Ok, I had been looking forward to this trip for months as had everyone. Unfortunately, the only thing missing in this calamity filled cruise were the plague of locusts... Since this was our 13th cruise we are experienced cruisers, but it was also our most expensive cruise because it was both a Holiday week AND we had a HA verandah cabin due to traveling with a companion who needed the HA but refused to sleep in a Cat 11 (since there are no Cat 9 HAs and the Cat8's can only accomodate 2 guests). As such I had higher expectations (which I know makes no sense but it made the "value" equation have a higher denominator... you pay more and you expect to get a vacation "worth that".)
I'll divide this into the "bad" things and the "good" things that happened
The bad:
1. the beauty of the building at the port is diminished by the construction of the new parking lot and some odd tunnel that you have to pass through to get to the building. The "Please excuse our appearance" signs would reoccur often on this trip...
2. the cameras in the port were broken to take the pictures that align with your KTTW card. ALL of them. So we were held in big lines while DCL tried to figure out what to do since this had supposedly "never happened before." We boarded a little late, no pictures, and what surprised me the most is that no accomodations were made onboard (since there were 2 sea days) to try to do pictures onboard.
3. no bedspreads... I tried for 4 days to get bedspreads for the twin bed configuration to no avail. Every time I went to guest services to get an extra blanket our stateroom attendant removed it the next morning. Really? So every day I went to get a new blanket and it disappeared again. Finally I begged at Guest Services (at 5:30 am since I got no sleep all week) to send a note to have our attendant stop removing them and please provide bedspreads. Well then Guest Services CALLED the room at 5:45 am and woke the other two (my teen and guest) to tell them to "look under the bed." WHAT??? They called my room at 5:45am? Just because I was up and wandering around the ship doesn't mean that they were. A quick check of the guest list would have seen a teen in the room...
4. our servers. Ok, they were just "ok" but nothing great. Here's my deal here. I can see other tables getting great service, lots of interaction, peter pan hats getting made at the character breakfast - the whole drill. We got "normal" service. Nothing special, over the top, extra, what have you. The 3 year old behind us had pancakes and cottage cheese made for her for dinner every night and when I asked if my teen with severe shellfish allergies could have a plate of plain spaghetti I was looked at as if I had asked for the moon.
5. the fire in the engine (see other trip reports) which then slowed down the ship and the accomanying removal of the stablizers which left DD and companion green for the balance of the trip.
6. the delayed arrival at Castaway Cay due to a weird combination of 35 knott winds, 8-10 ft seas and reduced engine capacity. We tried to dock at 9am, 10:00 am, and then successfully at 12:45 am... but the problem was that since we were told at 10:00 that we wouldn't try again for a few hours we went and had breakfast at Parrot Cay since we had nothing to do but wait... then they announce at 11:45 that the island BBQ lunch was being set up in Topsiders. WHAT? We had just eaten breakfast. Ugh. We finally docked at 12:45 and were off the ship at 1:00pm at CC and wound up with no lunch that day due to the timing of the things. (Yes, there were cookies, chips and the fresh fruit display set up.)
7. The construction at CC - ok, so the tree was set up with the cute little snowmen -- unfortunately you couldn't take picture in front of them because there were construction vehicles and other detritus behind this in every shot.
8. the closing of the aft stairs -- for 2 days we were able to use the aft-most set of stairs to go up to Topsiders. Then they were closed "for repair" or what have you. Gone was the easy access.
9. the piece de la resistance - the flood... so we returned to our cabin after our shortened day at CC to find watering pouring out of the ceiling of our cabin - it was coming from the ceiling and through the light fixtures. Maintenance came and opened the A/C area and it was a moldy disgusting mess (thus explaining companion's incessant snoring and congestion all week). Water was everywhere - on the sofa bed, floor, etc. When guest services came (as the sun was setting and we were told not to turn on the lights) we opened the closet --all of the clothes in there had been "rained on" by moldly gray water. Lovely. Shoes were soaked, you name it. What a mess and on the final night when we should have been packing!
10. which lead to missing the final show, going to dinner in the clothes we were wearing (DD was fine as her clothes were in the steamer trunk which was on the other side of the room), and throwing our stuff into bags haphazardly to relocate all the way across the ship for one final night.
The good:
1. The food - we were on the Magic in June when they were 'testing' the new menu and no one really knew what was good or not. The food then was not so great, IMO. The food was actually much improved this time.
2. Chair hogging - it was not as bad as I have experienced before but this might have been due to it being November and folks were not expecting to camp out for the whole day for sunning.
3. The shows - very nice as always. Didn't get any character pictures because DD wouldn't cooperate this time (oops -forgot another 'bad' in that DD would not go to the clubs at all even once for the week. Stuck like glue by my side.)
4. Guest services was really nice in response to the flood. They cleaned our clothes and had them back by 10pm so that we could pack them. They gave us a small OBC for the inconvenience of the flood/move.
All in all I'd give this trip a "2" on the 5 scale. Of course, everyone's experience varies depending on what happened to them. Others had magical trips, I am sure and I wish that I could hit "re-do" on this one.
I'll divide this into the "bad" things and the "good" things that happened
The bad:
1. the beauty of the building at the port is diminished by the construction of the new parking lot and some odd tunnel that you have to pass through to get to the building. The "Please excuse our appearance" signs would reoccur often on this trip...
2. the cameras in the port were broken to take the pictures that align with your KTTW card. ALL of them. So we were held in big lines while DCL tried to figure out what to do since this had supposedly "never happened before." We boarded a little late, no pictures, and what surprised me the most is that no accomodations were made onboard (since there were 2 sea days) to try to do pictures onboard.
3. no bedspreads... I tried for 4 days to get bedspreads for the twin bed configuration to no avail. Every time I went to guest services to get an extra blanket our stateroom attendant removed it the next morning. Really? So every day I went to get a new blanket and it disappeared again. Finally I begged at Guest Services (at 5:30 am since I got no sleep all week) to send a note to have our attendant stop removing them and please provide bedspreads. Well then Guest Services CALLED the room at 5:45 am and woke the other two (my teen and guest) to tell them to "look under the bed." WHAT??? They called my room at 5:45am? Just because I was up and wandering around the ship doesn't mean that they were. A quick check of the guest list would have seen a teen in the room...
4. our servers. Ok, they were just "ok" but nothing great. Here's my deal here. I can see other tables getting great service, lots of interaction, peter pan hats getting made at the character breakfast - the whole drill. We got "normal" service. Nothing special, over the top, extra, what have you. The 3 year old behind us had pancakes and cottage cheese made for her for dinner every night and when I asked if my teen with severe shellfish allergies could have a plate of plain spaghetti I was looked at as if I had asked for the moon.
5. the fire in the engine (see other trip reports) which then slowed down the ship and the accomanying removal of the stablizers which left DD and companion green for the balance of the trip.
6. the delayed arrival at Castaway Cay due to a weird combination of 35 knott winds, 8-10 ft seas and reduced engine capacity. We tried to dock at 9am, 10:00 am, and then successfully at 12:45 am... but the problem was that since we were told at 10:00 that we wouldn't try again for a few hours we went and had breakfast at Parrot Cay since we had nothing to do but wait... then they announce at 11:45 that the island BBQ lunch was being set up in Topsiders. WHAT? We had just eaten breakfast. Ugh. We finally docked at 12:45 and were off the ship at 1:00pm at CC and wound up with no lunch that day due to the timing of the things. (Yes, there were cookies, chips and the fresh fruit display set up.)
7. The construction at CC - ok, so the tree was set up with the cute little snowmen -- unfortunately you couldn't take picture in front of them because there were construction vehicles and other detritus behind this in every shot.
8. the closing of the aft stairs -- for 2 days we were able to use the aft-most set of stairs to go up to Topsiders. Then they were closed "for repair" or what have you. Gone was the easy access.
9. the piece de la resistance - the flood... so we returned to our cabin after our shortened day at CC to find watering pouring out of the ceiling of our cabin - it was coming from the ceiling and through the light fixtures. Maintenance came and opened the A/C area and it was a moldy disgusting mess (thus explaining companion's incessant snoring and congestion all week). Water was everywhere - on the sofa bed, floor, etc. When guest services came (as the sun was setting and we were told not to turn on the lights) we opened the closet --all of the clothes in there had been "rained on" by moldly gray water. Lovely. Shoes were soaked, you name it. What a mess and on the final night when we should have been packing!
10. which lead to missing the final show, going to dinner in the clothes we were wearing (DD was fine as her clothes were in the steamer trunk which was on the other side of the room), and throwing our stuff into bags haphazardly to relocate all the way across the ship for one final night.
The good:
1. The food - we were on the Magic in June when they were 'testing' the new menu and no one really knew what was good or not. The food then was not so great, IMO. The food was actually much improved this time.
2. Chair hogging - it was not as bad as I have experienced before but this might have been due to it being November and folks were not expecting to camp out for the whole day for sunning.
3. The shows - very nice as always. Didn't get any character pictures because DD wouldn't cooperate this time (oops -forgot another 'bad' in that DD would not go to the clubs at all even once for the week. Stuck like glue by my side.)
4. Guest services was really nice in response to the flood. They cleaned our clothes and had them back by 10pm so that we could pack them. They gave us a small OBC for the inconvenience of the flood/move.
All in all I'd give this trip a "2" on the 5 scale. Of course, everyone's experience varies depending on what happened to them. Others had magical trips, I am sure and I wish that I could hit "re-do" on this one.
I say book 14 to help you forget this one!! 
