Joe & Joanne
<a href="http://www.wdwinfo.com/dis-sponsor/index.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2001
OK here is the last one! My opinion folks! 
Likes & Dislikes, Dos & Donts
Do get the over the door shoe holder, this is the greatest tip I have ever come across!
Do go to the Palos brunch, you will not be disappointed!
Do go to Palos for dinner, service, ambiance and food is wonderful!
Do go to the Sureal Spa, it will make you young again!
Do get some Pizza from Pinocchios
Do make time to see movies on board but bring a blanket as it is very cold in the theater!
Do bring Sea Lice preventative, we did not use any but you never know!
Do buy your limit of Alcohol, very cheap and you can always use it as a gift!
Do talk to guest services if you have a problem, it WILL be addressed immediately
Do not worry about the kids on board, it seemed the ratio was about 3 adults for each kid!
Do take extra Pixie dust, you may find a need for it sometime during your cruise!
Do try to look into The Perfect Gift, Shirley is wonderful!
Do fill a cup with ice, and then pour it into your water bottle, easier than putting a bottle under the ice maker and trying to get ice to drop into the bottle, then fill with water!
Do get coffee from Deck nine dispenser, very good!
Do bring $2.00 bills, great for tips!
Do plan on meeting up with fellow DISBoard members, we are not all that bad!
Do plan on having a good time, relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not pack as much as you think you need, you will bring way too much!
Do not worry about bugs at the Radisson, we did not have any problem with them.. but!
Do not go crazy about the Chicken Tenders, too much pepper in the batter for my liking!
Do not go out of your way to avoid fellow DISBoard cruisers, as I said we are not all bad...well
Plan for future: Quit smoking, loose weight (did loose three pounds on cruise) and pack for Eastern 13 May 03
Would have liked to have seen more movies but this was my fault
Suggested improvement areas
Add a massage table to the Surreal Spa area!
Sushi rice at topsiders was dried out, however Stone Crab and huge Shrimp made up for this
Pictures Package: Should be able to come up with a better way of hiding Pictures?
Bath robes: DCL should provide them as other cruise lines do.
Make toiletries and sundries available when in port. Shops are closed until late, these items should be available always!
Missed Marketing Ideas
Frames: If DCL is going to present a special litho, then a frame that is sized for the litho should have been available. Packing this litho in a manner that would prevent damage was a real challenge. Very disappointing! Frame sizes should match all available items on board that can be framed.
Pins: Special Pins should be in an appropriate abundance so that every guest could have the chance to purchase one. Folks with three or four in a stateroom should have been able to have one for each member of their party. On this cruise only two per stateroom were allowed. Additionally, when pins that were not picked up by stateroom guest, the remaining ones were sold on the open market. The mass purchase by a few should not have been allowed. Pins were available for purchase on Wednesday, however a few pin crazed collectors were allowed to purchase as many as they wanted, eliminating the opportunity for others in line to get at least one additional pin! One woman I spoke with waited about an hour for them to go on sale (supposedly 150) and she was fifth or sixth in line, She did not get any!
Picture IDs. Princess Cruise Lines uses the same type of card system as DCL, however each guest has their picture on the card. DCL uses a picture on Crew IDs so guest implementation would be a snap. This would eliminate the use of an additional card to be carried around (drivers license) when leaving and boarding the ship, and eliminate the endless questions of which stateroom are you in by the cashiers?
Ferry to Playa Del Carmen: DCL should have sold seats for the ferry for those just wanting to go to Playa period! OR at least booked another ferry for this purpose. The 11AM ferry is not used when DCL is in Port., so if you want to go to Playa, you must get the 1PM ferry that would get you to Playa by 2PM which leaves very little time in Playa. For example: We would have rented a car in Playa and be on the road at 230PM, gone to Tulum for three hours (20-30 minutes down and back) (6:30 PM). plus time at Xel-Ha (one maybe two hours 6:30-7:00) and then return car and get 8PM ferry which is cutting it close with the last ferry at 9PM. The only ones allowed on the Ferry were those having a DCL sponsored excursion booked. I was told by the ferry people that the 11AM ferry was used for DCL excursion folks only! This type of operation could have been handled much differently.
Inaugural Mementos: I am surprised that DCL did not offer Baseball caps and sun visors with the May 11, 2002 Western Inaugural theme on them. Postcards also would have been nice.
Castaway Cay: Rental shack is too far from traffic, you have to lug that stuff through the sand? Should be closer to main traffic area. This would also allow for stuff to be picked up on your way to your selected spot and dropped off along high traffic area on the way back to the ship!
Mexicalifragalisticexpealicodious Night: Food such as tacos, burritos, chips and salsa, and other Mexican food was (at least by those I spoke with) expected in all the restaurants. The menu, was supposedly tried out on another cruise and was acceptable to those on that other cruise? Cannot for the life of me figure out how that happened. Forget the Caribbean menu and get with the Mexican theme night program. I want real Mexican food. Barbecued Buffalo Chicken Legs? Not!
Music on Deck: DCL should equalize the music on deck between different areas. At one pool you could hear the music from all three areas Just a combination of noise, but not understandable.
Room Problems
Cleaning Verandah: Our room hostess seemed to have an attitude. Upon our arrival in our stateroom I heard a noise on our verandah and went out to see what it was. I noticed an ashtray on the deck and the floor was covered with cigarette butts and ashes. I called Housekeeping to have someone come and clean it up. When no one came by after 30 minutes, I called Guest Services to report the problem. About 5 minutes later our room hostess arrived, she seemed very rushed and mentioned she had already received one page from housekeeping and my second call was not necessary! I understand the crew has a lot to do prior to cruising, but really? Not a good start! What a way to meet our hostess. I explained that the folks next door had pushed a baby carriage into the dividing panel and the ashtray it fell out. She proceeded to tell me this was not possible as the ashtrays can only be taken out with a key? I mentioned it did not matter, I wanted it cleaned up. She then asked me how should she clean it up and she kept looking at the ashtray, trying to figure out how it came out of its holder. She then told me she did not have anything to clean it up with. I said a broom would help at which point she mentioned they do not need brooms so they did not have any. I then said use a vacuum. She left and came back with a vacuum about ten minutes later and cleaned it up. She then went next door to put up the ash tray. Apparently she had a hard time because I overheard her tell our neighbors not to use it since it was broken and she would get them a portable ashtray. After she left, I used my plastic trash can which I filled with water and washed the deck off. This was the only time the verandah was cleaned all week!
On another note, while waiting for the room hostess to come back with the vacuum, I went next door (other side) to see how Brian and Jacquie were making out. Brian was reading a Navigator that had a bunch of inserts in it, movie schedules, shopping ideas, maps of the ship and other things. I went back to our room to find this Navigator. I could not find one like his so when I saw the hostess in the hallway I asked her to get me one. Again it was a song and a dance, explaining how all the room stewards got a pile of inserts for the Navigators and she stuffed one for each room. I again told her I would like one since there was not any in my room (Perhaps a Mouse took it)? She then came into the room to look for it as she was sure it was there. Dont know where it was, since there was nothing in that room! Prior to the fire drill she came back and said there were no more Navigators left. We donned our lifejackets and went to the drill. After the drill I went to guest services and asked for a Navigator with all the inserts and was handed one in a heartbeat. Upon returning to my room, I ran into our hostess who noticed I had the Navigator. She said I see you got your Navigator, I replied yes, guest services had them. Song and Dance time she says I called them and they said there were no more Navigators left. I guess they found them? DCL will get a very nice letter on her account. Although she always said hi and the beds were made up and the room cleaned, we did not always get ice and I did have to ask for lotion at least twice. She gave us one pack per day, not one per person one per room! Another situation came about when I asked her to remove the tray from the gift Brian had sent on Tuesday. On Thursday morning I asked her to remove the oval ice plate which came with the arrangement from guest services. She mentioned to me that Guest services had delivered the plate not room service and they would have to pick it up. No argument there, I just put it on the floor in the hallway (I hate doing that).
Server Problems
Assistant server was just ok. On the first night I explained to him that we would not be having any alcohol with dinner, just water, iced tea and a diet coke, period! No alcohol ever, never, never. Every night he asked if he could bring us all the wonderful drink of the day or perhaps a nice bottle of wine. I even took him aside and told him why no drinks were permitted, but he never got it into his head. I guess he figured since he was not getting a 15% tip from the alcohol bill he would find other tables that were ordering drinks as we always had to summon him for more water. Talk about programming? On another note I dont know what else he was supposed to do but he did remove dishes and replace silverware promptly.
On the other hand our server Jeevan was an absolute gem. Nothing was left undone, his suggestions for dinner were right on the mark, he brought us what we wanted, even chicken soup. He was even going to bring my dinner up to our room on the Mexican night! He had an anniversary cake for us on Wednesday since we were not there on Tuesday. He was absolutely marvelous. He should be promoted to Palos and I cannot say enough about his outstanding attitude, pleasantness, and service. We will be asking for him when we go back in May 2003.
Every crew member we passed on deck (even the painters) always had a nice hello and a big smile on their faces, and the Officers never passed you without some additional comment about how is your vacation going or are you enjoying your day etc? Very, very nice!
With the exception of the above notes, our overall experience was good and not enough to diminish our desire to cruise again with the Mouse. I will look at my movies (via rentals) and get a book on Disney Trivia?
How we completed the DCL questionnaire
Overall experience with DCL:Good
Value, Quality & Service: Since we got a steep Military discount, I did not compare pricing, and got pretty much what we expected for the cruise.
Overall experience with Crew courtesy and response to questions: Excellent
Before sailing: DCL Reservations Excellent, Transportation NA, Wait time to board and luggage to stateroom all Excellent.
Stateroom did not have everything in working order. The clothesline did not have line on it but a call to guest services had it fixed in an hour. Excellent
Cleanliness was not as expected. The incident with the ashtray before sailing indicated someone had not completely checked and cleaned the room properly. Additionally, when storing suitcases under the bed, we noticed three little gold wrappers from the pillow chocolates. Just OK!
Friendliness and courtesy of stateroom hostess: Poor to OK?
Guest Services: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!
Food and beverage Services: Overall experience, food quality, selections and availability: Very Good with the exception of Mexican Night which I would rate LAME!
Friendliness, Knowledge of server team Excellent
Food and Menu quality in all restaurants was very good!
Palo all excellent both brunch and dinner!
Topsiders: Variety, Quality, service at Plutos, Pinocchios very good except Chicken Tenders
Entertainment: Unless you are very familiar with Disney I found most of the entertainment good to excellent, mostly excellent because the productions could be heard and seen, seating was excellent, and lighting and stage crews performed very well. I did not like the very loud passages in Hercules, turn down the mixers!
Events and Activities: Overall for families excellent, for adults-good, behind the scenes series very good, Navigators series-very good, Art of Entertaining-NA, Welcome Aboard Gala-Very good, no rating on kids programs, but I should have given it an excellent since we never felt overwhelmed with the kiddies. DCL must have them entertained somewhere?
Spa and Photography were excellent
Merchandise staff excellent
Merchandise availability: Pins and Inaugural stuff Lame, other wise very good!
Ability to find what we needed excellent, with exception of sundries noted above.
Castaway Cay: All excellent!
Port Excursions: NA, but wrote above comments on ferry situation.
Overall Cleanliness, Maintenance, Safety drill efficiency. Since we kept moving and were where we were supposed to be when scheduled I gave these all excellent.
Problems were noted and corrected quickly: Excellent
Cleaning Verandah noted and rated poor!
Did not have a chance to rate leaving the ship but that was Excellent!
OK we will see the Mouse again! We had enough good times, met enough great people, had enough to eat, had enough Pixie Dust with us which did not run out, did not spend an extraordinary amount of money, were satisfied with future cruise pricing and arrived safely to overcome any minor irritating experiences we had. See yall on the Eastern!
Likes & Dislikes, Dos & Donts
Do get the over the door shoe holder, this is the greatest tip I have ever come across!
Do go to the Palos brunch, you will not be disappointed!
Do go to Palos for dinner, service, ambiance and food is wonderful!
Do go to the Sureal Spa, it will make you young again!
Do get some Pizza from Pinocchios
Do make time to see movies on board but bring a blanket as it is very cold in the theater!
Do bring Sea Lice preventative, we did not use any but you never know!
Do buy your limit of Alcohol, very cheap and you can always use it as a gift!
Do talk to guest services if you have a problem, it WILL be addressed immediately
Do not worry about the kids on board, it seemed the ratio was about 3 adults for each kid!
Do take extra Pixie dust, you may find a need for it sometime during your cruise!
Do try to look into The Perfect Gift, Shirley is wonderful!
Do fill a cup with ice, and then pour it into your water bottle, easier than putting a bottle under the ice maker and trying to get ice to drop into the bottle, then fill with water!
Do get coffee from Deck nine dispenser, very good!
Do bring $2.00 bills, great for tips!
Do plan on meeting up with fellow DISBoard members, we are not all that bad!
Do plan on having a good time, relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not pack as much as you think you need, you will bring way too much!
Do not worry about bugs at the Radisson, we did not have any problem with them.. but!
Do not go crazy about the Chicken Tenders, too much pepper in the batter for my liking!
Do not go out of your way to avoid fellow DISBoard cruisers, as I said we are not all bad...well
Plan for future: Quit smoking, loose weight (did loose three pounds on cruise) and pack for Eastern 13 May 03
Would have liked to have seen more movies but this was my fault
Suggested improvement areas
Add a massage table to the Surreal Spa area!
Sushi rice at topsiders was dried out, however Stone Crab and huge Shrimp made up for this
Pictures Package: Should be able to come up with a better way of hiding Pictures?
Bath robes: DCL should provide them as other cruise lines do.
Make toiletries and sundries available when in port. Shops are closed until late, these items should be available always!
Missed Marketing Ideas
Frames: If DCL is going to present a special litho, then a frame that is sized for the litho should have been available. Packing this litho in a manner that would prevent damage was a real challenge. Very disappointing! Frame sizes should match all available items on board that can be framed.
Pins: Special Pins should be in an appropriate abundance so that every guest could have the chance to purchase one. Folks with three or four in a stateroom should have been able to have one for each member of their party. On this cruise only two per stateroom were allowed. Additionally, when pins that were not picked up by stateroom guest, the remaining ones were sold on the open market. The mass purchase by a few should not have been allowed. Pins were available for purchase on Wednesday, however a few pin crazed collectors were allowed to purchase as many as they wanted, eliminating the opportunity for others in line to get at least one additional pin! One woman I spoke with waited about an hour for them to go on sale (supposedly 150) and she was fifth or sixth in line, She did not get any!
Picture IDs. Princess Cruise Lines uses the same type of card system as DCL, however each guest has their picture on the card. DCL uses a picture on Crew IDs so guest implementation would be a snap. This would eliminate the use of an additional card to be carried around (drivers license) when leaving and boarding the ship, and eliminate the endless questions of which stateroom are you in by the cashiers?
Ferry to Playa Del Carmen: DCL should have sold seats for the ferry for those just wanting to go to Playa period! OR at least booked another ferry for this purpose. The 11AM ferry is not used when DCL is in Port., so if you want to go to Playa, you must get the 1PM ferry that would get you to Playa by 2PM which leaves very little time in Playa. For example: We would have rented a car in Playa and be on the road at 230PM, gone to Tulum for three hours (20-30 minutes down and back) (6:30 PM). plus time at Xel-Ha (one maybe two hours 6:30-7:00) and then return car and get 8PM ferry which is cutting it close with the last ferry at 9PM. The only ones allowed on the Ferry were those having a DCL sponsored excursion booked. I was told by the ferry people that the 11AM ferry was used for DCL excursion folks only! This type of operation could have been handled much differently.
Inaugural Mementos: I am surprised that DCL did not offer Baseball caps and sun visors with the May 11, 2002 Western Inaugural theme on them. Postcards also would have been nice.
Castaway Cay: Rental shack is too far from traffic, you have to lug that stuff through the sand? Should be closer to main traffic area. This would also allow for stuff to be picked up on your way to your selected spot and dropped off along high traffic area on the way back to the ship!
Mexicalifragalisticexpealicodious Night: Food such as tacos, burritos, chips and salsa, and other Mexican food was (at least by those I spoke with) expected in all the restaurants. The menu, was supposedly tried out on another cruise and was acceptable to those on that other cruise? Cannot for the life of me figure out how that happened. Forget the Caribbean menu and get with the Mexican theme night program. I want real Mexican food. Barbecued Buffalo Chicken Legs? Not!
Music on Deck: DCL should equalize the music on deck between different areas. At one pool you could hear the music from all three areas Just a combination of noise, but not understandable.
Room Problems
Cleaning Verandah: Our room hostess seemed to have an attitude. Upon our arrival in our stateroom I heard a noise on our verandah and went out to see what it was. I noticed an ashtray on the deck and the floor was covered with cigarette butts and ashes. I called Housekeeping to have someone come and clean it up. When no one came by after 30 minutes, I called Guest Services to report the problem. About 5 minutes later our room hostess arrived, she seemed very rushed and mentioned she had already received one page from housekeeping and my second call was not necessary! I understand the crew has a lot to do prior to cruising, but really? Not a good start! What a way to meet our hostess. I explained that the folks next door had pushed a baby carriage into the dividing panel and the ashtray it fell out. She proceeded to tell me this was not possible as the ashtrays can only be taken out with a key? I mentioned it did not matter, I wanted it cleaned up. She then asked me how should she clean it up and she kept looking at the ashtray, trying to figure out how it came out of its holder. She then told me she did not have anything to clean it up with. I said a broom would help at which point she mentioned they do not need brooms so they did not have any. I then said use a vacuum. She left and came back with a vacuum about ten minutes later and cleaned it up. She then went next door to put up the ash tray. Apparently she had a hard time because I overheard her tell our neighbors not to use it since it was broken and she would get them a portable ashtray. After she left, I used my plastic trash can which I filled with water and washed the deck off. This was the only time the verandah was cleaned all week!
On another note, while waiting for the room hostess to come back with the vacuum, I went next door (other side) to see how Brian and Jacquie were making out. Brian was reading a Navigator that had a bunch of inserts in it, movie schedules, shopping ideas, maps of the ship and other things. I went back to our room to find this Navigator. I could not find one like his so when I saw the hostess in the hallway I asked her to get me one. Again it was a song and a dance, explaining how all the room stewards got a pile of inserts for the Navigators and she stuffed one for each room. I again told her I would like one since there was not any in my room (Perhaps a Mouse took it)? She then came into the room to look for it as she was sure it was there. Dont know where it was, since there was nothing in that room! Prior to the fire drill she came back and said there were no more Navigators left. We donned our lifejackets and went to the drill. After the drill I went to guest services and asked for a Navigator with all the inserts and was handed one in a heartbeat. Upon returning to my room, I ran into our hostess who noticed I had the Navigator. She said I see you got your Navigator, I replied yes, guest services had them. Song and Dance time she says I called them and they said there were no more Navigators left. I guess they found them? DCL will get a very nice letter on her account. Although she always said hi and the beds were made up and the room cleaned, we did not always get ice and I did have to ask for lotion at least twice. She gave us one pack per day, not one per person one per room! Another situation came about when I asked her to remove the tray from the gift Brian had sent on Tuesday. On Thursday morning I asked her to remove the oval ice plate which came with the arrangement from guest services. She mentioned to me that Guest services had delivered the plate not room service and they would have to pick it up. No argument there, I just put it on the floor in the hallway (I hate doing that).
Server Problems
Assistant server was just ok. On the first night I explained to him that we would not be having any alcohol with dinner, just water, iced tea and a diet coke, period! No alcohol ever, never, never. Every night he asked if he could bring us all the wonderful drink of the day or perhaps a nice bottle of wine. I even took him aside and told him why no drinks were permitted, but he never got it into his head. I guess he figured since he was not getting a 15% tip from the alcohol bill he would find other tables that were ordering drinks as we always had to summon him for more water. Talk about programming? On another note I dont know what else he was supposed to do but he did remove dishes and replace silverware promptly.
On the other hand our server Jeevan was an absolute gem. Nothing was left undone, his suggestions for dinner were right on the mark, he brought us what we wanted, even chicken soup. He was even going to bring my dinner up to our room on the Mexican night! He had an anniversary cake for us on Wednesday since we were not there on Tuesday. He was absolutely marvelous. He should be promoted to Palos and I cannot say enough about his outstanding attitude, pleasantness, and service. We will be asking for him when we go back in May 2003.
Every crew member we passed on deck (even the painters) always had a nice hello and a big smile on their faces, and the Officers never passed you without some additional comment about how is your vacation going or are you enjoying your day etc? Very, very nice!
With the exception of the above notes, our overall experience was good and not enough to diminish our desire to cruise again with the Mouse. I will look at my movies (via rentals) and get a book on Disney Trivia?
How we completed the DCL questionnaire
Overall experience with DCL:Good
Value, Quality & Service: Since we got a steep Military discount, I did not compare pricing, and got pretty much what we expected for the cruise.
Overall experience with Crew courtesy and response to questions: Excellent
Before sailing: DCL Reservations Excellent, Transportation NA, Wait time to board and luggage to stateroom all Excellent.
Stateroom did not have everything in working order. The clothesline did not have line on it but a call to guest services had it fixed in an hour. Excellent
Cleanliness was not as expected. The incident with the ashtray before sailing indicated someone had not completely checked and cleaned the room properly. Additionally, when storing suitcases under the bed, we noticed three little gold wrappers from the pillow chocolates. Just OK!
Friendliness and courtesy of stateroom hostess: Poor to OK?
Guest Services: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!
Food and beverage Services: Overall experience, food quality, selections and availability: Very Good with the exception of Mexican Night which I would rate LAME!
Friendliness, Knowledge of server team Excellent
Food and Menu quality in all restaurants was very good!
Palo all excellent both brunch and dinner!
Topsiders: Variety, Quality, service at Plutos, Pinocchios very good except Chicken Tenders
Entertainment: Unless you are very familiar with Disney I found most of the entertainment good to excellent, mostly excellent because the productions could be heard and seen, seating was excellent, and lighting and stage crews performed very well. I did not like the very loud passages in Hercules, turn down the mixers!
Events and Activities: Overall for families excellent, for adults-good, behind the scenes series very good, Navigators series-very good, Art of Entertaining-NA, Welcome Aboard Gala-Very good, no rating on kids programs, but I should have given it an excellent since we never felt overwhelmed with the kiddies. DCL must have them entertained somewhere?
Spa and Photography were excellent
Merchandise staff excellent
Merchandise availability: Pins and Inaugural stuff Lame, other wise very good!
Ability to find what we needed excellent, with exception of sundries noted above.
Castaway Cay: All excellent!
Port Excursions: NA, but wrote above comments on ferry situation.
Overall Cleanliness, Maintenance, Safety drill efficiency. Since we kept moving and were where we were supposed to be when scheduled I gave these all excellent.
Problems were noted and corrected quickly: Excellent
Cleaning Verandah noted and rated poor!
Did not have a chance to rate leaving the ship but that was Excellent!
OK we will see the Mouse again! We had enough good times, met enough great people, had enough to eat, had enough Pixie Dust with us which did not run out, did not spend an extraordinary amount of money, were satisfied with future cruise pricing and arrived safely to overcome any minor irritating experiences we had. See yall on the Eastern!
