Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise Pt.8

[su_kraft]

John and I can also download your camera first onto either a DVD or a CD or if you bring one, a USB stick. If you don't have either CD's or DVD's with you, we probably will have a few extras. It is really cheaper to buy a USB stick as they are pretty cheap unless you get a lot of memory.

John says he will do it for free unless there is a huge demand then we will have to bring many extras and may have to charge a $1 or so each to do it. I am assuming most people know how to do this but if you want us to do this for you, will you please PM me so I know how many extra CD's or DVD's to bring.

If I don't hear from many people, we will just bring a few extra CD's and DVD's.

I can also make DVD's and CD's - but we are not bringing media to put photos on... I secong the flash drive / memory stick. They are very inexpensive now - and there are most likely back to school sales going on too...

 

[AlexandNessa]

Part 8 will just not die! Shall we keep posting to see how many posts they let us get away with? Last one to post before it closes gets a special prize!

P.S. Still no cruise docs here.

 

[granmaz]

Part 8 will just not die! Shall we keep posting to see how many posts they let us get away with? Last one to post before it closes gets a special prize!

P.S. Still no cruise docs here.

Yes, we should have some fun with the length of the thread!!!

Sorry about the docs. You aren't the only household. It is very strange to be sure.

 

[Futurist]

Hi all,

There's another thread devoted to whether anyone has felt pressured by CMs to give them an "excellent" rating on the satisfaction surveys at the end of the cruise whether they deserve it or not. You can find that thread here.

I don't want to repeat that discussion here, but I would like to ask a related question: Given that Disney needs feedback on their service, how can they get it without being irritating or intruding on our fun? Here's my post from that thread:

QUOTE:
Disney (and all service providers) needs feedback to make sure they can improve their service, and the closer to receiving the service, the fresher our impressions are, and the more reliable the feedback. Yet the very act of asking can intrude on our pleasure as guests.

Next, Disney (and other service providers) rewards and promotes those servers who rate well, and, I would hope, works with and provides more instruction to those who don't rate well. This means that the servers are under pressure to get good scores, and some of them (especially the less confident ones) turn around and put pressure on the guests they are serving to give them good scores. This is OK if they deserve it, and not if they don't, but again, can be irritating in either case.

How can Disney find out who is doing well, who needs more instruction to do better, and what DCL can improve without being intrusive or irritating? Remember that it needs to be done while it's fresh in our minds.

If you were Disney, what would you do? And, as a paying guest, how would you like to give feedback? What have you seen done elsewhere that works, or that you like? What, in your opinion, doesn't work?

This is a difficult problem, and one that's not unique to Disney, but if we can come up with a better way to help Disney improve our experience, and help us have more fun, ultimately we will benefit from it most!
END QUOTE

I would very much be interested in your thoughts on this, especially from those who are repeat cruisers!

Thanks,
Richard

 

[CustardTart]

...My Dad was a pioneering oceanographer during the days when the field was first being invented. I guess the biggest thing that would mean to most people is that I got to meet Jacques Cousteau at his office in Monaco with my Dad when I was 13. Cousteau was astonishingly tall, thin, and a gracious gentleman.

I look forward to chatting with you sometime onboard!

See You Real Soon!
Richard

My goodness, how fascinating!!! Wish my husband was joining me on the cruise to chat with you - he loved the Jacques Cousteau TV shows as a child and has read many of his books...

 

[goiu]

Someone mentioned something changed about the tastings. We are signed up for the beer and mojito ones. Do I need to contact someone concerning this? Thanks!

 

[Hoagie Pie]

Hi all,

There's another thread devoted to whether anyone has felt pressured by CMs to give them an "excellent" rating on the satisfaction surveys at the end of the cruise whether they deserve it or not. You can find that thread here.

I don't want to repeat that discussion here, but I would like to ask a related question: Given that Disney needs feedback on their service, how can they get it without being irritating or intruding on our fun? Here's my post from that thread:

QUOTE:
Disney (and all service providers) needs feedback to make sure they can improve their service, and the closer to receiving the service, the fresher our impressions are, and the more reliable the feedback. Yet the very act of asking can intrude on our pleasure as guests.

Next, Disney (and other service providers) rewards and promotes those servers who rate well, and, I would hope, works with and provides more instruction to those who don't rate well. This means that the servers are under pressure to get good scores, and some of them (especially the less confident ones) turn around and put pressure on the guests they are serving to give them good scores. This is OK if they deserve it, and not if they don't, but again, can be irritating in either case.

How can Disney find out who is doing well, who needs more instruction to do better, and what DCL can improve without being intrusive or irritating? Remember that it needs to be done while it's fresh in our minds.

If you were Disney, what would you do? And, as a paying guest, how would you like to give feedback? What have you seen done elsewhere that works, or that you like? What, in your opinion, doesn't work?

This is a difficult problem, and one that's not unique to Disney, but if we can come up with a better way to help Disney improve our experience, and help us have more fun, ultimately we will benefit from it most!
END QUOTE

I would very much be interested in your thoughts on this, especially from those who are repeat cruisers!

Thanks,
Richard

This is a great topic Richard and one I have dealt with. Last September we had the worst dining service ever. They were 2 "new" people and we would not get our appetizers or salads till an HOUR into dinner. They never asked us on the final day about dinner, BUT I always write a positive letter to DCL to tell them how much I loved the cruise, but I did tell them my negative feedback regarding our dining servers. The servers would bring out the salads for some of us and meals for the other part of the table. The first 3 days we laughed, after that, we were just mad because we were the last to leave the restaurant and sometimes missed the games or whatever is going on. I did get a call from DCL and a letter and they made it sound like they fired the 2 waiters and said this was TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE behavior and even if they were new, they don't need to tell you and you shouldn't have to put up with them being "new" because of all their training that they have to go through. I tell the waiters now that we are a fun group, like to laugh, love the magic tricks, might not eat dinner every night, doesn't mean we don't like you or you won't get a tip, work with us, we will work with you. I know it sounds high maintenance, but I find you get harassed less. I am rambling, thanks for letting me spill.

 

[su_kraft]

Someone mentioned something changed about the tastings. We are signed up for the beer and mojito ones. Do I need to contact someone concerning this? Thanks!

Nope - I am waiting on dates and more details! If you signed up you are taken care of.

 

[KrisannB]

John and I can also download your camera first onto either a DVD or a CD or if you bring one, a USB stick. If you don't have either CD's or DVD's with you, we probably will have a few extras. It is really cheaper to buy a USB stick as they are pretty cheap unless you get a lot of memory.

John says he will do it for free unless there is a huge demand then we will have to bring many extras and may have to charge a $1 or so each to do it. I am assuming most people know how to do this but if you want us to do this for you, will you please PM me so I know how many extra CD's or DVD's to bring.

If I don't hear from many people, we will just bring a few extra CD's and DVD's.

I would suggest that people NOT bring CD's - I did transfers for people on the EBTA (no charge) but several brought CD's and they only brought ONE and they had way too many pictures to burn to one CD - but had they had a DVD they would have all fit. I too like a stick better - hence why I carry about 6 different ones with me at all times!

 

[birkner]

No question about Jobs - he's a real piece of work. But in this setting, that actually works for us (most of the time) because he's not only (IMHO) a cast iron SOB, but also a stone perfectionist who won't let his engineers and software people tell him what CAN'T be done. Instead, he insists on "insanely great", and usually gets it. I'd loathe working for him, but he does produce great products.

OTOH, when Apple screws up, (as with the reception issues on the iPhone 4), they are really reluctant to own up to their mistakes. There are lots of stories about customers trying to get redress for an Apple problem to no avail. You have to love the products, sometimes, and ignore that company, odd as that may sound.

So in short, no real computer wars - that's all advertising. People pick and use what works best for them, but at least these days we have choices, which we didn't in the day of the mainframe, when IBM ruled the world, and tried to foist EBCDIC on everyone instead of ASCII. Much better now!

Meanwhile, sounds like you came from a scientific background, like mine. My Dad was a pioneering oceanographer during the days when the field was first being invented. I guess the biggest thing that would mean to most people is that I got to meet Jacques Cousteau at his office in Monaco with my Dad when I was 13. Cousteau was astonishingly tall, thin, and a gracious gentleman.

I look forward to chatting with you sometime onboard!

See You Real Soon!
Richard

I agree with your comments completely!! A perfect example was the how they treated leak of the iPhone4 design. Another is Job's and his Lisa design. Ahh....those were the days.

My beef is just not about him and Apple, it involves the town where I live, Woodside and a house which he destroyed. What he did to the house to make it uninhabitable was terrible. I live near there so I know exactly what he did to the house. It took him 9 years but he won. You may be interested is in the following articles.

http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2004/2004_12_22.wsjobs.shtml

http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/08/19/preservationist.group.gives.up.on.appeal/

Meeting Jacques Cousteau is really impressive. I loved all the specials he did about the field of oceanography. I loved his voice and accent.

Yes, I do come from a scientific background. John and I will be very pleased to meet you guys and chatting about tech type things. We must have many things in common.

Noel and John

 

[goiu]

Nope - I am waiting on dates and more details! If you signed up you are taken care of.

Great! Thanks, Sue!!

 

[birkner]

I can also make DVD's and CD's - but we are not bringing media to put photos on... I secong the flash drive / memory stick. They are very inexpensive now - and there are most likely back to school sales going on too...

John's theory is Have Media Will Travel. I think our electronics weigh more than our clothes as we always travel with two travel printers, one for documents, one for photos!!

He counts the number of devices for plugs. John's planning consists of what are we going to plug in what country!!! You can tell what his priority is on vacation!!

 

[mdwoodman]

.


We were using BA to and from London Heathrow, this got us into Terminal 1 at Barcelona International Airport. A very modern, clean and nice airport (with friendlier and more helpful check-in staff than at LHR - see DW's rant again). One tip for the return journey (not valid for this cruise I know but someone else might read this lol) is that for international flights, once you've gone through passport control, there is limited things to do and places to shop at and eat, but once checked in and you have gone through security you can go downstairs to the domestic area where there are lots of shops, restaurants etc. Just go up and through passport control to your gate about an hour before your international flight.

I was actually referring to the cruise ship terminal. Many of us would like to pick up some "refreshments" before getting on board.

 

[birkner]

Part 8 will just not die! Shall we keep posting to see how many posts they let us get away with? Last one to post before it closes gets a special prize!

P.S. Still no cruise docs here.

Yes, we should have some fun with the length of the thread!!!

Sorry about the docs. You aren't the only household. It is very strange to be sure.

Here is the very cursory email from TA I finally received late yesterday after sending her an email a week ago. Mind you the documents are being shipped to Fort Lauderdale, FL from DCL.

Hello Noel,

Your documents have been shipped from Disney to our home office, we expect to receive them by the end of the week. As soon as we do, we’ll forward them to you, so you should have them by the end of next week. If you have not received them by 8-26, please let me know and I’ll track them for you.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Hi all,

There's another thread devoted to whether anyone has felt pressured by CMs to give them an "excellent" rating on the satisfaction surveys at the end of the cruise whether they deserve it or not. You can find that thread here.

I don't want to repeat that discussion here, but I would like to ask a related question: Given that Disney needs feedback on their service, how can they get it without being irritating or intruding on our fun? Here's my post from that thread:

QUOTE:
Disney (and all service providers) needs feedback to make sure they can improve their service, and the closer to receiving the service, the fresher our impressions are, and the more reliable the feedback. Yet the very act of asking can intrude on our pleasure as guests.

Next, Disney (and other service providers) rewards and promotes those servers who rate well, and, I would hope, works with and provides more instruction to those who don't rate well. This means that the servers are under pressure to get good scores, and some of them (especially the less confident ones) turn around and put pressure on the guests they are serving to give them good scores. This is OK if they deserve it, and not if they don't, but again, can be irritating in either case.

How can Disney find out who is doing well, who needs more instruction to do better, and what DCL can improve without being intrusive or irritating? Remember that it needs to be done while it's fresh in our minds.

If you were Disney, what would you do? And, as a paying guest, how would you like to give feedback? What have you seen done elsewhere that works, or that you like? What, in your opinion, doesn't work?

This is a difficult problem, and one that's not unique to Disney, but if we can come up with a better way to help Disney improve our experience, and help us have more fun, ultimately we will benefit from it most!
END QUOTE

I would very much be interested in your thoughts on this, especially from those who are repeat cruisers!

Thanks,
Richard

I find filling out the surveys a chore, to be honest. I know if someone does well, I have to take the time to mention their name in some way on the survey, but honestly, I'd rather not be bothered to fill out the whole survey. Now, if by filling out the survey, I was entered into a drawing, or received some small OBC for my trouble, that would be a different story.

I did get the "excellent speech" once on Disney, and I just couldn't give it fully.

Mike and I were a little peeved that our servers would bring the meals out for every one of their tables at once and set them all on the serving station. They would serve the table with the most children first, then the table with the 2nd most # of children, etc, which was fine. But they didn't just serve the children, they cut all their food, got them totally set up with their ketchup, utensils, folding their napkins creatively in their laps, etc. All the while, we could see our dinner just sitting on the serving station. By the time we were served as lowly adults-only peeps, our dinners were cold. The sad part was once he gave us our food, we were all set. If he served us first, it would've taken him 2 seconds and we could've had a hot meal, and he could've taken his sweet time with all those kids. But I never really quite figured out how to address this with him without looking like an angry childless pest. I did try to tell him my dinner was cool a few times, but that didn't give the hint. So, sorry, not all "excellents" on that occasion.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Here is the very cursory email from TA I finally received late yesterday after sending her an email a week ago. Mind you the documents are being shipped to Fort Lauderdale, FL from DCL.

Hello Noel,

Your documents have been shipped from Disney to our home office, we expect to receive them by the end of the week. As soon as we do, we’ll forward them to you, so you should have them by the end of next week. If you have not received them by 8-26, please let me know and I’ll track them for you.

Thanks for the update, Noel. I don't know why I am so anxious to receive them. On HAL, you print your own docs online. You even print your own luggage tags. Nothing exciting about that at all! So I guess it's been a while that I've actually received hard docs that say CRUISE VACATION in the mail!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Does anyone know if you can use the on board PC terminals to upload your photos onto a flash drive if you bring a memory card reader with you or a USB transfer cable.

 

[MagicMe]

I find filling out the surveys a chore, to be honest. I know if someone does well, I have to take the time to mention their name in some way on the survey, but honestly, I'd rather not be bothered to fill out the whole survey. Now, if by filling out the survey, I was entered into a drawing, or received some small OBC for my trouble, that would be a different story.

I did get the "excellent speech" once on Disney, and I just couldn't give it fully.

Mike and I were a little peeved that our servers would bring the meals out for every one of their tables at once and set them all on the serving station. They would serve the table with the most children first, then the table with the 2nd most # of children, etc, which was fine. But they didn't just serve the children, they cut all their food, got them totally set up with their ketchup, utensils, folding their napkins creatively in their laps, etc. All the while, we could see our dinner just sitting on the serving station. By the time we were served as lowly adults-only peeps, our dinners were cold. The sad part was once he gave us our food, we were all set. If he served us first, it would've taken him 2 seconds and we could've had a hot meal, and he could've taken his sweet time with all those kids. But I never really quite figured out how to address this with him without looking like an angry childless pest. I did try to tell him my dinner was cool a few times, but that didn't give the hint. So, sorry, not all "excellents" on that occasion.

See, I wouldn't have any trouble telliing them that my food was cold and I prefered hot food. If that didn't work, I also would have no trouble mentioning it to the head waiter (that's what they are there for). There really is no excuse to serve cold food (children or no children). They could easliy serve everyone and then go back to aid those children that needed help.

 

[birkner]

Hi all,

There's another thread devoted to whether anyone has felt pressured by CMs to give them an "excellent" rating on the satisfaction surveys at the end of the cruise whether they deserve it or not. You can find that thread here.

I don't want to repeat that discussion here, but I would like to ask a related question: Given that Disney needs feedback on their service, how can they get it without being irritating or intruding on our fun? Here's my post from that thread:

QUOTE:
Disney (and all service providers) needs feedback to make sure they can improve their service, and the closer to receiving the service, the fresher our impressions are, and the more reliable the feedback. Yet the very act of asking can intrude on our pleasure as guests.

Next, Disney (and other service providers) rewards and promotes those servers who rate well, and, I would hope, works with and provides more instruction to those who don't rate well. This means that the servers are under pressure to get good scores, and some of them (especially the less confident ones) turn around and put pressure on the guests they are serving to give them good scores. This is OK if they deserve it, and not if they don't, but again, can be irritating in either case.

How can Disney find out who is doing well, who needs more instruction to do better, and what DCL can improve without being intrusive or irritating? Remember that it needs to be done while it's fresh in our minds.

If you were Disney, what would you do? And, as a paying guest, how would you like to give feedback? What have you seen done elsewhere that works, or that you like? What, in your opinion, doesn't work?

This is a difficult problem, and one that's not unique to Disney, but if we can come up with a better way to help Disney improve our experience, and help us have more fun, ultimately we will benefit from it most!
END QUOTE

I would very much be interested in your thoughts on this, especially from those who are repeat cruisers!

Thanks,
Richard

Personally, I think it should be done online but I do realize not everyone has access to online services.

They might have those persons not willing to participate in an online survey, receive a phone call asking those questions.

Somehow it is so impersonal to just mark your comments down either on a survey or a piece of paper. I have heard of people who mark negative things for no other reason than they are just unpleasant people. To think that a person could loose his or her job over one such a survey seems inefficient to say the least

DCL should do more follow up phone calls, especially to first time cruisers to see what their experiences were and how they could improve. They could do a random selection of persons in all categories to call to get much more feedback than they get in a survey. Questions like did you rebook on board, if so why or if not, why not etc. I think people might tend to be more forthcoming on the phone.

Just my thoughts...

 

[Candy Apple]

So today Stephanie went to "JAIL"

Actually it was to help raise funds for Muscular Dystrophy (MDA) Jerry's kids.

So it went from this......

to this!!!!

She still has the link up on her Facebook page.

I'm glad Mickey got to go with her!

4 weeks today and we will be into our second full day in Barcelona, and looking forward to more cruise friends arriving!!!

4 weeks from today I'll be packing and packing and packing...

Thought I would drop in for a quick read, "Quick" there is no "quick" on this thread. Good thing I got up a hour early.

Except for Connie Quick, of course.