Hi Everyone
Our friends Kara and Eric were on one of the recent preview cruises and provided the following comments. Enjoy - Ken
From Kara and Eric
What we loved:
Cabins
o No longer stick your card in a card reader to open the doors, now just tap the card on a device much like is used in Europe for credit cards.
o New décor is lovely
o Closet doors now swing open, no longer slide open so when the ship rocks, they dont open!
o There is a very nice knit blanket on the bed, nice for an afternoon nap without needing to turn down the bed
o Bed is nice and big, felt more like a king
o Cabins seemed quieter, better insulated. No more gap under the door - all messages, bills, etc are put in the message holder next to the door. Dont really hear cabin doors slamming around you or above/below.
o The light in the dresser/vanity section of the cabin also doubles as a low, blue nightlight
o Reading lights have been added above the sofa and to the bunk bed
o Curtains are much better over the verandah door!! No longer two pieces that meet in the middle, it is now one curtain that goes all the way across. Even better, the wall comes out just a tiny bit where the curtain comes to an end, so that there is no light that comes through. Probably not explaining that well, but no more light leaks is what Im saying
o Shower is larger, and the shower head sits higher. The shower curtain also bows out a little to give even more room.
o There is a small magnifying mirror built into the mirror in the shower side of the bathroom
o Beds are now high enough to put empty suitcases under the bed, but the beds dont feel like they are too high off the ground. I didnt need to jump to get on the bed!
o More shelves in the closets
o Full length mirror is now on the bathroom door for the shower section of the bathroom, and the doors open out, not in.
o Two hooks on the wall to hang clothes on while dressing in the evenings
Animators Palate WOW! The changes are amazing, do NOT miss this in your rotation.
New show Believe is great
The animated interactive art throughout the ship was so much fun. The pictures work off of facial recognition, so if you stand in front of the picture you will see a short animated show. You really want to check out the two pirate pictures on deck 5 aft. Super cool!
Walt Disney Theatre two levels of seating, and there are real balconies to sit in, no longer just for the old man Muppets
Food in the three regular rotation restaurants was VERY good. In Enchanted Garden, try the sea bass with chili sauce.
General themeing was amazing, the main atrium from deck 3 up to deck 6 is stunning.
Lots of elevators, and they are fast!
Lots of fun outdoor seating areas. We particularly liked the one outside of Skyline on deck 4 and the one all the way forward, deck 13
Two hot tubs in the infinity style. Very big, and with windows in the bottom that hang over the edge of the ship
cool! One of the hot tubs is by the adult pool, the other is by the family and kids pool.
There are two sets of drink stations, one port side and one starboard side toward the aft
Nemo themed water play area for toddlers is so cool!
Aqua Duck is lots of fun, of course
Adult pool has three parts, one is ankle deep and good for sitting on the edge of the pool to read with feet in the water. Next area is deep for floating (not big enough to swim), and third area has under water seats that allow head and neck to be above water. In the very shallow end, there are several bar seats in the water. Not quite a swim up bar, but close.
Lots of really nice seating around all of the pools, and around a lot of the open-air bar areas.
Shutters much better organized. Each stateroom is assigned a binder in a library style set of shelves. The pictures taken throughout the cruise are put in the binder. To find your binder or to review your pictures, just walk up to a kiosk in Shutters, or throughout the ship, tap stateroom key, and view pictures. Still gets very crowded toward the end of the cruise, but they now have two sets of registers, one at each end of Shutters.
Stuff we didnt love about the ship:
Deck 11 aft is taken up entirely by Cabanas, the restaurant that is like Topsiders. It wraps all the way around from starboard to aft. The problem with that is if you have a cabin that is aft and you come up the aft stairs or elevator, to get out on deck 11 you must walk through Cabanas. Kind of a pain, particularly at meal times when they really want you to take a sanitary wipe
Bathrooms in the staterooms
o We didnt like that the doors now open outward instead of inward. You cant leave the doors open and still move around the cabin to get into the closets or leave the cabin.
o There is no power plug in the toilet section of the bathroom, and only one in the CEILING of the shower section. I couldnt reach it, but Eric could
to dry your hair, you need to go to the vanity/dresser. The plug in the bathroom only took 220 volt.
o There is less shelf space in the bathrooms.
No more steamer trunk for storage in the staterooms
The signs in the elevator areas dont indicate what part of the ship different venues are in (e.g. aft, forward)
Recommend skipping breakfast at Enchanted Garden. Its a buffet, has the most of the same food as was served in Cabanas, but less choices, and when we were there, it was mostly cold because it wasnt being consumed fast enough.
Lights in the cabins wont work without sliding a room key (or any similar shaped card) into a slot at the front of the cabin. Meant to conserve energy, we guessed. Similar to what we encountered in budget hotels in Europe.
We felt like there werent enough trash receptacles out on deck and around the ship
but that may have been due to some stuff still not being completed when we were on board.
Cove Café was pretty small, not a lot of seating
and yes....i can blame it all on pregnancy hormones!!!!! Thank Goodness they did not delay the MV...in 2 more weeks I would not be medically released to go!!!)
I will have to search for a disney files mag...not sure if we have any at the moment...bet I could get one from SSR though before the cruise 
, now if someone could help me finish the piles of work I have
before we leave on Saturday, that would be fantastic!
The event was beautiful. That said, reading your post puts everything in perspective and the tears are flowing again!
