRANSFERS. We lucked out with the port to resort, but had to pay $30.00 from the resort to the airport. Even though I paid $126.00 for the transfers DCL said they never should have been made, they cannot go from the port to the resort after a 7 day cruise nor can they go from the resort to the airport. As you can imagine a letter is in the writing along with photocopies of the confirmed transfer information.
All in all we enjoyed ourselves so much that we took advantage of the onboard special and rebooked for next years Halloween cruise 10/26/01.
