We'’re out of it! A summer 14 “MAGICal” Med adventure Day 14/Aug 05 updated 05/05

[Leshaface]

That view from up there is amazing! Those rides look pretty fun too. Is that an actual plane ride? It looks pretty big!

Mmm, what a nice leisurely meal with your sandwiches and baked goods.

Such a good idea to put cardstock on the bottom of a bag to make it a bit sturdier. Thanks for the idea!

I had never heard about red wine doing that. So strange but glad that the two glasses of Sangria were good to you!

Wow, those tapas look delicious! Sounds like you guys made the right choice by going there a bit early

 

[franandaj]

I'm glad you told us where the title of this report came from. I didn't take it from a perspective of being out of stock, but a perspective of you two not being completely present mentally. The former makes more sense!

The tapas looked great! I have yet to try real Spanish tapas, but your photos are really making mean to move them up on the to do list!

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Beautiful scenery, interesting architecture, and of course.....those wonderful cranes again! Loved the panoramic view of the city!

Interesting to see the differences for what constitutes a "park" in different parts of the world. The Austria Garden looks beautiful! Would love touring on the tram and the funicular. Looks like nice ways to travel.

All the food looks pretty good, but when it comes to breakfast, I probably would stick with the sweets you got. I guess I'm just too traditional with what qualifies for breakfast to me, and that has to be the way I start my day, no matter what time the day starts.

 

[jenseib]

Finally getting a chance to catch up her.
The views you got were amazing. Those rides looked so neat...and on top of a mountain/hill no less probably makes them even more thrilling.

The food pictures are fabulous and mouthwatering. I am glad I just ate something or I would be searching my cubbards right now.

 

[dizneeat]

Oh Karin, the tapas looks delicious
It's absolutely our favourite thing to do in Spain (DHs especially) drinks and tapas and then move to another bar for more drinks and tapas!

We were in awe with the little Tapas bar. The food was absolutely delicious and we were really sorry we had not found it any earlier. Well, here's a reason to go back - soon!

The Tapas Bar looked great. Your days in Barcelona look great.

We had such a good time in Barcelona, even though it rained one of the two days we had. And this Tapas Bar and its food were wonderful.

what a gorgeous update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Makes me really want to go back to Barcelona, though I am hot and tired, and hungry reading about your afternoon!

Well, even though it might be hot, tiring and making you hungry - but Barcelona is worth a visit - hopefully soon for both of us.

I did feel the Southern was a decent value for the money but then again we've paid through the nose to cruise the summer previously so by comparison it seemed good.

I never thought I would say that Disney was not worth the money paid, especially since we were used to DCL pricing. But we could have done a back to back on the Fantasy, booked Cabanas for both and still not have reached what we paid for 12 nights on the Magic. And with all the issues it felt we got a 2 star hotel for a 5 star price.

However when I got a quote for a 5 day SoCal/Mexico itinerary I about had a heart attack.

I think sometimes they just throw in to many "zeros".

We had small links, quickly resolved and any of other issues were port related and luckily for us, also a non issue.

As I said before, it was just small issues, but they just added up. Not only did we have a smelly bathroom, but had leakage, dryers out in the hallway. A stateroom host who "forgot" to make up our stateroom more than once. Just not what we expected.
My biggest mistake was not complaining to guest services. But then some of our friends had some similar issues and all guest services did was shrugging their shoulders and sending them a bottle of wine.

I am so sorry. We did have a few small issues on the first day. The ships "system" definitely has some issues. Thankfully we never had any smell issues (though I had packed air freshener) but they were definitely struggling with a black residue that would ring the toilet. I swear it looked like beard shavings!. It was demonstrated to me that it was a ship issue and I was able to see that it was in fact clean and was able to get past it. Our fridge didn't work at first. The worst, and my fault, was I dropped an earring down the sink! All 3 issues were dealt with so incredibly fast, with so much follow up to make sure we were happy, we were VERY impressed. The only other room issue we had was one of the closet doors, IF not fully shut till it latched, would slide when the ship moved. But that really was our fault when we wouldn't quite close it. I admit, I looked for signs of wear and dings but really didn't see much at least in our room or overall on the ship.

I am so glad your isses were resolved quickly and it sounds like you got your earring back.

We too were comparing it to the Wonder. We actually like O'Gills much more than it's counterpart on the Wonder (can't even think what it is called) but honestly a lot of the magic for us may simply have been being there without the kids.

We really enjoy O'Gills on the Fantasy. Such a fun place to be. Unfortunately on the Magic they either had some really loud music on, or some other kind of quiz. Several days we were in search of a place to sit, sip a drink and have a conversation and it was so loud in all the bars and lounges so we fled to our stateroom. Thank god we had quite some drinks stashed in our room.

That is no fun. We had Natalie, who we've had before and we quite like her though honestly for the most part we didn't pay a ton of attention to her, or the Captain. Sad huh. LOL!

Who was your Captain? We had Robert and he is a bit on the "pale" side compared to some other captains they have.
We just LOVE Christiaan as the CD, he is so funny and so energetic. If you can't sleep at night, listen to Brent, he will send you off right away.

Aw, that is NOT good. Overall I actually think ours might have been a bit better than on our previous Disney cruises. It may have just been better ordering though.

We found food in the MDRs quite okay. Apart from the fact that sometimes the meat was pretty tough and food not as hot as I would have liked it.
It was room service and the self service stations that lacked mostly.

Or too many rum drinks made in the room.

You can never have too many rum drinks!

We did have one meh service experience (in Palo) and I was NOT overwhelmed with my spa services. I will say our dining room servers may well have been the best we have ever had on our 3 cruises and definitely our favorite stateroom hostess. I also thought the excursions were generally "ok" but had room for improvement. Our best one was a non DCL one and I will remember that in the future even if the idea makes me nervous.

Palo was quite nice for us and we never made it to the spa. And as far as excursions went, we didn't book any with Disney and the ones we booked privately worked out fantastic. Only one was a huge letdown. I guess I should have read tripadvisor more carefully.

 

[dizneeat]

We were wanting to visit the dark side next summer too. Our daughter and son-in-law just went and loved the new additions.

I was just reading Jen's (jenseib) TR about visiting UO and she really made me want to go back. IF we go, we will go in the beginning of our trip and stay on property for the Express Pass.

Loved all your Spanish food pictures! It is funny how different those tapas look from the ones you can get in a "Spanish tapas bar" here in Germany!

Very different from what we can get here too! But the ones we had at Biarritz 1881 really stood out! They were sooooo good!

Oh, and the overabundance of tuna in your breakfast pastries? How interesting how popular tuna is there! But I had my first ever tuna steak during our visit to Barcelona in the 80s, so I even have a personal tuna connection.

It was so funny, as they had quite a few different "pies" in that bakery, but the girls there didn't speak much English and we don't speak Spanish, so we just pointed at things and hoped for the best.
And laughed so hard when we cut into them and all of them had tuna in them. But they all tasted differently, so it was good in the end.

It's such a shame that the not so stellar experience with the Magic tainted the whole trip for you. But I totally understand! And if anything similar happens to you again - be sure to speak up more and hopefully they will correct things. At least to how far they can do something. It seems like the Magic does has some basic infrastructure issues.

I don't think they could have done much. Friends of ours had similar "smell issues" and there was nothing they could do for them. They would not have been able to solve the food issues and we learned to "repair" some of the issues ourselves. I come prepared with a set of screwdrivers.

But yes, it did influence our DCL experience. Funny thing though, we never even thought about it while being on dry land. So we had some really good times too!

Karin, you are killing me with all the delicious-looking food!!! I want to try everything!

Wow - the views from the one restaurant were amazing.

The tapas places looks AMAZING! I am a huge fan of tapas. Ugh - so jealous!!!

We really had some yummy food in Barcelona. You really should take Willow there, I am sure she would love it.
Yes, the view from the restaurant at El Corte Ingles was stunning. We could not believe it either.

That view from up there is amazing! Those rides look pretty fun too. Is that an actual plane ride? It looks pretty big!

The view from Tipidabo is incredible. And from the viewing area of the church you could see for miles in all directions.
And yes, you can ride that plane. It is supposed to be the first plane that went non stop from Barcelona to Madrid (or the other way round) in 1928. I am sure if we had had more time we would have gotten tickets for the rides.

Mmm, what a nice leisurely meal with your sandwiches and baked goods.

Such a good idea to put cardstock on the bottom of a bag to make it a bit sturdier. Thanks for the idea!

We had brought our magnets in one long cardboard "envelope" (think 2ft by 1 ft). The extra bag we had was a soft one, but did have wheels. So putting that cardboard into the bottom and then packing it carefully made it much more sturdy and easy to pull around.

I had never heard about red wine doing that. So strange but glad that the two glasses of Sangria were good to you!

Most of the red wines do that to me. It makes my mouth and throat fell like it is swelling up and I cannot swallow. Has to do with something in red wine, but I forgot what it was.
So I just stay away from it. But the Sangria looked so yummy and it was pretty "watered" down so I gave it a try and loved it.

Wow, those tapas look delicious! Sounds like you guys made the right choice by going there a bit early

I had read on tripadvisor that you need to hit the Tapas bar early if you do not want to wait outside. And I was glad we made it there when we did. There was quite the line outside when we left.

 

[dizneeat]

I'm glad you told us where the title of this report came from. I didn't take it from a perspective of being out of stock, but a perspective of you two not being completely present mentally. The former makes more sense!

After a few days of being on the ship - being out of something became a running gag.

The tapas looked great! I have yet to try real Spanish tapas, but your photos are really making mean to move them up on the to do list!

Ah, you really need to try some real Spanish tapas. Best to do it in Spain though .....

Beautiful scenery, interesting architecture, and of course.....those wonderful cranes again! Loved the panoramic view of the city!

Guess those cranes will be around for some time to come ... until they finally finish La Sagrada Familia.

Interesting to see the differences for what constitutes a "park" in different parts of the world. The Austria Garden looks beautiful! Would love touring on the tram and the funicular. Looks like nice ways to travel.

Ah, using the tram and funicular was fun. And it feels so much more fun when you do it in a foreign country. We have a tram like this here, but we only ride it if we have guests from out of town and funiculars are very popular in the Alpine regions.

All the food looks pretty good, but when it comes to breakfast, I probably would stick with the sweets you got. I guess I'm just too traditional with what qualifies for breakfast to me, and that has to be the way I start my day, no matter what time the day starts.

I am sure you would have found something for your breakfast. They had so many wonderful Danish and chocolate filled croissants.

Finally getting a chance to catch up her.
The views you got were amazing. Those rides looked so neat...and on top of a mountain/hill no less probably makes them even more thrilling.

I wish we would have had more time on Tipidabo. The rides looked very tempting, but with our limited amount of time we needed to head on.

The food pictures are fabulous and mouthwatering. I am glad I just ate something or I would be searching my cubbards right now.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 4, July 26

Where’s the magic? - Part 1

Today was THE day! We were to board the Disney Magic today, the one and only I initially wanted to sail on and now finally the last one of the Disney ships we would set foot on. Having high expectations would be an understatement, as we had read about the dry dock that the Magic had been to and we were so looking forward to have this newly renovated and updated ship to explore.
So, we got up around 7am, had showers and then quickly headed down to the bakery across the street to pick up some pastries for breakfast. Back in our room Tom made some coffee and we sat down for one last breakfast in our Barcelona “home”. Tom had picked up two savoury pastries, a



Cheese and Ham pastry and the other one turned out to be a



Tuna and Vegetable pastry. I had picked two sweet pastries, one of them was an



Apple Danish, the other was a





“Brioche muffin”, it was just lightly sweet and very soft. And after finishing our breakfast we cleared the table, cleaned the kitchen, put on the dishwasher and finished packing. We checked the room a few times for forgotten items, then put all our luggage out into the hallway and decided to take a short walk around the block as we still had time until our transfer to the port.
When we got back we moved our luggage to the elevator, I went down with the first piece, then Tom sent down two more and followed with the rest of it. We hauled everything outside and waited for our private transfer again. Just a few minutes later a car parked right at the corner and a familiar face emerged, the driver, who had picked us up from the airport. He quickly started to load our luggage into the back, while we climbed into the car. And off we went. And a few minutes later we approached the port.
There she was, the Disney Magic. We were initially a bit shocked at how small she looked having been on the larger and newer ships lately.
But we were so excited, so as soon as we had gotten off and a porter had taken care of our luggage we were heading for the entrance. Now, we both knew this was nothing like the Port Canaveral terminal, but once we had passed the two DCL flags at the entrance we found ourselves in a very bare part of a warehouse with just the security scanners and a little line. Right when we got in line I noticed the family in front of us, they were from our FB group, but there had been so much going on in that group that we didn’t really want to be a part of it any more, so we just kept to ourselves. It literally took only a minute and the scanners were behind us. We walked over to the check in area and were pleasantly surprised that Platinum Castaway Club Members had their own check in desk right next to Concierge. Since there was no one in line, check in was a breeze as well and we were told to walk over to the waiting area. We did and were in shock. A very bare warehouse like room with rows of garden chairs. What really was noticeable was that it was so loud in there. We just stood for a minute or two and watched. On one side they had several Disney cruise line backgrounds and there was a character out to greet guests. After we got over the initial shock of the waiting area we found two chairs and sat down.





Time just seemed to crawl by as we people watched. We sat there for about an hour when they started to make announcements. Since the acoustics were so poorly we just peeked over to the Concierge area every now and then and when they finally started moving, we knew we would be next. So we wheeled our carry ons over but since there was no one really looking to control boarding we had to fight our way over to the boarding area. They did check if you were in the correct boarding group and we were soon walking over to the gangway that led to the ship. Usually this is the moment, we both get really excited as we are already so happy, but somehow that happiness had not yet set in.
Yes, we were excited to get on the ship, but the overly excited feeling was missing. But soon our names were announced and we entered the Atrium. Having been on the newer ships a lot lately the size of the Atrium was a bit of a surprise but we both were happy to see Helmsman Mickey greet us.



And then we looked up and saw the new chandelier. And were unanimous, boy, it is ugly.



Tom mentioned that it looked like they had bought it at the cheapest carry out furniture shop we have. No, no instant love so far.
But we both were sure it would not take very long until the Disney high was to set in. Once we had taken in the Atrium and the hustle and bustle there we went to get some lunch. Now, we both do not like buffets very much, so Cariocas was our restaurant of choice, as even if you have to serve yourself, at least a server will bring you your drinks. We headed towards the restaurant, received a wipe and went towards the check in. It didn’t take long and we were sitting at a table towards the back and the side of the restaurant. A server took our drinks order, we had placed our carry ons under the table and off we went to get some food. Didn’t really take long to have a full plate and we returned to our table to enjoy our food.





I even went back to get a small piece of carrot cake for dessert.



Once we had finished our lunch we headed to Lumiere’s, where they were doing rotation changes. We actually didn’t want to change our rotation, but just ask if our request for a table for two had been honoured. And after a minute’s wait we knew that our wish indeed had been granted. Yippie, there was only one thing we still had to do before we could relax completely. We had to change our Palo dinner reservation. I had reserved our dinner right at 120 days out, but Disney Cruise Line had decided to change Pirate Night we needed to change the date. There were no more reservations available online, so we headed up to the restaurant where a few people were already in line.
When it was our turn we asked about the change and were told that they only had one more time slot on our desired day, a 6pm reservation. Score, just what I had wanted. We had a second request too, a second brunch reservation. The only date the Maitre D’ could offer us was the day after our first brunch. Not the ideal date, but we took it anyway. We still had to kill a bit of time until we could finally have a look at our stateroom, so we went around deck 4,









watching them “play” with luggage, which they kind of “shot” from one luggage handler to another.













Now I know where all the scratches on new luggage come from. And after our walk around and some people watching it was time to head up to our stateroom. We were pretty much midship, but those elevators are always pretty jammed, so we went to the aft elevators, went up to deck 7 and found the corridor already open. It was fun to see as we walked forward that the mid entrance was still blocked and people were watching us walk by. Once we had found our stateroom we tapped our Key To The World Cards towards the scanner and opened the door.

To be continued ..........​

 

[GoofyFan1515]

I was hoping you were about to post an update since you were finishing up replies! As busy as things are right now, it is always great to hit a chance to be completely caught up right after an update, instead of getting in right before one and falling behind again immediately!

I guess your answer was correct.........there were a lot more good breakfast choices, and looks like you hit some on your final Barcelona morning. That apple Danish looks good, but that brioche muffin sounds and looks wonderful!

Wow, it's a good thing I have read enough about cruises to be excited to finally go on one (hopefully before too much longer). I agree that empty warehouse isn't the most conducive to generating excitement for what's to come. It reminds me of those times in college where they emptied out the coliseum and put in a bunch of tables for class registration. It just seemed and felt so empty!

You don't care for that highly attractive, highly fashionable and artsy chandelier? What is wrong with the two of you??? I was thinking to myself when I first saw the picture...........what the heck is that thing supposed to be! It was funny to see you both agreed. What was the person who had that brilliant idea for the ship thinking???

Glad you were able to get your meal's changed. And so great you knew the trick for getting to your stateroom quickly. I'm afraid I am one of those people who would have been standing there wondering how you got in while I was still waiting.

Can't wait to see the pictures of your stateroom! Hopefully that will be enough for the excitement to finally kick in for you!

 

[perfectmatch300]

While I totally enjoyed hearing about your time in Barcelona, I am glad you finally made it aboard. I am anxious to see and hear about the reimagined Magic! So what is the first thing I see? The ugliest chandelier I have ever seen! I sure hope they still have the one that used to be there because they need to put it back!

I noticed that you plan to stay onsite at Universal if you decide to go there. Definitely a good plan as you will want to make the most of your time. During the summer months it can get pretty crowded, especially if you want to visit their wizard. We still haven't gotten down there to Diagon Alley. We were waiting for the fall, and now it seems that we are so busy going on cruises we just haven't found the time. After we get home from next week's cruise we will have to make a point to get there.

 

[MEK]

Yay for cruise time.

I will admit that the warehouse arrival does look a bit underwelming. I hope that you settle in quickly and I'm glad you were able to make all your dining changes on arrival.

That is awesome!

Really looking forward to your cruise.

Oh - and that carrot cake looks really yummy!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Karin, as I said before, I've been telling my boss about your Barcelona adventures and he's enjoyed remembering his past trips there through your report.

Your food pictures are always so good but those tapas looked amazing! I wish that there were some sort of restaurant like that around here.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe what the port looked like. It does not compare in any way, shape or form to what Port Canaveral looks like. I'd have been in shock too.

The light fixture in the atrium is kind of neat but it's certainly not as gorgeous as the other fixtures on the other ships.

 

[eandesmom]

I never thought I would say that Disney was not worth the money paid, especially since we were used to DCL pricing. But we could have done a back to back on the Fantasy, booked Cabanas for both and still not have reached what we paid for 12 nights on the Magic. And with all the issues it felt we got a 2 star hotel for a 5 star price.

Well, as you know, we originally booked a Med and moved ot the S. Carribean due to the price tag. The Med prices (summer DCL prices in general) are insane.

As I said before, it was just small issues, but they just added up. Not only did we have a smelly bathroom, but had leakage, dryers out in the hallway. A stateroom host who "forgot" to make up our stateroom more than once. Just not what we expected.
My biggest mistake was not complaining to guest services. But then some of our friends had some similar issues and all guest services did was shrugging their shoulders and sending them a bottle of wine.

That is so unfortunate, it is odd as we felt like we had the exact opposite. I had to go to guest services twice and in each event they followed up multiple times and even with multiple people! Forgetting to make up your room? That is unacceptable and add to that a smelly bathroom and wet carpets in your hallway? That would have definitely colored the entire experience.

We really enjoy O'Gills on the Fantasy. Such a fun place to be. Unfortunately on the Magic they either had some really loud music on, or some other kind of quiz. Several days we were in search of a place to sit, sip a drink and have a conversation and it was so loud in all the bars and lounges so we fled to our stateroom. Thank god we had quite some drinks stashed in our room.

We spent almost no time in any of the bars, we really lived on our verandah in the evenings with a drink.

Who was your Captain? We had Robert and he is a bit on the "pale" side compared to some other captains they have.
We just LOVE Christiaan as the CD, he is so funny and so energetic. If you can't sleep at night, listen to Brent, he will send you off right away.

We had John as our captain. We didn't order room service so I can't speak to that and in general didn't get much from the self service (I've never been overwhelmed with those on any of the ships, nor the buffet) so can't speak much to that either.

Palo was quite nice for us and we never made it to the spa. And as far as excursions went, we didn't book any with Disney and the ones we booked privately worked out fantastic. Only one was a huge letdown. I guess I should have read tripadvisor more carefully. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]

excursions are always a bit of a wildcard no matter who you book through.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Karin I hope the Disney Magic was everything you hoped it would be. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

[Leshaface]

That brioche muffin sounds like the perfect breakfast pastry.

The waiting area kind of looks like what a recovery area after a disaster would look like. Very strange.

You're right, the chandelier is far from grand, unlike the Dream and Fantasy. Just odd looking.

Glad you were able to make all your changes for Palo Dinner and Palo Brunch even though brunch is 2 days in a row.

Can't wait to see your stateroom!

 

[dizneeat]

I was hoping you were about to post an update since you were finishing up replies! As busy as things are right now, it is always great to hit a chance to be completely caught up right after an update, instead of getting in right before one and falling behind again immediately!

Yeah, BUSY, I can relate to that. Glad you are trying to stay on top of things, even though you are so busy.


I guess your answer was correct.........there were a lot more good breakfast choices, and looks like you hit some on your final Barcelona morning. That apple Danish looks good, but that brioche muffin sounds and looks wonderful!

You definitely picked the best breakfast item. That brioche muffin was to die for.

Wow, it's a good thing I have read enough about cruises to be excited to finally go on one (hopefully before too much longer). I agree that empty warehouse isn't the most conducive to generating excitement for what's to come. It reminds me of those times in college where they emptied out the coliseum and put in a bunch of tables for class registration. It just seemed and felt so empty!

Let me tell you that cruising is the most relaxing and wonderful thing - if you don't start it in that warehouse.
And with the bare walls it was just SO loud in there.

You don't care for that highly attractive, highly fashionable and artsy chandelier? What is wrong with the two of you??? I was thinking to myself when I first saw the picture...........what the heck is that thing supposed to be! It was funny to see you both agreed. What was the person who had that brilliant idea for the ship thinking???

Ah, I knew I liked you for a reason. You definitely have good taste when it comes to chandeliers.

Glad you were able to get your meal's changed. And so great you knew the trick for getting to your stateroom quickly. I'm afraid I am one of those people who would have been standing there wondering how you got in while I was still waiting.

It felt like we were the "preferred" guests. And the looks of the people who had to wait were just priceless.

Can't wait to see the pictures of your stateroom! Hopefully that will be enough for the excitement to finally kick in for you!

Excitement did kick in a little later, but it was short lived.

While I totally enjoyed hearing about your time in Barcelona, I am glad you finally made it aboard. I am anxious to see and hear about the reimagined Magic! So what is the first thing I see? The ugliest chandelier I have ever seen! I sure hope they still have the one that used to be there because they need to put it back!

Ah, someone else who doesn't really like that chandelier. It sure is even uglier (if that is even possible) when you see it. It looks so cheap. I want the beautiful Italian blown glass one back.

I noticed that you plan to stay onsite at Universal if you decide to go there. Definitely a good plan as you will want to make the most of your time. During the summer months it can get pretty crowded, especially if you want to visit their wizard. We still haven't gotten down there to Diagon Alley. We were waiting for the fall, and now it seems that we are so busy going on cruises we just haven't found the time. After we get home from next week's cruise we will have to make a point to get there.

We will have to go to UO in mid August, so I guess it will still be crowded and therefore Universal Express is the only way to go. I find it a bit too pricey to buy it for several days so we are going to stay onsite.
We have stayed at Portofino Bay and Royal Pacific and even though PB was nice we really enjoyed RP and will return there.

So you are off to another cruise again. Lucky girl!!! Have lots of fun.

Yay for cruise time.

I will admit that the warehouse arrival does look a bit underwelming. I hope that you settle in quickly and I'm glad you were able to make all your dining changes on arrival.

It was so different to what we were used to at PC. And even though the few CMs that were around, were quite nice, it was nothing like PC. But it was definitely a sign of what was to come.

That is awesome!

Really looking forward to your cruise.

Oh - and that carrot cake looks really yummy!

The US version of carrot cake is so different to the one we have here. And I just love US icing. So carrot cake is one of the things I must have while in the US.

 

[jenseib]

I am not a bit fan of the new light fixture either. I do like the carpeting though. It does seem so much smaller after being on the Dream. When I first saw the atrium....I was like wow it's tiny, but I got used to it fast.
Definitely parts of the ship are redone and nice...and many others were not touched at all. We still had rust on our balcony.
I hear you on the terminal too. Just going out of Port Everglades, it was very much like a warehouse too...but I was actually surprised that it was better than I thought it would be. I sailed out of Miami a couple of time many years ago and those were like big garages.

 

[KatMark]

you are on the ship.

That is THE ugliest fixture I have seen in my entire 56 years.

I'm glad you were able to change your one reservation and able to add another brunch.

 

[pas130]

Wow the waiting area reminded me of a school cafeteria interesting chandelier...

However, you and Tom are on the boat..I see some yummy food, and I am ready for happy stuff Karin

Did I see UO in mid-August...... might our paths FINALLY cross ??? my dates aren't locked in for UO yet...but we will be in Orlando!!!

 

[dizneeat]

OMG​

I will do replies later, but just had to share.

For the last few months I have been stalking Lufthansa's page for the release of Premium Economy. But it looked like it was not going to happen before our summer trip, so 10 days ago I bought regular economy airfare for our summer trip. It was just SO expensive, but usually Lufthansa prices do not go down and it had gone up already, so I bit the bullet and booked the two of us.

Guess what, today I got an email letting us know that they now offer Premium Economy for our trip. I was floored - it was the exact same price as I had paid but since I had booked the lowest category (which cost an arm and a leg in the first place) I was not sure if we were allowed to upgrade or how much they would charge for it.
So, as soon as I got home I got on the phone and called their service line. The girl on the phone was really helpful, but it still took half an hour to figure everything out and now we are flying


PREMIUM ECONOMY


which will not only give us 50% more legroom, only two seats instead of three next to each other, a special menu served on china plates, a welcome drink , plus ........... 2 free bags each.
And the other good thing ........ not only will it be not more expensive than what we had already booked for, but they are even refunding what I had paid for the emergency exit seats, so it is actually cheaper flying Premium Economy instead of regular economy.
To say that I am VERY excited is an understatement. ​