packyourpixiedust

I cruised the Edge earlier in the year and a preview cruise GF/Celiac. For the buffet, I never actually ate off the buffet but used it as a reference and had someone bring me the food from the back. I honestly can’t think of anything memorable. As for memorable, there is a garlic dip from the trio of dips in the Tuscan restaurant that is amazing. You can request that in blu or wherever you are dining. There is also a pork shank that was amazing. I tried to have it remade in Luminae without much luck. I think one night in our next cruise, I will go to the Cosmopolitan for it. It’s on the floating menus that go to all the restaurants. There was also an amazing pasta Carbonara that was memorable that could be made GF by request. Celebrity is the same as other lines with their ‘allergy’ meals, you’ll place an order the night before for the next nights meal. There are things that are naturally GF on the menu for the first night.  

I received a move up email for the Feb 16th Edge sailing. I looked online though and the Iconic Cabin is sold out, as well as the Edge Villa, but both were listed in my MoveUp email. In theory, the Iconic Suite person won't move down. Now that could happen to the person in the Edge Villa, but why would they list the Iconic?? And did they list the Edge because the theory is maybe someone will move up?? 

Also, I perused some questions in here but didn't see an answer- anyone know how they decide it? Could it be purely on price? Because if suite people are offered higher cabins at a lower price, so then they wouldn't pay as much in theory as someone not already in a suite/upper suite. Curious about your thoughts. 

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Typically, the "sewer" smells you experience on ships comes from deck drain U-traps (just like the traps in the drain lines under your sink at home) that dries out due to the low humidity in the AC air.  This can happen in your cabin bathroom as well, where the floor drain (not the one in the shower, there will be either one under the toilet or a gutter type at the door) that does not regularly see water down it to replenish the trap, dries out.  A glass of water down this every couple of days takes care of it.  My guess is that as the Edge is a new vessel, the crew have not located all the deck drains in the back of bar service areas, or in technical lockers around the ship, and have not learned they need to refill these traps regularly.  Typically, within a few seconds of filling the trap, the odor goes away.

I was on the same sailing as OP. This description is great and I’m sure true. I fully meant to ask the concierge hosts in the Retreat lounge about it. The smell existed faintly in our shower on one or two occasions  (foward location suite), we smelled it in the Retreat pool- it would come in waves, and in the sunset bar, again in waves, but we were only there once. 

On Princess there were many options on the buffet that were marked GF. I could have eaten there without a problem. But I didn't try after my experience on RCCL. As others have said....other passengers aren't aware of cross contamination issues with serving tools etc. Some staff are very aware, others not so much. RCCL didn't seem to have the level of concern about my diet that Princess did. Or maybe it was just the way the Head Waiter approached it and his willingness to assist me. As stated previously this is a fairly new diagnosis for me but I am sailing Princess again in two weeks and am looking forward to another good GF dining experience. Now hopefully I will have a good experience with American Airlines.....first time flying with the need to order special meals.

Chris

Would you please report back on how the cruise went for you?? I'm sailing Princess as a celiac for the first time next summer. I have experience on other lines and I'd like to read how it went for you this past June. I'm going to be traveling with 15 other family members including my 5 year so always going to a sit down meal or waiting 15-30 minutes for my food in the buffet would not be ideal...

There is a global entry line in Miami now. We cruised the Vista which ended Feb 4th or so and they had a line. We had our cards and just one of us needed to show it. All 4 of us had it. They basically had us cut in line. Would love for port canaveral to get it.

It's disappointing that you are in a 'suite' and aren't given real shampoo and conditioner.

I'm curious about what I want to do. I've been sailing a lot of Disney, a little Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. I was intrigued by this ship but am not overly impressed with the 'quality ' of the suite as seen in the pictures. If be curious what more people think.

why on earth is part of "Pa****urpixiedust" 's username censored???

I have no idea. It;s strange!

thank you both - mocki's mommy and pa****urpixiedust (cute name) -

 

I can't remember what made me hell bent to make sure he was officially re-assigned- but there was something - for sure. it's important to me. we have two babies traveling with us.

 

We'll see at check-in -and if they kick up a fuss for extra $$ then we wait until we're aboard. I already have a long list of things to take care of at the front desk.

Probably if there is an emergency and you need to use the life boats- you will want to be assigned the same life boat. I am the same- I am hell bent on making it assigned correctly!! (but also saving a little money by not booking a single!!)

We have reassigned my husband at the pier 2 or 3 times, 2 of the times, it was this year. We were not charged extra to do it at the managers desk. It would be worth asking in my opinion.

One time my mom went and checked it before we got to the pier, and she had my husband reassigned to our cabin before we even arrived.

If you don't do it at the pier, you have to do it after the muster drill.

At least this has been my experience.

John Heald indicated that all tips go to the person that is supposed to receive the tips.... He also posted that you can still request twice a day device in a regular cabin. (For what it's worth.)

No response here. I'm just wondering why the CC system greeked out C K Y O from the user name.

I wonder that as well :)

My first thought was maybe it was too long, but it's not taking up less space with the *'s. Who knows.

I booked a double dip on castaway cay cruise. I've been dying to do one of these. Have the cruise environment which I love but the beach days which I really like as well. :)

We actually booked the Magic for the 7 night Med cruise in August 2017. We booked ONE Deluxe Inside 10A stateroom for all 4 of us (2 Adults, 2 Kids 15 & 12) for $7804. Hubby wanted me to look into longer cruises and compare to RCCL. We have NEVER sailed RCCL before and have always wanted to, but honestly...I'd much rather sail DCL. But when I saw a 14 night Med on the Independence of the Seas for only $1400 more than what we paid for the Magic...oh, and this is in TWO Promenade Staterooms...well, it's a no brainer. I guess we are trying RCCL next summer. :confused::eek:

There are some things that RCCL is a little better with. I think your teens might really like the offerings in the ship more too. Have fun!!

Who else is waiting not so patiently to book for summer 2017??? If only we knew the prices! I actually think it's keeping me awake. Which won't bode well for my day tomorrow. What is everyone looking at??? I'm curious what rates will do over last summer? If there's a 10% increase then I can book what I want in the Dream. What's wveryone else thinking?

Did I miss you saying which ship you are in and when? The fantasy is still showing the breakfast in their navigators for cruises as recently as Marxh 12th or something like that. I cruised January 30th and we had a breakfast. Finally I expect to have one in May when we cruise again. If we don't it won't be the end of the world but my almost 3 year old loves it.

Thanks for all the replies--it's almost emabarrassing how much I am looking forward to this trip! Pixiedust, appreciate your discussion about upgrade cost/availability at port. I have had my eye on 12000 since our first and only cruise a few years ago but was afraid it would be gone if I waited to try and upgrade at port. Glad to hear you loved it.

 

Any idea if the fireworks can be viewed from the balcony?

I don't know if you could. We went up one deck and watched from the adult area there. I don't think you'd be able to see them from there. But I don't know know for sure. The fireworks were off the starboard side. And a were a little further midship in my opinion. I think you'd see them for sure in the large suite on the right of this cabin just not sure if you'd see it from 12000. Enjoy. I think you'll love it!!!

I'm glad you got the seating you wished and waited so long for!

But I believe everyone is assigned late dinner seating when booking if I have read Shmoo's posts correctly, so that would unfortunately mean no more DCL cruises.

That is a shame.

 

ex techie

When cruises are first opened you can for sure switch the dining seating to early when making the booking.

In the past didn't they release summer and then the rest of the year a couple months later. I could be wrong about this. But I thought they did like a third of the year at a time. :cool:

I upgraded to this cabin (12000) in January on the Fantasy. It was great. We had a car seat and a stroller- so we kept that in the entry way area. I walked through a one-bedroom on the side of the ship and it looked like the living room was bigger in cabin 12000. The balcony view wasn't my favorite. You couldn't stand at the rail and look out at the ocean. There was an angle for wind deflection probably and the front of the ship with the teens club was below. I didn't love this. But I LOOOVED the big balcony. I wrote a blog with pictures of this cabin. My user name .com is how you can find it.

Just returned from the cruise and sharing how things turned out...

 

-At boarding we were still in 2nd seating.

-Dinning changes were accepted at 1 PM in Royal Palace. We were placed on a list and asked to show up at 5:45 at which time we would then know if our request for main dinning could be accommodated.

NOTE: When we reserved the cruise we requested our own table given DDs allergies... I had to pleade for this again.

-When we showed up for dinner at 5:45, we were told our requests had been accommodated. Whew...now I could enjoy the cruise.

-We ended up with tables which were clearly set up last minute; near the kitchen/cleaning areas. However, we were happy neverless to be in main dinning.

*Again, to avoid all of this, we will not book with Disney unless we get main seating at the time of booking.

 

Thank you all for your support and suggestions!

Glad it worked out.

Thank you! You described my feelings about this perfectly. We cruise in 2 days and are still in 2nd seating. Having cruised on Disney several times, we know that we can try to get moved once we board. However, we would prefer to relax knowing it's taken care of. One of my kiddos has several food allergies which limits options... Disney is aware of this.

 

To have booked this cruise so far in advance, paid what we did (Disney's not cheap) & have to stress about this is making me rethink future cruises. Not saying that we won't cruise with DCL; we just won't do so unless we get 1st seating at the time of booking. Lesson learned!

Good luck and if you think about it, post how it turned out once you return?

Did you log in and confirm that you are still in late seating?

Just to be clear' date=' did you wait in a LONG line on board the ship in order to have your card swiped or did you wait in long lines in the terminal in order to claim luggage and go thru Customs?

 

I've had some lines on the various ships, but they typically moved very quickly except when Customs had issues and had backed things up to the extent that people couldn't even get off the ship. Except on those occasions, the line to get off the ship has been very minimal and moved quite quickly, and that is the only line where the Concierge staff has any influence. We typically don't book concierge, but I have seen the staff bring people down and cut the line with them. Odd that this didn't happen in February. However, once that card is swiped, the line in the terminal may be minimal or horrible. DCL has nothing to do with it at that point.

 

Yes, I've been held on board for 5 minutes while the congestion in the terminal cleared. In those cases, as soon as we were allowed to "swipe out," we proceeded into the terminal with no delay until the Customs line. But this was a very minimal line that formed during that few minute delay. The times that we've had issues and long lines, they have always been caused by Customs.[/quote']

 

It was the line to get us off the ship. (to swipe and leave the ship.) They indicated that unless we left before 8, they couldn't walk us down to cut the line.

In February, unless you left the ship at 7:45, the concierge hosts were not escorting that class of guests off the ship. We attempted to leave around 8:45 and waited in the LOOONG lines with everyone else.

Being told to 'relax' when you have little kids or when you know you can't do late seating, but you are scheduled for late is easier said than done! I would be like you original poster, freaked out until this was resolved. I have always been successfully moved to early dining (once it did take me until the 2nd day.) But I will say, it doesn't freak me out as much any more because I have always been moved and I feel like I have contingencies if I am not moved. I wrote up my experience since I was re-telling the story over and over. Here it is! GOOD LUCK!!! and I am confident that you will get switched. (ps- I don't think calling makes a difference.)

he how to's of moving your dining reservation on Disney Cruise Line. This post specifically deals with going from late seating to first seating (main) but it could be used in reverse if there was ever a need.

I've been scheduled for late dining but needed early for 3 Disney Cruises within the past 2 years. In all 3 cases I've eventually been successful in my request to move to early dining. For the first 2 cruises I booked REALLY last minute- the week before for one trip and 3 or 4 weeks before for the other trip. I put my request in my reservation both times to be placed on the wait list. Both cruises were 7 nights on the Fantasy. For the second cruise, which was this past summer, we were moved before we set sail! I was actually able to log into my account and see that I was moved several days before we cruised. What a nice feeling!

On the first cruise, we weren't moved to early dining before setting sail. I had booked this cruise one week before we sailed and I put a request in (wait list) for early seating, which was not granted. Upon boarding the ship I had to go to the designated area to request a seating change, in this case it was the Royal Court dining room just off the entrance. I was like 15th on the list as we didn't board until around 2:45 pm. I was told I would be notified that night about getting moved - they really didn't notify us. Since we weren't notified, or moved, we just ordered room service and ate in the room. The whole thing was disappointing.

In the future if we aren't moved before the cruise starts, we will just eat quick service outside on the pool deck and eat sandwiches, pizza, salads or whatever the offer. They even have high chairs in the seating area for my little guy. That would have worked out much better, which is why I am no longer concerned if my dining time doesn't get moved right away, or ever. On the cruise mentioned above, we were ultimately moved to first seating by the morning of the 2nd day. They notified us around 10 am. The plan for the future if we aren't moved is to eat at Cabanas (the buffet which turns into a table service restaurant at night) for the nights they are open. Cabanas isn't available the first or last night of the cruise. So this is when quick service would come into play.

Our third Disney cruise was booked 4 weeks before departure and as a result we were forced into second seating for dinner which just wouldn't work with my toddler. [Dinner would have started a half hour after his bedtime.] We were placed on a wait list and I am very happy to report that our request was approved and we were moved into main/early dining before the start of the cruise. [i was able to confirm this by logging into my account and reviewing the cruise details. Under the cruise details it indicated we were in main dining.] I received this information about 3 days before the cruise. This took so much stress away for that first day. Had I not secured main dining before the cruise we would have had to go to the designated area the first day of the cruise to make the request one more time.My kiddo is sleeping before the second service begins, so that seating is just not an option right now for my family. But like I said, with the other options. I am just not worried at all anymore about being moved.

Finally, for our fourth Disney cruise, which was during a busy winter week, we were once again forced into late dining. We booked that particular cruise about 6 months before the cruise. Luckily for us, we were moved into early seating before we were even able to do on board check-in.

I agree with the previous poster that advises you to put your husband in your mother's room and leave the kids officially in your room. Disney doesn't care who sleeps where, BUT if there was an emergency, you want it to be clear that the kids are with you. You can also officially change your spouses cabin once on board with no change in pricing. We have done this many times as my mom cruises as a solo and we are a cabin of 3. We just pay her for what our son would cost in our room. My son and I are always in the same cabin, and my mother and husband are scheduled in the same cabin. After the muster drill, guest services will change it for you.