9/16/2017 Magic Transatlantic from Barcelona

[gismo1554]

Perhaps, after the troubles there, they do not intend to return and so don't need the feedback?

Quite possibly. Still seems a strange one not to at least ask about.

 

[RedSox68]

How does it make any sense that they would charge you for tickets that they had given to someone else? Who would be willing to sign on for something like that?? Is that really Disney?

I tried to get in to see the cooking demos, but they were always too crowded to be interesting to me. My mom went to all of them, and was disappointed to find that they all included chocolate, which she cannot eat.

Something else that made me wonder a bit: even though I put it on the reservation and let our serving staff know several times that my mother gets very sick if she eats chocolate, they continually presented her desserts with chocolate decorations that were not listed in the food description. Even for my parent's anniversary congratulations, they were presented with the standard chocolate cake round! Our server asked once if it was an allergy or an intolerance, and I answered as I would have at Disney World -- it's technically an intolerance but if she has any chocolate or cocoa powder she has terrible flu-like symptoms. Our experience at WDW is that if you declare an allergy they will go out of their way to ensure that there is no cross-contamination. If it is an intolerance they will simply make sure that nothing on your plate includes the dangerous ingredients. On the cruise it felt like they really didn't care and expected her to eat around it as if it was just a matter of not liking chocolate.

The second to last night our server was surprised at our horrified expressions when my mom was given yet another dessert with a chocolate stuck in it.

I really loved our server. She was a treasure in every other way. This was just so out of whack with my experience with Disney and food issues.

Edited to add: Anyhow, I just wrote a feedback email to Disney about our issues, and I'm going to take a few cleansing breaths and let it go. Perhaps it's time to plan a non-Disney vacation to Newfoundland or the Azores so my kids can experience them after all

I am stunned (to say the least) that this food allergy item was not presented just once, but several times on your mother's plate! I thought Disney excelled in noting food preferences, allergies, etc. for the dining room!

 

[RedSox68]

What happened in Cadiz that delayed the arrival and caused some to think they may never return there?

 

[Aanna]

What happened in Cadiz that delayed the arrival and caused some to think they may never return there?

We arrived to what was announced as "an unusually low tide" that meant the standard gangways which link up to Deck 1 could not be used. There was a delay of about 45 minutes to get different gangways hooked up to Deck 3. These were very steep -- sort of a ramp with evenly spaced cross-bars that one finds on children's swing-sets these days. It was very difficult to walk down these. In addition, no handicapped-accessible gangways were available until 1:30pm -- which meant the port time was cut down to 2 hours for anyone who could not manage the difficult ramp.

Perhaps that isn't enough for Disney to abandon Cadiz as a port of call -- I was sort of grasping at straws. Perhaps they did not survey us on Cadiz because they'd already gotten an ear-full of folks complaining about the gangway situation? Just random conjecture.

 

[Aanna]

I am stunned (to say the least) that this food allergy item was not presented just once, but several times on your mother's plate! I thought Disney excelled in noting food preferences, allergies, etc. for the dining room!

My previous experiences with Disney and food issues has been superb. I've shepherded family with severe dairy allergies, this chocolate issue, and various other intolerances through many Disney trips, and I have only wonderful things to say about the care and diligence they used to feed my family safely. Disney has always gone out of their way to make sure my family was not only safe, but had choice and variety.

The Disney I know would never have presented my mother with a chocolate anniversary cake that she can't take a bite of. I felt so bad for my mom and so embarrassed because I had arranged everything! It was really just odd.

 

[debg]

Do any of you fine people plan on writing trip reports or posting your Navigators? We're booked on next years WBTA and would love to hear most specifically about debarking on the last morning, but also everything else. ;-) The problems sound terrible! Those of you who've done the longer DCL cruises, did you feel 11 days was plenty? We've gone a couple of 15-days and 11 sounds short. Thanks for any and all info. We've already bought our plane tickets so this cruise is a go!

 

[RedSox68]

My previous experiences with Disney and food issues has been superb. I've shepherded family with severe dairy allergies, this chocolate issue, and various other intolerances through many Disney trips, and I have only wonderful things to say about the care and diligence they used to feed my family safely. Disney has always gone out of their way to make sure my family was not only safe, but had choice and variety.

The Disney I know would never have presented my mother with a chocolate anniversary cake that she can't take a bite of. I felt so bad for my mom and so embarrassed because I had arranged everything! It was really just odd.

Yes, because I know they also have (or used to have) a strawberry choice. That is a shame.

On a similar note, I can't eat strawberries -- and every time a cruise line wants to "make amends", they always send chocolate covered strawberries!

 

[Aanna]

On a similar note, I can't eat strawberries -- and every time a cruise line wants to "make amends", they always send chocolate covered strawberries!

<facepalm>

 

[Gilland18]

Do any of you fine people plan on writing trip reports or posting your Navigators? We're booked on next years WBTA and would love to hear most specifically about debarking on the last morning, but also everything else. ;-) The problems sound terrible! Those of you who've done the longer DCL cruises, did you feel 11 days was plenty? We've gone a couple of 15-days and 11 sounds short. Thanks for any and all info. We've already bought our plane tickets so this cruise is a go!

I'm not sure our debarkation stories will have any info for next years cruise since we ended up over night in NYC. Everyone had to go through immigration the day we arrived. Debarkation was faster than any we've done because there was no waiting for the ship to clear. They started announcing character tags that could leave while we were still at first seating breakfast. All we had to do was walk off, collect luggage and turn in our customs form.

We've done 2 14 night cruises and I was disappointed this one was only 11. That said, I was ready to head home when the day came.

 

[BelleBway]

Do any of you fine people plan on writing trip reports or posting your Navigators? We're booked on next years WBTA and would love to hear most specifically about debarking on the last morning, but also everything else. ;-) The problems sound terrible! Those of you who've done the longer DCL cruises, did you feel 11 days was plenty? We've gone a couple of 15-days and 11 sounds short. Thanks for any and all info. We've already bought our plane tickets so this cruise is a go!

I always post detailed travel blogs on my website, but it may take me awhile to get organized.
11 days is the longest cruise I've taken and it felt plenty long enough, though I might have felt otherwise if it hadn't been for the 4.5 straight sea days which were definitely fun... but enough for me.

As mentioned, our debarkation will probably not be relevant for future cruises because of the 2 day process.

Hope you have a fabulous time!!!

 

[disneycruisegirl]

Just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone in the postcard exchange.

We really enjoyed getting to see a glimpse of everyone's hometown!

 

[RedSox68]

I'm not sure our debarkation stories will have any info for next years cruise since we ended up over night in NYC. Everyone had to go through immigration the day we arrived. Debarkation was faster than any we've done because there was no waiting for the ship to clear. They started announcing character tags that could leave while we were still at first seating breakfast. All we had to do was walk off, collect luggage and turn in our customs form.

We've done 2 14 night cruises and I was disappointed this one was only 11. That said, I was ready to head home when the day came.

I love long cruises. The TA we did in 2007 was 14-inght and I was disappointed this itinerary only had 11-nights, but the ports were great (sorry you all missed St. John's).

 

[bobbiwoz]

Just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone in the postcard exchange.

We really enjoyed getting to see a glimpse of everyone's hometown!

For a future cruise...did you mail postcards beforehand, or put them in FE?

 

[Chirple]

For a future cruise...did you mail postcards beforehand, or put them in FE?

I put mine in an envelope and directly into the fish unless the fish extender made it too wobbly; then I put it directly into the FE. Since I do not have updated business cards, I created a little welcome note with my postcard and Dunkin Donuts photo.

 

[RedSox68]

For a future cruise...did you mail postcards beforehand, or put them in FE?

That really did turn out to be such a nice idea and more easily transportable than gifts. I think it was gismo1554's idea and a big thank you for that one.

 

[Chirple]

Do any of you fine people plan on writing trip reports or posting your Navigators? We're booked on next years WBTA and would love to hear most specifically about debarking on the last morning, but also everything else. ;-) The problems sound terrible! Those of you who've done the longer DCL cruises, did you feel 11 days was plenty? We've gone a couple of 15-days and 11 sounds short. Thanks for any and all info. We've already bought our plane tickets so this cruise is a go!

Our longest cruise prior to this one was the 2014 12-night Mediterranean on DCL and that was port intensive (8). I thought that this one was the right length if I only wanted to take two weeks for the trip. It allowed us to spend a couple of days in Barcelona (which we still have only scratched the surface) and then enjoy the cruise. This is why we are canceling the 7 night British Isles cruise for next year. It is only 7 nights and has 4 port days in a row.

The problems (outside of allergy/food intolerance issues experienced by others) were not really terrible--more disappointing and frustrating. I'm sure that it was more expensive for DCL to port in NYC overnight than to port in Newfoundland for a few hours, and they (as they should) ate that charge. I loved our Lisbon and Ponta Delgada tours. In fact, our Lisbon tour had two physically challenged people on it; and our guide made sure that they were with us, even if it meant we had to wait a bit. The only thing he should have made clear was that the public restroom required .50 Euros, which we expected from our experiences on the Med cruise. I had given my husband extra in case he needed to help someone out when he went.

 

[Chirple]

That really did turn out to be such a nice idea and more easily transportable than gifts. I think it was gismo1554's idea and a big thank you for that one.

Apparently, we were not the only ones who did this. I sat next to a woman at one of the Anyone Can Cook demos, and she was writing out postcards from Chicago. Her list was much longer than ours. I thought ours was really manageable, and I really did enjoy doing it. It gave me an activity to do while I was running laundry that first day.

 

[RedSox68]

Our longest cruise prior to this one was the 2014 12-night Mediterranean on DCL and that was port intensive (8). I thought that this one was the right length if I only wanted to take two weeks for the trip. It allowed us to spend a couple of days in Barcelona (which we still have only scratched the surface) and then enjoy the cruise. This is why we are canceling the 7 night British Isles cruise for next year. It is only 7 nights and has 4 port days in a row.

We did the 10-day Med in 2007 together with the 14-day TA -- 24 days on the ship and I could have stayed longer LOL. I loved those six straight days at sea -- a chance to read, explore the ship, do activities, sleep in, etc. I could never afford to do that now at Disney's prices

 

[olafLover]

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[olafLover]

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