Just back from the same cruise.
The WIDESPREAD scuttle on board was that one of the Magic's five engines was down, and had been down, or at least been having significant issues, for a number of weeks. Therefore, the Magic could not make it down to St. Maartin in a timely fashion at the beginning of the cruise as there were strong winds and currents to contend with. We've had no problem on other, non-mechanically challenged ships in similar weather. We've cruised extensively and the issue was not entirely weather related. At partial steam, the Magic was simply not able to contend with the wind.
There was also a ton of motion and a lot of sick and staggering people during this portion of the trip due to the fact that the stabilizers had to be pulled in to reduce drag, and thus speed. The nurse on duty in the Medical Center on Tuesday said she had never treated so many cases on seasickness on a cruise.
And despite the fact that the officers said the engine would be repaired in St. Thomas, it wasn't. And in fact, a second of the five engines went out on the way back up to
Castaway Cay on Thursday. Our server told us that the ship couldn't properly thrust sideways on three out of five engines, which is why we could make it nearly into the slip at CC but were unable to move sideways into position at the dock.
If this is, indeed, all true, it's disappointing that Disney did not inform passengers that there were mechanical issues that could greatly affect the nature of the cruise. I would have elected to postpone. Of course, that would have been far more costly to Disney than the $100 OBC for each cabin!
