Dinsey Wonder Review 11-23/25

[texankhj]

After all the reveiws I read before my grandson and I boarded the Wonder, most was true. The shows were awesome and Castaway Cay was beautiful. I would like to tell my experience while on board. I have sailed Princess, Royal Carribean, and Carnival. I have never experienced unfriendly staff members as I did on the Wonder. They appeared to be sick of children and adults as well. We were in line at the buffet and the chef ask the man in front of us if he "needed something", he said he was "just looking", the chef said "good". We had 2nd seating, 8:15 did not get out until 10:00 all 3 nights. The wait staff seemed inexperience and all of the dinner nights were extemely uncomfortable, feeling like you were intruding on the staff. I am easily pleased but this was a little on the ridiculous side. The staff at all areas of the ship were very short and not to be bothered except for one at the goofey pool area came to us to see if we needed anything. I wish I had gotten his name. He was the only crew member that seemed to care about the cruisers on board. I am not even going to go into our stateroom attendant. For what Dinsey charges I was very disappointed in the service.

[phunchak]

You sure you were on a Disney ship??

 

The last time I was on the Magic the service was over the top. In fact it was a little too much.

[pixiedustdawn]

After all the reveiws I read before my grandson and I boarded the Wonder, most was true. The shows were awesome and Castaway Cay was beautiful. I would like to tell my experience while on board. I have sailed Princess, Royal Carribean, and Carnival. I have never experienced unfriendly staff members as I did on the Wonder. They appeared to be sick of children and adults as well. We were in line at the buffet and the chef ask the man in front of us if he "needed something", he said he was "just looking", the chef said "good". We had 2nd seating, 8:15 did not get out until 10:00 all 3 nights. The wait staff seemed inexperience and all of the dinner nights were extemely uncomfortable, feeling like you were intruding on the staff. I am easily pleased but this was a little on the ridiculous side. The staff at all areas of the ship were very short and not to be bothered except for one at the goofey pool area came to us to see if we needed anything. I wish I had gotten his name. He was the only crew member that seemed to care about the cruisers on board. I am not even going to go into our stateroom attendant. For what Dinsey charges I was very disappointed in the service.

 

Sorry to hear you did not enjoy your cruise.

 

Like another poster stated, it is hard to believe it was a Disney Cruise you were on.

 

Too bad you didn't get the crew members name that was very nice to you and the other guests. Was he crew working around the pool, or one of the officers in white?

 

I have been on many Disney Cruises and never had anything like this happen to me. I am so sorry you had such a disappointing time.

 

[rtrtx2]

any chance when the chef said "good" that he truly meant good, okay, fine, looking is okay, NOT good I do not want to be bothered by you? SOmetimes language barriers, etc cause meanings to be lost ....

[Modern_Viking]

My experience on cruises is that there is always a mix of good and bad (or happy and sad) crew members on every ship. Some people are lucky and get the good, some are unlucky and get the bad. The trick is finding a line and ship with the highest percentage of happy/good crew members. I can believe that this rule holds true even for Disney.

 

Also, it is possible that an external force was at work here. Sometimes lots of grumpy passengers board a ship, and that generally makes the crew unhappy and less inclined to give good service. It is unfortunate, but human nature and hard or impossible to fix. Also, things like extra work load, bad weather, work prior to upcoming inspections, work after a recently failed inspection, introducing new procedures or cost cutting efforts can also cause a temporary reduction of service levels on an otherwise happy ship.

 

One question I do have regards the complaint about dinner taking 1 hour and 45 minutes each night. Was that a problem because you expected a shorter/faster meal or because of how late you left the dining room (which was primarily a function of having the 8:15 (i.e. late) dinner seating)? As a follow up, how many courses did you order each night and did you order quickly (or were you one of the last to order each night)? I can see how these might or might not be partial explanations for a longer dinner (but not a full explanation).

[texankhj]

Please do not misunderstand, my Grandson and I had a wonderful cruise. Entertainment and and statesrooms were 5 star. As far as the dinner each night, our table was seated before 8:15pm, our wait staff was very stressed. I did not time the wait between seating, but I do know it was a while before we could even receive our beverage. Our table did time the wait when it was 9:30 and we still had not received our main course, we finally received our main course at 9:45. Also, I ordered my Grandson a smoothie and the server broke the glass as she sat it on the table in front of him, could have been a accident waiting to happen, just glad he did not get cut. As I said she was very stressed.

[pixiedustdawn]

Please do not misunderstand, my Grandson and I had a wonderful cruise. Entertainment and and statesrooms were 5 star. As far as the dinner each night, our table was seated before 8:15pm, our wait staff was very stressed. I did not time the wait between seating, but I do know it was a while before we could even receive our beverage. Our table did time the wait when it was 9:30 and we still had not received our main course, we finally received our main course at 9:45. Also, I ordered my Grandson a smoothie and the server broke the glass as she sat it on the table in front of him, could have been a accident waiting to happen, just glad he did not get cut. As I said she was very stressed.

Did you ever speak to anyone about the this?

 

We sat with a couple and their young child. Their child was getting very tired soon after coming into the dining room for the late seating. They spoke to the F&B manager who made sure the child had their dinner at the table before anyone else even had a chance to look at their menus. The child was then wide awake when the children's club came around asking who wanted to leave the dining room and go to the club with them.

I know many times I have asked for a quick serving so I could catch something happening on the ship. I had no problems doing so.

 

Again, I am sorry you had this experience, but happy to hear that you and your grandson still had a wonderful cruise.

Dawn

[QuickGold]

There are staples of Disney cruises...excellent service and excellent entertainment. I'm surprised to hear of your experiences.

[CeleBrat]

The wait staff seemed inexperience and all of the dinner nights were extemely uncomfortable, feeling like you were intruding on the staff. I am easily pleased but this was a little on the ridiculous side. The staff at all areas of the ship were very short and not to be bothered except for one at the goofey pool area came to us to see if we needed anything. I wish I had gotten his name. He was the only crew member that seemed to care about the cruisers on board. I am not even going to go into our stateroom attendant. For what Dinsey charges I was very disappointed in the service.

 

We were on the same cruise--but obviously it wasn't the same as we didn't experience any of the above.

 

Our wait--phenominal with our party of 12. While sitting in Lumiere's, a member of our group asked about the banana bread we had eaten the previous night at Parrot Cay. The waiter said, "We can get that for you", so ran down to PC and got us a basket. That's above and beyond.

 

The maitre'd saw us eating lunch at Castaway Cay, and came over to say HI.

 

The Oceaneer Staff--very friendly. One of them met our son in the terminal before boarding, and she remembered his name every time we saw him, despite the hundreds of kids that were onboard.

 

The photo staff gave DD a set of photo trading cards while we were buying our photos.

 

The Cabin Attendant was very gracious, and assisted with fixing a problem we had in the room.

 

The Front Desk Staff was very helpful when I lost my watch. I actually got it back!!!!

 

The Castaway Cay lifeguards were very chatty, and had a long conversation with us about upcoming island enhancements.

 

So...I think it's a bit of an exaggeration when you say "the staff at all areas of the ship were short..."

 

CeleBrat

[texankhj]

I am glad you were on the same ship and had a better experience. As I said we had a wonderful time. I am an experienced cruiser and know good service from bad. I am not spoiled and do not expect people to cater to me. What I do expect is when I pay much more money for a cruise that at least they do not break glass on the table in front of a 6 year old that could have been hurt. Also, what I expect is the staff at the photo lines for pics of Mickey to be more friendly to the people that did not make it in time for the photos. By the way we were the last in line on the photos before they closed the lines, so I saw how the people were treated when they tried to get in line. I do expect the staff at the buffet line to be friendly. So I am glad you had a good experience with the staff, I did not.

[CeleBrat]

What I do expect is when I pay much more money for a cruise that at least they do not break a glass on the table in front of a 6 year old that could have been hurt.

 

I am sure that the server did not intentionally break that glass in front of your child. That is just silly to think that she did.

 

We were once at the Concourse Steakhouse, located in the Contemporary Resort at WDW. The server put a glass of Diet Coke in front of DH and it shattered. Like, it literally exploded. Sitting across from him, it was the most amazing sight ever, b/c it felt like I was watching it in slow motion.

 

Was it the server's fault? No. Did he slam the glass down? No. The real reason the glass broke is that it had just come out of their dishwasher moments before. The combination of the hot/warm glass and the cold ice and Diet Coke caused the glass to shatter. Pure physics.

 

After drying off we just laughed.

 

It's all a matter of perspective.

 

CeleBrat