PopFla

....but just because you're "settled in" for a comfy stay doesn't mean you literally have the place to yourself.

Sheesh. Was that necessary ? :(

I just measured one of our door decorations; the widest part of Goofy's orange shirt (the space between the two blue arrows) is 10 and a quarter inches, so 14" would seem to be a pretty good estimation.

Hey! I was on that cruise! Loved Susan Egan.

Mandy Gonzalez was excellent, also. Both of them were so down-to-earth. :cool:

You can use your own equipment, but DCL requires that you wear a vest which they will loan you at no charge at the same location where they rent the other gear.

We greatly enjoyed Susan's performances on the eastbound transatlantic cruise on the Magic last May. :)

If movement is an issue, make sure your cabin room is deck 2 or 3 amidship to slightly aft. The upper decks on the bow will have the most movement.

 

While deck 2/3 interior midship cabins will still roll with the ship, the distance traveled during a roll is much less and will feel slower. Ocean view rooms are nice for during the day to establish a horizon which helps reduce seasickness, not at night time it usually doesn't help because you can't see well enough.

Just for clarification, Wonder does not have any cabins on Decks 3 or 4.

We just got off the Dream this morning. We found that there was almost no liquor displayed in the Duty Free area - about a dozen bottles in a display case. Two crew members advised us that DCL is discontinuing alcohol sales in Duty Free, and that they are in the process of selling off what's left in their stock room. Fortunately for me, they still had two bottles of my preferred brand in stock, but they had to get it from the stock room. All of the shelves where liquor was formerly displayed are now full of clothing for sale.

Crew members claimed they don't know why the decision was made to stop sales. Anybody else have any info on this ? :confused:

I couldn't agree more. On our EBTA in May, we had a problem with one crew member who interacted with us in a very unprofessional and decidedly un-Disneylike manner. We brought it to the attention of Guest Services. The next day we received a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries with a note of apology from Guest Services.

Unrelated to that incident, we happened to mention to the Cruise Director that we were celebrating our 50th anniversary. Lo and behold, another plate of delicious strawberries and a very nice note from him.

After we got home we wrote a letter to the president of the cruise line, which we do after every cruise, praising certain crew members who made the trip memorable. We included a very brief comment about the problem we had just to let him know it wasn't 100% rosy. A day or two later we received a call from the president's executive assistant wanting to discuss the problem in more detail. She assured us that the crew member would be addressed and apologized profusely. A few days later we received a very nice gift from her in the mail.

And that is just one more reason why we keep coming back to DCL.

...but a hotel in London used to give a branded hotel to keep at check in.

Wow ! That can get expensive for them to do. :D

Possibly so the Captain can practice docking in the slip?

 

ex techie

Could be. There may be some differences in handling with the addition of the "ducktail", so they might practice bow-first and stern-first docking.

Or perhaps they're just giving the crew a day of R&R on a nice warm island after so much time in chilly Cadiz....:cool:

Wonder is underway from Lisbon, enroute to Port Canaveral, but not going directly there. Her projected track shown on marinetraffic.com shows that she is likely going to make a stop at Castaway Cay before going to the port. Can't say I blame them !

Siemens S7 PLCs apparently with a touch-screen display. Nice stuff.

I used to build control panels like that in the mid-90's. Lots of familiar stuff in that panel. The ones I worked on were mostly for pump controls for water and wastewater plants, so pretty similar.

On our first DCL cruise, we were on deck 1 aft of Magic, stateroom #1062. As mentioned, it had two small portholes but otherwise was very satisfactory. The only noise that we encountered was when they were using the thrusters when docking/undocking. And even then the noise wasn't bad. There was one afternoon when we happened to come back to the room and could hear some hammering nearby; apparently they were doing some work in the engine room.

With the knowledge gained since that time, today I would take deck 2 midship for the reasons mentioned by Shmoo. Going from deck 1 aft to the adult pool area was quite a trek.

It's been a labor of love for this Ship! Gonna miss this thread when she's out of drydock... we've had a great time here discussing start to finish of the new and improved Disney Wonder!!!

Now I'm anxious to see a thread start when construction begins on DCL Ship # 5 in Papenburg !

:cool:

Looks like she's just moving to the Cadiz Anchorage area.

I was told the one off the Magic is going to' date=' at some point, be put into the PC Terminal. The one off the Wonder I have not heard anything.

 

AKK[/quote']

 

They did tend to sway a bit depending on the motion of the ship. The terminal would seem to be a fitting location. That's better than having them end up in a landfill.

 

One thing I've heard over the years is that the originals, designed by world-famous glass artist Dale Chihuly, were actually made of plastic. Anyone know for certain ?

The "Ice Cream Cone" chandelier on Magic

I was surprised when I saw this as the chandelier for the Wonder as it is obviously very different from the horrible piece they chose for the Magic.

Although it is more in keeping with the Dream and Fantasy, I can't say I'm wow'd by it.

 

What are others opinions and thoughts?

 

ex techie

 

I still don't understand why they replaced the Chilhuly chandeliers on both ships, unless perhaps they were "on loan" to DCL for a set number of years. And I wonder what became of them when they were removed.

I agree 100% that the new "ice cream cone" chandelier on Magic is just flat out ugly. This new one for Wonder isn't quite as bad, IMHO.

A side note - - Although it didn't happen in this case....

As someone who worked in the baggage handling area of Orlando International for 13 years, I can't even begin to count the number of times we encountered bags with smashed bottles of beer, liquor, toiletries, etc that have thoroughly soaked the contents of not only that bag but several others that it has come into contact with, not to mention the broken glass among the clothing in the original bag. If you must transport glass containers, make sure they are thoroughly padded - top, bottom and sides - and ask your airline to tag the bag as FRAGILE.

On the eastbound Transatlantic on the Magic this past May, we were in some moderately nasty seas for a few days between Nova Scotia and Ireland. At dinner one night in Lumiere's, we were rolling side-to-side fairly steeply. Our head waiter came to our table and asked if we had ordered cheesecake for dessert; we hadn't. He said "That's a good thing, because a huge tray of cheesecake just slid off the counter and landed upside down on the floor." :eek:

Shortly after that, the ship rolled to starboard enough that all we could see out the big portholes was water. As it corrected, it rolled to port almost as much, and was enough to send a pile of dishes onto the deck, shattering quite a few of them. After that one big rolling session, the ship pretty much settled down to relatively mild rocking and rolling.

For names, I'd suggest Disney Wallet and Disney Credit Card. :eek:

Just an FYI... I read elsewhere a little while ago that the Member cruise is already 100% booked.

Not for me - - WAYYYYYY too expen$ive.

Every cruise we've been on since we joined DVC we've had a welcome magnet on our stateroom door without even telling them we're members. Apparently the DCL and DVC databases are somewhat connected.

Even if you have no intention of buying into DVC or adding on points, the presentations are usually enjoyable and normally include free snacks and/or drinks.

I see that Dream is docked in Nassau today, so it looks like the cruise is progressing as scheduled.

Chocolate covered strawberries are definitely available on the ships. On our Transatlantic in May, a plate of them was sent to us as a 50th Anniversary gift from the Cruise Director. And another night, Guest Services sent us another plate of them following a less-than-magical experience with one of their staff.

Don't be bashful or reluctant to ask this favor of your server or head server. Crew Members are always ready to make magic for their guests.