This was cruise #79 for me. So from a point of view of, NOT expecting perfection, which seems to be a priority for some people. I am fortunate to vacation frequently so this may play into the tolerance. :) This was my husband's preference for itinerary, as I get bored "silly" with too many sea days. :) We, now, take a TA every year, with the first about 25 years ago on the QE2. Highlight for me, was the return on the Concorde. :)
This cruise was booked during a sale with give away rates. TA's can be found to be an excellent vacation value. This particular one, had a Canary Island itinerary which we had not visited before. The St. Maartin port was the bonus for my husband, since his routine here is to park himself at the Sunset Bar all day. :)
We fly stand by, and the flight plans I made ended up being pure luck and were the last available I would have, to make the ship, due to Sandy. We left to fly into Madrid 6 days prior. Madrid is a wonderful tourist city which we enjoyed. We took a cheap AVE train to Malaga for another 3 nights. Drove to Gibralter for a wonderful day trip. Took a cab to the ship. Embarkment had a short line and was on board within an hour of leaving the hotel.