7 day cruise 2/23-3/2 2002

[rae519]

After we took the 4 land/3 sea last April - and it was wonderful - we did the 7 day cruise. Yes, weather in Orlando was AWFUL on Saturday 2/23, but it was very good the rest of the trip - although we were delayed an hour in departing due to 45 mph winds! Mother Nature doesn't seem to care about our vacations, does she?!
We (including 6 year old son) LOVED DCL, crew and activities were top notch. We loved the open verandah, and had the navigator's verandah last cruise.
We had a family emergency on Thursday that showed us just how much DCL cares about it's people. We were paged, beeped (on the Oceaneer's Club beeper) and had messages left for us so that we would know we needed to call ship to shore. Crew sought us out to ask if we were okay or if we needed anything.
Our server (Roger from Brazil) even brought us our Dinner to our room that night.
Unbelievable!
Also, we were very impressed by the DVC representatives who went out of their way to be of assistance to us.
As for St. Maarten (it's okay - great if you want duty free alcohol, tobacco or luxury items) - St. Thomas is fabulous (our dining mates loved their snorkeling excursion) and although Castaway Cay was a little windy, we still enjoyed that 2 1/2 mile nature walk.
We are planning to go on the 3 day land/4 day sea for December 2002 (mainly to see WDW in it's Christmas decorations).
Any questions, just ask!

 

[mmouse37]

We were also on that cruise and also had a fantastic time. This was our 5th DCL cruise (2nd 7-day) and are planning to go back on the Western hopefully this summer before our daughter goes off to college.

On the 23rd, we had a bit of a problem with the Canaveral Port Authority. We arrived at the port at about 10:20 am and it was pouring....we were on the Avis shuttle with tons of luggage and the port authority was giving us a hard time about being early. We couldn't help it, that the time the shuttle brought us. Needless to say, our bags were unloaded from the shuttle and were supposed to be placed in covered holding carts, but never were. All our bags were soaked through. DCL came to the rescue and offered dry-cleaning for the the suits and formal wear. We made a complaint with DCL about the Port Authority personnel (very rude, told my friend to "shut-up and listen" which is funny since my hubby works for the Port Authority of NY & NJ (much more professional).

That was our only problem. We were a group of 14 and were lucky enough to be the first group onboard after the "special" boarders. We got to count down 10, 9, 8...... with cruise staff and had a blast!!!!

Did Palo brunch and was lucky enough to get the private room for our party of 10. We had Vlado as our server and he and the brunch were wonderful!!!

MJ
MJ