Anyone on the Sept 26, 2004 Wonder??

[TheGottis]

You are looking at about a 3 - 3 1/2 hour drive from Jax to the Port. (Figuring in stops and road conditions) Not too bad..

From what I was told today at around 3pm from Deidra (DCL CM) is that buses would begin at about 1pm at all their pickup points. Mears - the transportation company - cannot/will not promise any earlier. The CM suggested to be there between 12 and 1 - and as the buses filled they would leave. Lisa also rec'vd the same information. Give DCL a call and be sure they have you on the manifest to be picked up at the Port. I think they are staffed 24 hrs for the next few days.

Ship is scheduled to leave port at 8pm. Check out www.disneycruise.com for new update.

Good luck! Stay safe!

~Mary

 

[Dcanoli]

Well, I guess we're NOT going....

We are still in Atlanta. The drive was just going to be too much, and I want the whole picture when we go--Castaway Cay and a day of Disney before hand, so I guess I'll have to let go of the dream!

Let me know how it goes and what kind of incentives they may provide.

Have fun, and I'll be thinking of you all!

 

[lisa702]

Just got home! Arrived back into PC. Had a WONDER-ful time. Weather was fabulous. Ported at Nassau but stayed onboard. Also rebooked a 7 day for next September! WOOHOO!!!!!

 

[CaribGirl]

Glad you guys had a great time. Wished we were there also. I am seriously considering booking for next september also. These hurricanes can't scare us!!!

 

[cheercoach2]

Welcome back! So glad you all had a wonderful time and everyont is safe!

I'm just now recovering from the fact that we didn't go andI'm counting down to our cruise in Nov!

Take Care,

 

[lisa702]

Thank you!!!! This time around I didn't purchase travel insurance but you can bet I did for next September's cruise!

 

[Dcanoli]

Okay, Lisa, you will have to share with those of us who didn't go....we need the scoop since we are still in "recovery!"

Did they give you guys on-board credits like the Magic got (i.e., the Magic folks got $300 in on-board credits)? And, did you get the 25% discount on a future rebooking too?

You said you didn't get off the ship in Nassau...but you could have right? I thought they said they were going to Cozumel and Costa Maya...At least that's what the website and CMs said. Did you go to CC or skip it? I heard it was hit pretty bad because it is close to Abaco.

Post us all the details! We need to live vicariously through you!! LOL.....

 

[lisa702]

Only "incentive" we recieved was the 40% refund. No room credit, no voucher for future sailings. Of course I questioned that with a CM at DCL and I was told the Magic cruisers were missing 2 days of their cruise and had arrived in earlier to leave on Sat and the room credit was given to them due to their extra hotel costs they had because of the delayed sailing. I even emailed DCL and was told the 40% was more than generous. I'm not complaining but a room credit would have been much appreciated.
We did port at Nassau overnight and my family chose not to get off because we have been there before. CC was cancelled and we had a day at sea. We did have wonderful time and all the CMs took great care of us. Embarkation was at PE and the bus ride wasn't too bad although there were TVs but no movies to watch. I didn't think it was unorganized and lots of CMs to assist if we looked lost. From the bus to the ship, maybe took 10 minutes. Disembarkation was FABULOUS!!! Painless and no wait at all. We have sailed CCL and RCCL and you wait like cattle to disembark, (or so it seems) I am sitting here trying to figure out how to get an extra cruise on DCL in before next September!

 

[Dcanoli]

Thanks Lisa for some more scoop on the trip...

I don't think it's too fair, either, that the Magic passengers got all those extra perks. If we would have gone, we would have had an extra hotel night too, and after all--the Magic was still getting FIVE days to cruise, and we were only getting TWO!

Also, they did tell us the Wonder was going to Mexico, so that is kind of a bummer that they didn't do that either...

Oh well, what are you going to do?

BTW, I was glad to read about your embarking and disembarking. There have been A LOT of people on these boards talking about the "cattle drive" getting from PC to PE....stories of bus transfers, getting off and back on the bus again, no air-conditioning, no movies on the bus, blah...blah...blah....

It's refreshing to hear SOMEONE had a good time with the whole event!

Glad you got to go and had a WONDERFUL time! WELCOME HOME!

 

[CameoRose]

Lisa,

Hello! We were a few rooms down from you on the cruise. Did you get our note? It was nice to see that y'all made it. We had such a great time!!!!!! We went on the Blue Lagoon excurison and it was a nice day. The rest of the time we were laying by the adult pool! WONDERFUL time!

--Lisa

 

[lisa702]

I was trying to figure out what DISer you were........... The cabin was wonderful. Going with an inside the next time. I didn't get to enjoy my verandah as much as I thought I would!

 

[zeke11]

We're back, too!

Sorry to say that our experience was less than "Wonder"-ful, though.

We feel like we missed much more than just one night -

We didn't get to board till after 6:30 or 7 so missed most of that first day.

Our family name wasn't announced -- I was soooo looking forward to that that I hadn't even told the kids about it as I wanted them to be surprised. Glad I didn't tell them.....since it didn't happen.

Missed the sail away party.

Staying overnight in Nassau was a real bummer.

Getting into Nassau late cut two hours off our excursion and of course, there was no reimbursement for that.

Our stateroom attendant only made two towel animals the whole time and left candy only once.

Our waiter and waitress were pleasant and our waiter did magic tricks for us, but we felt rushed through our meals, my 8yo son's plate was whisked away before he had a chance to say he wasn't finished, and he ordered a piece of plain cheesecake for dessert one night and the waiter laughed at him and said it would take too long to bake. I thought you could order things that were available other nights??? Plain cheesecake -- its not like creme brulee or something.

Our serving assistant never once remembered that dh and I like coffee after dinner. I thought they were supposed to remember these things?

The 9/4 cruisers received not only the 40% off, but also $100 stateroom credits and I believe a 25% off voucher on a future cruise -- why were we shortchanged on that?

We were never offered the option by DCL to completely cancel our cruise. I didn't know that we could have. My dh wanted to, but at the desk in Port Orleans the woman told us we were getting a 3 night with a 40% discount. She never said we could take the option of canceling and getting a full refund.

For the extra $$$$$ that Disney charges, we just didn't feel the "wonder" and "magic", sorry to say.

If we do cruise again, it will be on one of the more reasonably priced cruises.

We sailed the Big Red Boat in 1995 and felt much more "pampered". Our waiter cut my dd's pasta every night for her, poured our cream, etc. -- our server on DCL even saw me reaching over to cut my son's meat, but never offered or took over doing that.

There were many more things that disappointed us on this cruise and though some of it had to do with Jeanne, not all of it did. The extra touches just weren't there, sad to say -- since I so anticipated this trip and it cost big $$$$$.

Oh well, live and learn.

Kris

 

[lisa702]

Kris
Glad you are home safely. What a week! Actually what a month! Sorry DCL disappointed you.
Wondering who else went and how their experiences were. Anybody else?

 

[CameoRose]

I hate to hear that some were disappointed. I thought everything was wonderful. It was my frist cruise but not my last one that's for sure! It doesn't take much to make me happy though. Give me nice hot weather and the pool and some friendly people to chat with and I'm happy.

We had mints and an animal on our bed every night. Our servers were wonderful.

I only had one complaint and that was that the cost for the excurisons didn't go down when the time got cut down. So we paid full price for Blue Lagoon but didn't have a full day there. That was the only thing that I questioned. But I was over it within a few minutes!

Lisa

 

[sap1227]

This was my 3rd cruise on the Wonder and it was a disappointment. I really enjoy cruising, I am not a huge fan of sitting in port. As a Floridian I understand that Hurricanes are unpredicatable and there is nothing Disney could have done about Jeanne or Port Can being closed. We had late dinner and we were sitting in Port for 2 of our 3 dinners. Our servers at dinner were TERRIBLE!! In the 4 meals (3 dinners and the breakfast the last day) my drink was refilled ONE time (I am a big water drinker and my glass was always empty before the salads arrived). On our last 2 cruises, after the first night our drinks were already at the table by the time we arrived--this time twice we ordered our food before our drink order was even taken. On two different nights I asked for a side item for DS and both times I did not get what I requested (in both cases the items were on that nights menu). On the first night I asked for a refill of Chocolate milk for DS and the Assistant server brought back a booster seat . The next night DS again ordered Chocolate milk and received plain milk. On the last night the people at the table next to us came over and said how disappointed they were with the service. Neither the head server or the assistant server used our names or did any fun things with the 3 children at our table.

However, we had still had a good time and there were some positives! When we left Orlando, we had no power, the airconditioned Wonder felt great!!! Our stateroom host was WONDERful. Our room was always perfect, but I never actually saw him. When you have an infant that needs to nap, sometimes it seems like you and the room host are always running into each other.

Bruch at Palo was great, we all agreed this was the highlight of our trip. We also had a wonderful lunch waiter. He played with the children, made them napkin hat--gave them the attention I expected from our servers.

I must admit I am a little unhappy with the 40% off we received, I think we deserved a little more.

Christy

 

[lookingforward]

We had a good time but were dissapointed too. Funny, our waiter and asst. were the best part of the cruise. They were wonderful, brought shrimp cocktail every night, cut up my daughters food, did magic tricks, brought pasta as a side, etc. I have been on a ton of cruises and they were right up there. Our room steward was invisiable but kept the room clean. EXCEPT for the wet bed! On the first night I got under the covers and the mattress was wet. Not the sheets but the edge of the bed. YUCK! They replaced half the bed and then it was uneven and had a metal bar sticking up which they did not fix or could not fix. It was painful. All I got was a "So Sorry Madam" from Guest services. I called them each night and each night they sent up some poor person to deal with the "bed". Each night they claimed it was fixed. Nope. We only got chocolates on two nights.

I loved Palos and the brunch. Edu was our waiter and he was great. The maitre'd was a big snob and kind of rude, but we only dealt with him for a few moments. The food in Palos is great.

It did stink that the cruise was in port for two evenings. I did not like the Nassau stay at all. Went to Atlantis and rented a day room for $150. What a rip off! Dirty, attacking birds, hostile salesman on the beach, etc. Never again.
I won't get off the ship again in Nassau.

Finally, I am very dissapointed with the 40% discount, which DCL told me would be approx. $750 out of our $2500 fare. Others were definately given more consideration and compensation. Oh well. The final thing that I must complain about is the ride back to Ft. Lauderdale. DCL provided a bus back to the Port Everglades for those who had parked their cars there. They sent us off on a bus for about four hours with no water, snacks, etc. We could not bring food off the boat. The driver stopped at a I-95 roadside bathroom in St. Lucie county that had no power and was heavily damaged by the storms. It was dangerous and dirty and there were no drinks, etc. Poor planning on DCL's part. They should have provided water bottles, at the very least.

I am so, so sorry I missed all of you.

 

[ccruz]

I am glad to hear (some) of you had A good time,Glad you all made it back safe.But I am glad we rescheduled.Will be sailing on the 18th of Jan.

 

[lisa702]

I must admit that I am too disappointed in the 40% refund of our fare. The way I figure it we missed 1 1/2 days and that figures out to I think 37.5% so actually we only benefited from an extra 2.5% so TECHNICALLY DCL should be refunding that 40%. Other than that and the horrific tantrum my DD took, we had a wonderful time. Cabin was perfect, with chocolates and towele animals every night. I think the bed mattress was new or so it felt. So comfortable! Lucy was our room hostess and she took wonderful care of us. Dinner was fun. We ate with a couple and their dd4 from Philadelphia. Our servers were attentive and fun. Veronica was our asst server from Chile and Donudu (Ican't remember how to spell it) was from S Africa. The dining room food was good but the buffet always wasn't so yummy. Thought the cheeseburgers were good tho. Always a CM close by to help. I had gone to the disembarkation talk and left my DH and DD by the pool and somehow they managed to get separated. Luckily our asst server Veronica was working there and she kept Skye company near the pool until I found them. She def had an extra tip in her tip envelope! My DH was mud in my eyes though!
Did get to meet up with Mary before we got on the bus. A 3 day cruise is def not long enough. Hope to do Palo's on the 7 day.
Spent too much in the gift shops. Did get a souvenir drink glass. Oh and got a DCL picture album. Decided against the DCL scrapbook but did buy the scrapbook pages. I bought the 10 6x8 picture package and got all of Skye with the characters. I'll put those in a scrapbook with autographs.
Skye told me she was sad and wanted to go back on the cruise. She didn't like the kids club. She only went twice and both times we got paged after a short time. The shows were great and our fave was The Golden Mickeys. Disney Dreams was wonderful too. Managed to go to the movie theatre when the mickey pool got too full for DD and we saw Home On The Range. All in all it was fun!

 

[lisa702]

Oh forgot to add: if anyone was on deck 5, I was the one with 3 door signs on our door!

 

[CameoRose]

Lisa,

You were the only one we saw with the door signs! We were looking for others but nope.....didn't see any. Of course now that I think of it we were only walking around on deck 5.

Made some cool friends though.

Everyone we saw that was with kids having a wonderful time we said "hmmmmmmm wonder if that is Lisa?" hehehe

-Lisa