Debbie’s Panama Canal Disney Wonder Cruise March 2020

Thanks to our client Debbie for giving us  permission to share her family’s experiences on the Disney Wonder Panama Canal cruise in March 2020.  This cruise was one of the last Disney cruises before they temporarily suspended their cruises due to the corona virus threat.  Note the attention to cleanliness Disney maintained on the ship that Debbie mentions.

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I thought the Panama Canal cruise was wonderful, although I’m bummed that we didn’t get to actually see three of the ports that I’ve never before seen.  While I completely enjoy sea days and the ability to relax and just soak in the atmosphere, my family was irritated and getting more so as each day passed.  (we were at-sea from the evening of 09 March until the morning of 19 March when we docked in San Diego)They are not as able to sit back and relax as my one son (who is also a paramedic like me and LOVES some downtime!) and I enjoy whenever possible.  The biggest disappointment for this son (Will) was the inability to collect a sand sample from Colombia, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas.  He had his containers and was SO excited for the possibility of expanding his collection.  He already has samples from Cozumel and Grand Cayman from previous visits, so going to beaches there was not a priority in any sense.  Oh well, it is what it is.

Disney, as usual, is all about cleanliness and protection of its guests and I didn’t see HOW they would be able to increase the coverage for folks but of course, they did!  I think by about day 3, we were no longer permitted to serve ourselves at the buffet, drink machines, ice cream, or any other place that we could usually do that.  Instead, there were numerous additional cast members there to serve us in all things.  Also, in each and every stairwell I walked … regardless of hour, I was consistently seeing cast members with pails of water and disinfectant washing down the handrails and in all other parts of the ship, additional cast members were disinfecting any other surfaces that people would touch all day, every day.  

I don’t think anyone should be concerned about sailing with DCL … there’s no company I trust more.  Even before the day 3 change-over to passengers no longer serving themselves, the cast members at the buffet were changing the serving spoons, tongs, etc. out every 10 minutes.  This company is the best!

We would hear reports that folks on other cruise lines were coming up sick, but Disney was NOT one of those floating petri dishes!  I know that we turned around to go back to Grand Cayman in the night, on our way to Colombia, because someone was sick and needed to be air-lifted, but I was hearing “stroke.”  I sincerely doubt that ANYONE would be airlifted because of a virus.  That’s ridiculous.  The Captain said we were unable to go to Colombia because of that return trip and the time delay , but I think he knew already that we’d not be allowed in Colombia.  I DON’T think he knew we’d not be allowed to get fuel, so we did make the attempt to go partway into port — for a few hours, before leaving.  Interestingly enough, we did see a Princess Cruise Line well into the area where folks might have been able to disembark, but I don’t know if they actually were able to do that.  My family (and MANY others) were convinced that those folks got to go into Cartagena, and were a little upset about it.  When I reminded my folks that if someone THEY loved was having a stroke, and how time is of the essence for that person’s very life, they contained their ire.  We were finally refueled on the other side of the canal by a floating fuel barge.  There was one other Brightstar alert I heard, a few days before the end of the cruise, but apparently all turned out well on that one. My sister-in-law was at Guest Services when an older woman was also there, and was thanking them for the quick and efficient response of the medical team for their emergency, and said all was well with them.

I can’t thank you enough for all you do for us in managing our cruises. We know that all will be well with you in charge and all we have to do is pack and enjoy!

If you would like help with a future Disney cruise, like we did for Debbie’s family, feel free to contact us by clicking here! ... Read More

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Bryan’s RCCL Canada/New England Cruise (Sept 2018)

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Thanks to our client Bryan from Colorado for giving us this report on he and his wife’s Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas 10 night Canada/New England cruise.

Above is a picture from our cabin in Quebec (City) and some thoughts about the cruise and the cabin in more detail.

  • It had been six years since our last RCCL cruise in 2012, with Celebrity and Princess cruises since then. So my memories of the differences and subtleties between lines may have been lost. In general, the service was fine and having a gold suite card to whip out when necessary made it much easier to get pretty much anything. In general, it seemed like the dining room menus had suffered a cut-back on the number/variety of menu items that changed daily. Similarly in the Windjammer, although we had a couple of dinners in the Windjammer we truly enjoyed. Or maybe it was because we’d agreed that we wouldn’t be as bound to the formal dining as before (my daughter always loved and probably still does love dressing up every night and having the same waiters). Since she wasn’t around, we used our suite privilege to move to My Time Dining, a first for us on RCCL.
  • My Time Dining worked well but wouldn’t have been nearly as nice without a suite. The first night we just showed up and went into the suite line and got seated right away despite a long line of people. The folks implied it would be better if we had a reservation, so the next day I called and tried to get a reasonable dining time but they were only offering 5:30 or 8:00 something, so I told them never mind, we’d just use our suite perks, to which they had no reply. As a result, service was often a bit discombobulated in that dining floor but generally worked out ok. Generally it went quite a bit faster since they were trying to turn tables, and that was ok with us. After that second day, I never attempted a reservation again.
  • We typically went to the suite lounge every evening for our cocktail and a quick bite. The suite lounge was nice and reasonably uncrowded once we started going right after early dining started. The diamond lounge and viking crown lounge was overwhelmed with the other 700 diamonds, and had exactly the same “stuff”. I’d also not been around so many “pinnacle club” members who felt compelled to wear their fancy name tags everywhere. We used our suite privileges at the shows and ice show, but few were crowded enough to really matter. On tender day and debarkation day it was also handy to get to “cut the line” a bit.
  • The cabin itself was very spacious and only beaten by the upgrade to a one-bedroom suite we got on Celebrity. It was cool and windy enough there were only a few times we’d have actually used the balcony, and on the cloudy and one day when it dumped buckets, it was fun to just watch it rain from our chairs inside the cabin. I’d highly recommend the cabin to any group with four or fewer folks. With one and a half baths, it was really handy even with just two of us. There were three nice chairs and a couch. And it would be ideal for a scenery-oriented but cooler-weather itinerary like this one or Alaska or the Baltics. The suite privileges were an unexpected perk, as the cruise critic thread pretty much said to expect junior suite-level privileges (i.e., not much). It was probably overkill for the two of us but my claustrophobic spouse likely would not agree.
  • I did do the water slides one day but skipped the flow rider. I skated two days that they had open skating. I estimate we were in about the tenth percentile for age of passengers. Anybody young around the age of your kids or ours were either dancers or ice performers. In the suite lounge, everyone we talked to was retired and some had kids older than us!
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    Snapshot Story: A 3 Year Old on Her First Disney Cruise

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    “Here is our daughter (who just turned 3) looking out the window after we first boarded the Disney Fantasy. She was amazed that we were on a boat. It was really fun to watch her try to reconcile in her mind what was going on and see the amazement.”

    Our client Erik from Colorado on his family’s first Disney cruise.  Like with Erik’s family we can help with your Disney cruise arrangements, too!  Contact us for details.

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    Tim Receives Award For Cruise Sales

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    Family Travel Gurus co-owner Tim Larison was recognized recently for best use of Nexion Cruise Group Space at Nexion’s annual conference. Nexion is our host agency with over 3,500 travel agents, so this was quite an honor!  Tim often uses Nexion’s group space to get our clients extra benefits that aren’t available to the general public.

    Tim can help you with your next cruise, too!  Contact Tim for more information or a no obligation price quote.

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    Teresa and Mike’s Oasis of the Seas Western Caribbean Cruise (July 2017)

    photo courtesy of royal caribbean
    photo courtesy of royal caribbean

    Thanks to our client Teresa from Missouri for sharing her family’s experiences on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.

    You have done it again!  Thanks for arranging a wonderful cruise for us!

    This cruise was fantastic!  We all had a great time.  Our stateroom arrangements worked out really well for our family since we could open the joining door.  It gave our grandson a little more room to move around during those rare times we were in our room! Mike and I missed the balcony a little bit because we enjoy watching sunrises and sunsets; however, for this cruise we felt an interior room was more practical. It worked out really well for us!

    Thank you for the chocolate fudge brownies.  They were a huge hit!

    We took an excursion in Cozumel to Playa Mia (Deluxe Beach Break) and had a lot of fun.  We swam at the beach as well as the pools.  Carter enjoyed the kid’s pool and play area.  Jessica and I tried the water slide and liked that a lot.  Also, we used the paddle boats.  It was a perfect day!  The food and drinks were equally as nice.  Mike and I have visited this resort three times and are so amazed at how much it has grown over the years. We feel it is a great value and do recommend it.

    The updates at the Cozumel Port were really nice.  We were glad they added the Tiki huts, so that we could wait for our excursion in the cool shade.

    We wasted away in Margaritaville in Jamaica. We ate a delicious lunch then swam in the pool. We learned that you should be sure to wear your Jimmy Buffet shirt, so that you can get a free Margarita! We did some shopping at the port, too.  Another great day!

    We explored new areas on Labadee.  Maybe they were there last time and we didn’t notice, but it seemed like it had expanded since our last visit.  We always enjoy that port of call sunning and swimming at the beach!

    We took the All Access Ship Tour and liked learning about all it takes to navigate and run a ship of that size.

    This was a great cruise.  We have enjoyed all of our cruising experiences and this one was no exception.  We are always happy with the services and dining experiences.  Royal Caribbean does a great job of letting you be on vacation!

    Thank you as always for your help in booking this cruise!  You are always very helpful and punctual in answering any questions we have.  We appreciate you and your excellent travel agent service!

    Like we did for Teresa’s family, we can help with your next cruise adventure!  Contact us for details. ... Read More

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