My trip from HAL (very long) and some final words for you all

[Cruzin Terri]

What is more aggravating is that neither Alaska nor American even has a customer service phone number. You can ONLY email them.

 

Alaskabound,

Here is the number for the American Airlines executive offices. Don't know if they are open on the weekend, but you can call first thing Monday morning. They have been helpful to me in the past.

817-967-2000. Good luck. Enjoyed reading your story and you write very well. Sorry for all your trouble.

Terri

[simplelife]

Well aren't you a lot of fun?? But since you asked, no I didn't wait until the last minute to pack. Most everything was on the dining room table until the night before when I moved it into the luggage (and maybe that's late for you but as a full-time working mom, I don't have the luxury of taking days and days to pack into suitcases). We decided to only take two bags since I would be holding the baby on me and pushing the boy in a stroller. That would leave my DH with only two bags to manage. As my mom recently had shoulder surgery and was worried about a heavy bag, we were also carrying some items for her and for the whole group (including some gifts for my sister, binoculars, and items for the wedding). The baby eats jarred baby food and I had two jars for each day which also weighed down the bags. But on the cruise, she decided to stick with Cheerios and nursing/formula and I gave up on opening a jar of food, her refusing to eat any and throwing the whole thing away. I don't know why. Ask her.

 

I was casually checking the flight times and weight as the scheduled plane wasn't due to take off for another 4.5 hours. What's so weird about that? It was 6 am - not noon. Lots of people don't even bother to see if their plane is even departing on time.

 

Most on here know that I spent several months on cruisecritic planning out pretty much every last detail of this trip, the way I always do. It didn't go as planned and resulted in a funny story. If you can't enjoy the humor behind things going awry, that's your problem. I can't even tell you how little embellishment was put into this story. Sure, I could have done I wethat but this was written for this audience - the HAL board - and we know that I would have been called out on any exaggerations. I didn't write it for sympathy. I wrote it because this is one group on the web that can truly understand all the details (I have shared it with some friends who have never cruised and they are like, "what's the Neptune Lounge? Who is the concierge?").

 

You work at HAL, don't you?

 

Wow, didn't mean to hit the parenting nerve. I certainly was not questioning your parenting skills - Just the opposite - I assumed that with two little ones, you are very familiar with having to be super-prepared. :) You yourself confirm "Most on here know that I spent several months on cruisecritic planning out pretty much every last detail of this trip, the way I always do"

 

That's why several of your comments seemed illogical to me: "We awoke early on Sunday morning to do the final packing . . .So we start throwing everything in our suitcases . . . I do a quick weight check on the bags and we are over the 50 lb limit. " (This just does not seem to "jive' with one who I am sure was well-prepared) And pouring out most of the Cheerios (Which you had packed because it was the only solid food she was eating at this time) made little sense to me. The large 9-cup box in my pantry weighs only 8.9 ounces.

 

I like a good story as much as the next person, but suspension of disbelief has never been my strong suit. That is why I was questioning my own take on the story (notice the title "Am I the only one?"). Apparently I am the only one who interprets these things as inconsistencies.

 

Your reply (quoted), particularly with the sarcastic questions, and irrelevant explanation of what your daugher ate on the cruise, confirms my first interpretation - that you choose which details to relate and carefully orchestrate them for maximum humor/amusement of CC readers (and in this case to get the maximum "burn" into your flame) BTW I never called you a "liar" or said that the story was a "fake" (as some posters have suggested), but just wanted to point out that you appeared (to me) to have crafted how the details were presented in the story for maximum effectivness, This is not a bad thing - it is what good storytellers do (a la Mark Twain), and you have obviously succeeded in producing and interesting and humorous story of your admittedly unfortunate trip. All I ask is that I not be flamed for pointing this out.

 

Even though your final question is rhetorical, I will dignify it with an answer: I am a professor of Education certified in English (perhaps that explains why I am so attentive to and critical of the structure of stories).

 

I do sincerely hope that you get everything straightened out and that future trips will go more smoothly.

[tomko2]

You sound like an awesome wife, daughter, sister and Mother! Your story was overwhelming to imagine. Wishing you very happy, sane vacations from here on in.

Kathy:)

[SailAways]

Apparently I am the only one who interprets these things as inconsistencies.

 

...... and you have obviously succeeded in producing and interesting and humorous story of your admittedly unfortunate trip. All I ask is that I not be flamed for pointing this out.

 

Even though your final question is rhetorical, I will dignify it with an answer: I am a professor of Education certified in English (perhaps that explains why I am so attentive to and critical of the structure of stories).

 

I do sincerely hope that you get everything straightened out and that future trips will go more smoothly.

 

Birds of a feather.;)

One of my responses was received with equal disdain.

It appears that those of us who have picked up on inconsistencies, along with the humor of this situation, should have simply read, digested, and not commented at all.

In the past, it was my feeling that opinions, thoughts, and even opposite takes on a post could be useful.

... Perhaps not in some instances. :)

[cruzincurt]

Stories get better every time they are told. My business partner is on a cruise in Alaska right now. Last time they learned their lesson on trying to fly the same day, missed the connection in Denver and caught up in Alaska after missing several days of the cruise. This time they flew up two days in advance.

 

It amazes me that some people with children constantly complain what a burden they are at times. A cable channel is currently running a reality program where a camera follows a couple around and they constantly complain about the six kiddos they have. Duh?

[JDiver]

"Good on ya," as they say down under! Both for posting an eminently readable and hilarious log of your days, and for displaying great resilience.

 

We usually go on dive trips (lots of scuba gear, as we don't choose to rent other peoples' troubles or life support equipment,) and give ourselves a two day buffer on most trips (usually transpacific.) The only time this didn't work was our trip to the Coral Sea - we scheduled our QANTAS flights to Syndey and on to Townsville to depart on a following Monday for our Sunday dive boat departure. Our flight was to depart LAX Sept 11 2001, and QF put us on their first departure the following Saturday, and we made the dive boat by ONE HOUR! (We holed up in the Hilton Long Beach in the interim and decided we were not about to let the bad guys keep us down.)

 

Your boarding passes are important - check and see who they are issued by. I suspect you were on an American Airlines codeshare flight operated by Alaska, which is why you are getting the runaround (they will blame each other.) Also look for e-mails or anything form your agent or airline confirming your trip: your very important number is NOT the six character "PNR", because PNR desginators recycle periodically - it is your TICKET number (if it was issued by American, it wil begin with "001.")

 

Use Elliott.org to look up whom to address your letter to - http://www.elliott.org/help/ is the main page to listings you want. Be brief, explicit and be clear as to what you would like as compensation if you want anything (be aware "force majeure" pretty much absolves them of anything and everything - if they can blame weather for your delays, or any other so-called "act of God," they are off the hook. Oh, and never send the original of anything - send copies!

 

Finally, please keep posting your cruise experiences - and with your resilience, there is a cruise out there with your name on it waiting to be taken to show cruising can be a fabulous experience (we have enjoyed a number of Windstar cruises, which is fine if you enjoy small ships with "casual elegance" and no formal nights or scheduled entertainment - I suspect you might prefer something different.)

 

As they never really said in Latin, "non illegitimi carborundum.: ;)

 

No email. Formal letters on high quality paper. I don't know yet. Last week the answer would have been all of them. Today, maybe 10 of them. Monday will be perhaps three. My goal is to get my letter written next week. But I'm really struggling with just sending them a letter with this url (which would be worthless). I'm not trying to get anything out of them, I just want them to know that there were some big problems with our trip.

[okgladmom]

Holy moly! What a story Alaskabound77. Thanks for sharing. It's good to see you kept your sense of humor. I'm really sorry you had to go thru all that. You've probably helped more than one person realize how important, if flying, to fly the day before the cruise departs. Thanks again for posting.

[Alaskabound77]

Wow, didn't mean to hit the parenting nerve. I certainly was not questioning your parenting skills - Just the opposite - I assumed that with two little ones, you are very familiar with having to be super-prepared. :) You yourself confirm "Most on here know that I spent several months on cruisecritic planning out pretty much every last detail of this trip, the way I always do"

 

That's why several of your comments seemed illogical to me: "We awoke early on Sunday morning to do the final packing . . .So we start throwing everything in our suitcases . . . I do a quick weight check on the bags and we are over the 50 lb limit. " (This just does not seem to "jive' with one who I am sure was well-prepared) And pouring out most of the Cheerios (Which you had packed because it was the only solid food she was eating at this time) made little sense to me. The large 9-cup box in my pantry weighs only 8.9 ounces.

 

I like a good story as much as the next person, but suspension of disbelief has never been my strong suit. That is why I was questioning my own take on the story (notice the title "Am I the only one?"). Apparently I am the only one who interprets these things as inconsistencies.

 

Your reply (quoted), particularly with the sarcastic questions, and irrelevant explanation of what your daugher ate on the cruise, confirms my first interpretation - that you choose which details to relate and carefully orchestrate them for maximum humor/amusement of CC readers (and in this case to get the maximum "burn" into your flame) BTW I never called you a "liar" or said that the story was a "fake" (as some posters have suggested), but just wanted to point out that you appeared (to me) to have crafted how the details were presented in the story for maximum effectivness, This is not a bad thing - it is what good storytellers do (a la Mark Twain), and you have obviously succeeded in producing and interesting and humorous story of your admittedly unfortunate trip. All I ask is that I not be flamed for pointing this out.

 

Even though your final question is rhetorical, I will dignify it with an answer: I am a professor of Education certified in English (perhaps that explains why I am so attentive to and critical of the structure of stories).

 

I do sincerely hope that you get everything straightened out and that future trips will go more smoothly.

 

simplelife-

I really wanted to post last night but I got caught up in making lollipops for Tyler's birthday. Green is the new black so I decided that I would try and start a trend of giving away an edible gift instead of a bag of cheap plastic crap as a goodie bag (and since when do kids need gifts for coming to a birthday party??). Anyway, it seemed like a good idea until I ran out of powdered sugar at 10:30 pm. By 12:45 am, I was begging DH to go to Target and buy as much plastic junk as he could find. But I mommy uped and got er dun.

 

Anyway, it's seems sort of silly that we are arguing over Cheerios (yet oddly flattering that you even care). First, let me say that I meant to post a winky face after my working at HAL question but I guess I forgot. Second, you are absolutely right that Cheerios don't weigh much at all. The bag of Cheerios was in my carry-on and was getting squished by all the other stuff I had crammed in there. So I figured I should empty most of it out to make more space and to avoid having a bag of mashed up cereal. Second, yes, we probably did have more than just three outfits per child. The problem is that I had packed for colder weather in Alaska. It seemed that we would likely need fleece coats, gloves, and hats for Glacier Bay. I also had raincoats and cold weather shoes for all. Since I'm from Denver where, well today it hit 100 degrees, it's hot, I didn't have any winter 9 month clothes for Lila. So I bought her very little as she would be out of the clothes by October anyway when the weather turns here. To top that off, the weather was really hot in Seattle and pretty darn warm in Juneau too. Alaska in the summer is hard to pack for anyway, and it gets pretty difficult when packing for kids as well. I didn't do a great job on packing for the kids but it wasn't for lack of trying.

 

I still think it's okay that I was doing the final packing items on the morning we left. 50 lbs sounded like a pretty high limit to me so I didn't check the bags beforehand. This was my first time to travel with two kids.

 

Anyway, my point in responding to you was that I didn't want you to think that I thought that you had called me a liar (as an English professor, you are probably butchering that sentence structure to pieces). I know you didn't. I probably could have written it better and made sure that I closed all the loops, but I was just trying to bang it out before I forgot it all after we got home.

[Alaskabound77]

Stories get better every time they are told. My business partner is on a cruise in Alaska right now. Last time they learned their lesson on trying to fly the same day, missed the connection in Denver and caught up in Alaska after missing several days of the cruise. This time they flew up two days in advance.

 

It amazes me that some people with children constantly complain what a burden they are at times. A cable channel is currently running a reality program where a camera follows a couple around and they constantly complain about the six kiddos they have. Duh?

 

Totally off topic, but are you talking about Jon and Kate plus 8 with the twins and the sextuplets? It sounds like it. Interestingly, that show is taking some very interesting turns as people who have been burned by Kate are starting to speak out about the truth in regards to the show. Turns out, they are making enough from the show to actually have a full-time organic chef prepare all their meals. She doesn't exactly share that info during the show. There are also some interesting rumors about the deal with their parents (who are never seen or mentioned in the show). When the community found out about the sextuplets, they rallied together to get 6 cribs and tons of clothes donated. Kate refused anything used and demanded that only new, matching items be provided (and you can see the matching cribs in the show). Her family was embarrassed and they are estranged now. It will be interesting to watch what happens with the show as more info comes out. Anyway - again, so not related but interesting.

[cruzincurt]

Yes, that's the show I was referencing. Why anyone would sit and watch it is beyond me. You have to bear in mind that most of us childless couples do not understand or share your trials and tribulations with the kiddos and the fact that the parents seem to want to share those stories with others.

 

For example, I really don't want to know that my office co-worker's son went to the potty by themself for the first time. As I said, what is amusing is how some parents complain about the kids they decided to bring into this world.

[greatam]

nho9504-

Thanks for the great tip on the boarding passes. I do indeed have them for all of our flights. I think if one were to scan them into a machine, then a ticket number starting in 001 or a PNR Locator would emerge. But when just looking at them with a naked eye, there are no identifying numbers on them at all. What is more aggravating is that neither Alaska nor American even has a customer service phone number. You can ONLY email them. They are probably wise about that but it's frustrating for the customer. But I am making headway much sooner than I thought (their original reply was that they would get back to me in 30 days). You have a lot of good tips about watching available flights. I think we had a problem too because we were traveling as a group of five passengers. It was unlikely that five seats were going to open up at the same time.

 

In my opinion, I think the whole airline mess will make cruising less appealing for those who are still working full time or who have children. It really just isn't an option for many to fly in 2 days before you board a cruise ship (unless you want to do a 3 or 4 day cruise and that hardly seems worth the effort it takes to pack for an airplane these days).

 

Sorry for your travel adventure, but it was humorous and you are a great writer.

 

The airline problem was NOT a result of 5 passengers together (although it could have had some impact IF you had tried to board ANOTHER airline).

 

If I'm not mistaken, this was a cruise air booking. And that IS the problem. Your tickets were NO good on anything other than the originating carrier. So even IF there were seats available on another airline, you would not have been allowed to board with the tickets issued by the cruise line. You would have had to PAY for walk up last minute tickets on another airline. At that point in time, it is VERY debatable if travel insurance would have reimbursed for the expensive last minute tickets. You would have NO way to prove that your cruise line purchased flights WOULD NOT have arrived in time.

 

Send copies of your boarding passes to the travel insurance company. That should more than suffice to prove you were all on the plane. And send along a copy of the ORIGINAL itinerary, showing the earlier departure time.

 

Just one more reason NOT to use cruise air. IF things go badly with the airlines, you are TRULY at the bottom of the pile. And if you read the fine print in most cruise contracts, there will be wording to the effect: "hotels, shore excursions, ground transportation, and AIR are booked as a CONVENIENCE to passengers. We assume NO liability for actions of third party vendors. Our only liability is to refund third party vendor bookings". Princess even goes so far as to SPECIFICALLY list NO compensation for "disappointment".

[kenish]

Alaskabound- I read your well-written review and was laughing and crying inside. We just returned from Alaska and it made me realize what *could* have gone wrong despite my OCD planning style.

 

The best part of this trip is you are showing your kids how to act when stuff happens. That is "priceless" as the ads say.

 

About the ship not waiting- the narrowest stretch of the Inside Passage is Seymour Narrows at the north end of Vancouver Island. It is barely wide enough for two large ships to pass. Since there are big tides, several cubic miles of water flow through the Narrows every 6 hours at 10-15 knots! Ships must arrive at slack tide and sometimes they have to sail at top speed from Seattle or Vancouver to arrive in time. Missing the window means a 6 hour delay and bypassing the first port. That may have been the issue on your cruise.

 

Anyway, it's yin and yang....your next cruise will go great since this one went badly.

[nodumblond]

Yes, that's the show I was referencing. Why anyone would sit and watch it is beyond me. You have to bear in mind that most of us childless couples do not understand or share your trials and tribulations with the kiddos and the fact that the parents seem to want to share those stories with others.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I cannot bear to watch that family. I first saw them briefly on GMA sometime within the past year or so on some baby-related topic (perhaps it was selective reduction?) and the anchor out and out asked for money for them at the end of the segment -- on behalf of a family who had twins thru IF, and then 'had' to go through it again because the twins 'wanted a sibling' -- which is when they ended up with sextuplets. Of course, adopting NEVER entered their minds.

 

Okay, I'll shut up now. But they make me seven kinds of irritated. :mad:

[simplelife]

simplelife-

I really wanted to post last night but I got caught up in making lollipops for Tyler's birthday. Green is the new black so I decided that I would try and start a trend of giving away an edible gift instead of a bag of cheap plastic crap as a goodie bag (and since when do kids need gifts for coming to a birthday party??). Anyway, it seemed like a good idea until I ran out of powdered sugar at 10:30 pm. By 12:45 am, I was begging DH to go to Target and buy as much plastic junk as he could find. But I mommy uped and got er dun.

 

Anyway, it's seems sort of silly that we are arguing over Cheerios (yet oddly flattering that you even care). First, let me say that I meant to post a winky face after my working at HAL question but I guess I forgot. Second, you are absolutely right that Cheerios don't weigh much at all. The bag of Cheerios was in my carry-on and was getting squished by all the other stuff I had crammed in there. So I figured I should empty most of it out to make more space and to avoid having a bag of mashed up cereal. Second, yes, we probably did have more than just three outfits per child. The problem is that I had packed for colder weather in Alaska. It seemed that we would likely need fleece coats, gloves, and hats for Glacier Bay. I also had raincoats and cold weather shoes for all. Since I'm from Denver where, well today it hit 100 degrees, it's hot, I didn't have any winter 9 month clothes for Lila. So I bought her very little as she would be out of the clothes by October anyway when the weather turns here. To top that off, the weather was really hot in Seattle and pretty darn warm in Juneau too. Alaska in the summer is hard to pack for anyway, and it gets pretty difficult when packing for kids as well. I didn't do a great job on packing for the kids but it wasn't for lack of trying.

 

I still think it's okay that I was doing the final packing items on the morning we left. 50 lbs sounded like a pretty high limit to me so I didn't check the bags beforehand. This was my first time to travel with two kids.

 

Anyway, my point in responding to you was that I didn't want you to think that I thought that you had called me a liar (as an English professor, you are probably butchering that sentence structure to pieces). I know you didn't. I probably could have written it better and made sure that I closed all the loops, but I was just trying to bang it out before I forgot it all after we got home.

 

Thanks so much for your kind post - no hard feelings here and I hope none on your part either.:)

It sounds like several CC'rs have given you some good advice about how to get some resolution of the airline and insurance mess. Let us know how things turn out.

I loved the post asking how your baby got on the ship by herself!:D

It sounds like you're the kind of person who will put this behind you and will cruise again. Things HAVE to be better next time:)

Give plenty of hugs to your little ones for those of us whose kids are grown.

[Spaniard]

We...manage to pull together $100 for the head waiter, $100 for the assistant waiter and $60 for the wine steward, who never really improved that much. I also gave our room steward $50 and each of the Neptune Lounge guys $20 each (even though I really didn’t use them at all).

We'll be first-time cruisers on HAL this fall, so we're not real familiar with the whole tipping thing. Adding it up, you gave out $350 in cash, in addition to the auto-tip charge, is this right? Is this typical and/or is this what we may be expected to shell out? We're far from cheapskates, but I'm a little surprised that we might be expected to dispense this much cash to crew members who a) are already being paid and b) are (presumably) already being "auto-tipped".

 

Can anyone advise?

[rozndon]

OMG!! What an awful experience!! However,you have a wonderful writing style and somehow you managed to make an horrific trip sound amusing. Unfortunately, we are leaving for our "Alaska Dream Vacation" a week from Sunday, and now my nervous excitement has turned to nausea! I'm the kind of person who spends a lot of time thinking about all of the things that can go wrong, and now I see that they can!! However, we're doing a land cruise first and flying into Fairbanks the day before "in case there are problems with the flight" So it seems unlikely we'll miss the ship. Unfortunately, we are booked on Alaska Air so anything can happen as you've proved!!

 

Thank you, thank you for posting this. I hope it doesn't take you too long to recover and I hope you found a good therapist for Tyler.

Roz

[jjb415]

Thank you so much Alaskabound77 for taking the time to write about your experiences. I'm sorry for all that went wrong with the trip, but, ummmm, I did enjoy reading your account of the events. :) .

 

Jack

[KeysRes]

We'll be first-time cruisers on HAL this fall, so we're not real familiar with the whole tipping thing. Adding it up, you gave out $350 in cash, in addition to the auto-tip charge, is this right? Is this typical and/or is this what we may be expected to shell out? We're far from cheapskates, but I'm a little surprised that we might be expected to dispense this much cash to crew members who a) are already being paid and b) are (presumably) already being "auto-tipped".

 

Can anyone advise?

 

I believe AlaskaBound was stating the additional tip in the dining room ($100 each for waiter and assistant waiter, and $60 for the wine steward) was the total from her whole party. Basically from 3 cabins, I think (but 7 people total). The room steward $50, and $20 for each of two concierges was what she paid out for her own cabin (her, her husband and 2 children). She probably did the majority of the total though, covering 4 people.

[RuthC]

Thanks to whoever bumped this thread to the top, as it gives me the opportunity to thank Alaskabound 77 for the most delightful read! :)

I was away enjoying my own cruise while you were away on this one, and I hadn't caught up with your account of the trials and tribulations of your family. Oh, my!

But you tell the tale so well; I'm sure you'll be regaling others with the story for years! As will your children. :D

You have great tenacity, not to mention that great sense of humor.

Thank you again for sharing the exploits.

[ekerr19]

OMG!!!!

 

Thank you for taking the time to post this review. I have been literally hanging on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happened next....

 

Kudos to you, your DH, parents and sister for being such great sports about the whole thing.

 

From a fellow Coloradoan, I hope you give cruising another chance sometime in the future. Our kids were older than Tyler and Lila when they first cruised, but we found it to be one of the best family vacations ever.

 

Thanks again SO much for posting your review. :)

[NYGirl1002]

I agree with everyone that your story was very interesting. It also made me happy that I booked by flight for the day before but I'm a little nervous that I'm flying American to Seattle and Alaska home.

 

My favorite part was Lance trying to jump the taxi line.

 

Also, it was very enlightening to hear about the areas in town owned by the cruise lines. I am learning so much on this site.

 

That was hands down the best review I've ever read.

[WaStateBG]

What a story! And fantastic writing, the makings of a first novel perhaps? I've spent the last hour reading the entire 10 pages of the thread.

 

I am booked for my first cruise on HAL next spring in the same kind of suite so I guess what concerns me here is that deluxe suite pax are paying roughly $700 per night (cruisefare alone) yet it doesn't sound like the service and perks are in line with the high rate. I guess I'm wondering if I can get the same service in a regular room.

 

And is this standard when people don't show up for their cruises? Are the crew drawing straws for who gets the posh digs for the week? Tacky!

 

I'm amazed your not angrier at Holland America, I live near Seattle and I'd be camped out on their front steps. As you said the airline part was your fault, but their lack of follow-up on the hotels, again after you paid so much for that suite, is disturbing to me.

 

I have a flight to Palm Springs booked on Alaska Air for a few weeks from now and they have made at least a 1/2 dozen changes to the schedule. Gone are the days when it was a true pleasure to fly, I despise it now which is what made the idea of a cruise so appealing. Your ordeal only confirmed it! Thanks again for sharing.

[Cqis]

I know that I am reading this late. I am sorry for all of your mishaps, but this was the best reading. You Go Girl. From Cruise Critics I have also learned to leave the day before the cruise.

Please cruise again. Bu the way Disney is by far the best with children. We went on two Disney crises----- with no children, and will go again.

[dimidgi]

LOL. Your cruise makes our fiasco this summer on Princess look tame. We, too, got messed up by the airlines and missed our flight to Copenhagen and lost 2 days of our cruise, plus we were in the same clothes for 3 days. The airlines had confiscated our suitcases and weren't giving them back. We didn't purchase trip insurance and we had to pay for our hotels and food, etc. I'm sorry for your misfortune, but I feel better now about our experience. (not trying to be sadistic) Thanks for posting. Like the previous poster, I have heard wonderful things about Disney Cruise Lines. It sounds like you need a vacation to get over your vacation.

[cusyl]

LOL. Your cruise makes our fiasco this summer on Princess look tame. We, too, got messed up by the airlines and missed our flight to Copenhagen and lost 2 days of our cruise, plus we were in the same clothes for 3 days. The airlines had confiscated our suitcases and weren't giving them back. We didn't purchase trip insurance and we had to pay for our hotels and food, etc. I'm sorry for your misfortune, but I feel better now about our experience. (not trying to be sadistic) Thanks for posting. Like the previous poster, I have heard wonderful things about Disney Cruise Lines. It sounds like you need a vacation to get over your vacation.

Wow, what a terrible thing to happen. Why did they confiscate your luggage and did you ever get it back? Bet you purchase trip insurance next time?