August 24th 2012 Cruise to the Bahamas!!!!

[zulemara]

my apologies that I didn't get to meet ANYONE from the DIS!! I made the mistake of going to the cove cafe instead of vista cafe on the first day for the 3pm meet. Then I was hoping to catch people at Senor Frogs but apparently didn't meet any. I actually went around to tables asking if anyone was from the DIS and had the host give a shout out to any DIS ppl but no one responded. We were there from around noon till 330 or 4. If you happened to be there and were just quiet or I didn't realize you were there, I was the one up on the table dancing to pump in/doing shots of goldshlager/doing every conga line they did LOL. Suffice to say I did NOT make dinner, BARELY made the pirate show, and hubby wasn't happy with me

I hope everyone had a great time. I now have 2 more people(my mom and hubby) hooked on DCL! One year from now I should have at least 12 new converts from our wedding cruise! woo hoo!

 

[DCL4LIFE]

One of the reasons Captain Guus is my favorite DCL captain is his very liberal use of the Mickey whistles! He loves those things as much as I do.

I was on the Dream another time, I forget who the captain was but it was not Guus, and throughout the entire cruise, he only used the "When you Wish Upon a Star" whistle ONCE, just as we left the dock at Port Canaveral. And none of the other 6 ever. (OK I just remembered he used them at noon on the day-at-sea but I think they are supposed to do that.)

None for the people waving and honking at Canaveral, none leaving Castaway, none entering or exiting Nassau. I just kept wondering, why have these whistles if you never use them

And well done Guus for keeping up the efforts to shove the Dream into Castaway on Saturday! Over 3 hours of docking, but it was worth it.

 

[socababy]

Welcome back everyone! I hope all had as great a cruise as we did!

Thank you everyone for the FE gifts. Everyone was so generous. My apologies to the 2 cabins that did not receive an FE gift from myself or my friend. I don't have my sheet in front of me but the rooms did not have a FE hanging so I didn't want to leave anything for fear it was the wrong room. We had planned to go back and check a day or two later but time got away from us. Five nights is not very long!

I also was so happy that the captain worked so hard to get us into CC! It was great watching the effort on top of deck 13. The wnd was so strong that it was hard to face straight on. It was hilarious watching the kids try to play goofy golf in that wind. CC was amazing and Serenity Bay is definitely in my top 5 favorite places!

 

[skittle]

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful FE gifts despite not being on the offical FE list!!!! Our DS was so surprised with the daily gifts as we had told him not to expect anything since we did not make the FE deadline.

The little outfits for our infant DD are so adorable, Thanks again!

 

[doodledaisy]

What an amazing time we had on our first Disney cruise. We are so thankful for all the wonderful FE gifts we received. I am glad we found out about the exchange our kids had a wonderful participating. The gifts were wonderful and we can't thank everyone enough for the thoughtfulness that went into each and every gift. Thank you again for making our vacation extra special for the kiddos.

~John, Jamie, Lillian and Landon.

 

[mcd2745]

I must say it sure stinks to be home. Got home late Saturday night after 4 great days in Orlando (the Renaissance Orlando at Seaworld is a great hotel if someone is looking for a non-Disney place to stay and are planning on visiting Seaworld).

Did anyone else book another cruise while on board? We booked a 7-night (5 nights went too fast) Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy for the same week next year: August 24 - September 1, 2013. It includes stops at St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Castaway Cay and 3 sea days. I'm hoping after Irene and Isaac the last two years, one of these years there will not be a tropical storm/hurricane to deal with that week.

As for the cruise...I don't think they handled the whole fireworks fiasco very well. The weather is one thing obviously and can't be controlled, but how they handled the following night's "technical difficulties" was very poor, I thought. I believe they knew beforehand that those fireworks were not going to be going off. They had the dancers, DJ, and others all in place and ready to go immediately when then the fireworks were supposed to be going off. They tried distracting everyone with the music and all and then it took waaaaay too long for them to acknowledge the issue and make an announcement. Also, they shut down the Aquaduck and the whole goofy's "sports deck" for 2+ hours to "prepare" for the fireworks. We decided to miss the show that night (the comedy duo) and the kids wanted to ride the Aquaduck during that time, but then couldn't, so they said let's play mini-golf....nope, can't do that either. Doesn't seem worth it to me to shut down those areas for 2-3 hours to prepare for a mediocre 10-minute fireworks show, no matter how unique that is on a cruise. To exacerbate the problem, there is literally nothing else scheduled to do during the show time/late dinner seating. Yeah, they were showing a movie on funnelvision (but had removed all the chairs from the deck), and were probably showing another movie in the Buena Vista theater, but outside of that, nothing. No character greets, nothing doing in the D Lounge, etc. I thought overall, they could have a lot more scheduled activities - at all times.

There was one other thing I found rather curious. It seemed that on the second CC day, a ton of people chose to stay on the ship. I thought the biggest appeal of the 5-night was the the two visits to CC. I know it was for us. However, that second day, the island was a lot less crowded - which we didn't mind. Even that night at dinner, our server remarked to us he was very surprised by how many people didn't get off the ship and how busy they were on board throughout the day. Could this just have been a result of our sea day being pretty much a washout?

 

[socababy]

I must say it sure stinks to be home. Got home late Saturday night after 4 great days in Orlando (the Renaissance Orlando at Seaworld is a great hotel if someone is looking for a non-Disney place to stay and are planning on visiting Seaworld).

Did anyone else book another cruise while on board? We booked a 7-night (5 nights went too fast) Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy for the same week next year: August 24 - September 1, 2013 . I'm hoping after After Irene and Isaac the last two years, one of these years there will not be a tropical storm/hurricane to deal with that week.

Yes 5 nights is way too short! I did not book on board only because I already have 4 more cruises booked! Three of them won't be affected by hurricanes but I will have my fingers crossed for my late June Fantasy cruise to the Western Carribean.

 

[minnie mad mum]

Wow that went fast, didn't it? It was a pleasure meeting all those of you that we had the good fortune to do so.

To the FE group....I have to say we're sorry. We sucked, we know it, and we apologize. Your creativity and craftIness blew us away. We'll be much better on our next cruise now that we know what to expect.

The cruise obviously wasn't without issues...but that can wait for later.

We are looking at the same destination but oct 2013

 

[minnie mad mum]

Hi everyone, just wanted to say thankyou again for all the lovely gifts. My son really enjoyed the wonka candy, since being home we have been proudly showing off our treasures to all our family. We are looking to cruise again in oct 2013 on a western carribean onboard the fantasy. We have already started thinking about Fe gifts for next time.
Maybe we might meet some of you lovely people again one day

 

[michelle9343]

I must say it sure stinks to be home. Got home late Saturday night after 4 great days in Orlando (the Renaissance Orlando at Seaworld is a great hotel if someone is looking for a non-Disney place to stay and are planning on visiting Seaworld).

Did anyone else book another cruise while on board? We booked a 7-night (5 nights went too fast) Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy for the same week next year: August 24 - September 1, 2013. It includes stops at St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Castaway Cay and 3 sea days. I'm hoping after Irene and Isaac the last two years, one of these years there will not be a tropical storm/hurricane to deal with that week.

As for the cruise...I don't think they handled the whole fireworks fiasco very well. The weather is one thing obviously and can't be controlled, but how they handled the following night's "technical difficulties" was very poor, I thought. I believe they knew beforehand that those fireworks were not going to be going off. They had the dancers, DJ, and others all in place and ready to go immediately when then the fireworks were supposed to be going off. They tried distracting everyone with the music and all and then it took waaaaay too long for them to acknowledge the issue and make an announcement. Also, they shut down the Aquaduck and the whole goofy's "sports deck" for 2+ hours to "prepare" for the fireworks. We decided to miss the show that night (the comedy duo) and the kids wanted to ride the Aquaduck during that time, but then couldn't, so they said let's play mini-golf....nope, can't do that either. Doesn't seem worth it to me to shut down those areas for 2-3 hours to prepare for a mediocre 10-minute fireworks show, no matter how unique that is on a cruise. To exacerbate the problem, there is literally nothing else scheduled to do during the show time/late dinner seating. Yeah, they were showing a movie on funnelvision (but had removed all the chairs from the deck), and were probably showing another movie in the Buena Vista theater, but outside of that, nothing. No character greets, nothing doing in the D Lounge, etc. I thought overall, they could have a lot more scheduled activities - at all times.

There was one other thing I found rather curious. It seemed that on the second CC day, a ton of people chose to stay on the ship. I thought the biggest appeal of the 5-night was the the two visits to CC. I know it was for us. However, that second day, the island was a lot less crowded - which we didn't mind. Even that night at dinner, our server remarked to us he was very surprised by how many people didn't get off the ship and how busy they were on board throughout the day. Could this just have been a result of our sea day being pretty much a washout?

I am glad you guys booked another cruise while onboard. We really wanted to try and go on the cruise you guys booked, but after all of the issues we had with Angelina and her wheelchair I really needed to come home and think about things a bit. Yesterday I typed a very long letter explaining all of the issues we had and I hope that they will be able to make some changes before we cruise again.
I also agree with the fireworks fiasco. It was really crazy that they took so long to inform everyone that they weren't doing to go, but we did have fun waiting for them with you and your family!!

Hi everyone, just wanted to say thankyou again for all the lovely gifts. My son really enjoyed the wonka candy, since being home we have been proudly showing off our treasures to all our family. We are looking to cruise again in oct 2013 on a western carribean onboard the fantasy. We have already started thinking about Fe gifts for next time.
Maybe we might meet some of you lovely people again one day

You guys ROCK it was really a high light of our cruise running into you on the ship. I do hope we get to cruise together sometime in the future, If not maybe when you cruise the next time you can add on a few days at Walt Disney World and we can meet up there!!!

 

[mcd2745]

I am glad you guys booked another cruise while onboard. We really wanted to try and go on the cruise you guys booked, but after all of the issues we had with Angelina and her wheelchair I really needed to come home and think about things a bit. Yesterday I typed a very long letter explaining all of the issues we had and I hope that they will be able to make some changes before we cruise again.
I also agree with the fireworks fiasco. It was really crazy that they took so long to inform everyone that they weren't doing to go, but we did have fun waiting for them with you and your family!!

Yes it was fun hanging with you during the wait and all the other times we ran into you. It's funny how you can keep running into the same people numerous times, and others you never see. I think once we have some time, we will write them a letter as well, highlighting some of the things we believe they could do better. I will give them credit for allowing everyone to put their luggage out late the last night. That was a good gesture on their part to help make up for the fiasco.

We're not 100% sure we'll keep that booking for next year as all we could get was a steep-priced category 5A as everything below that was completely booked. They put a note on our reservation that we would like to switch into a cat 8A if something ever opens up. If this past cruise we just took is any indication, something should open up. I remember 6,8,10,12 months ago periodically checking our just-completed cruise for curiousity's sake to see where the prices had gone and what kind of availability was left...and for the longest time, it showed something similar - only Cat 5s and higher were available. Well, we all know what happened. A lot of people booked late on CM discounts or FL resident discounts or GTY rooms. So I'm going to assume many had booked it early on, but then cancelled prior to the pay-in-full date, freeing up a lot of rooms.


It really sucks being back at work . To make matters worse, the weather is awful here as we are getting rain from the remnants of Isaac. This frickin' storm has been a thorn in my side for 3 weeks now!!!

 

[dismiss]

Well we are finally home

Spent 2 days in Orlando. Went to Discovery Cove( had a fantastic day there)
Stopped in SC to visit with relatives, then had 2 terrible days of driving in the rain.

But had a great time on the cruise.

Loved the Cabin Crawl

Thanks to all for the awesome FE gifts. You all are such creative and crafty folks !! i am still unpacking it all

We booked a "dummy" cruise for 2014 hoping DCL will come back to New York.

Hope you all are or get home safe & sound.
Dismiss
Jay,Mary Ellen, Kayleigh & Kevin

 

[michelle9343]

Yes it was fun hanging with you during the wait and all the other times we ran into you. It's funny how you can keep running into the same people numerous times, and others you never see. I think once we have some time, we will write them a letter as well, highlighting some of the things we believe they could do better. I will give them credit for allowing everyone to put their luggage out late the last night. That was a good gesture on their part to help make up for the fiasco.

We're not 100% sure we'll keep that booking for next year as all we could get was a steep-priced category 5A as everything below that was completely booked. They put a note on our reservation that we would like to switch into a cat 8A if something ever opens up. If this past cruise we just took is any indication, something should open up. I remember 6,8,10,12 months ago periodically checking our just-completed cruise for curiousity's sake to see where the prices had gone and what kind of availability was left...and for the longest time, it showed something similar - only Cat 5s and higher were available. Well, we all know what happened. A lot of people booked late on CM discounts or FL resident discounts or GTY rooms. So I'm going to assume many had booked it early on, but then cancelled prior to the pay-in-full date, freeing up a lot of rooms.


It really sucks being back at work . To make matters worse, the weather is awful here as we are getting rain from the remnants of Isaac. This frickin' storm has been a thorn in my side for 3 weeks now!!!

I think it is always a good Idea to write a letter. I always include all of the things that went well as well as the negative. Disney really takes feed back very seriously.
I find it so odd how you always seem to see the same people while at sea I guess it has to do with dinning times but we were lucky it was you guys we kept running into!!

Well we are finally home

Spent 2 days in Orlando. Went to Discovery Cove( had a fantastic day there)
Stopped in SC to visit with relatives, then had 2 terrible days of driving in the rain.

But had a great time on the cruise.

Loved the Cabin Crawl

Thanks to all for the awesome FE gifts. You all are such creative and crafty folks !! i am still unpacking it all

We booked a "dummy" cruise for 2014 hoping DCL will come back to New York.

Hope you all are or get home safe & sound.
Dismiss
Jay,Mary Ellen, Kayleigh & Kevin

I am glad you guys are home safe and sound. We really love all of your FE gifts!111