We wanted to go thru the Panama Canal from Miami to Los Angeles. We are diamond plus level cruisers and are supposed to be admitted to the concierge's lounge. We were forced to go to the diamond lounge or overflow lounge because they had too many pinnacles. This is the first time that we were ever excluded from this lounge. The Vision had just returned from dry dock and they had stripped all of the refrigerators from the lst three floors of the ship. Not good if you have 3 bottles of wine. There was a broken pipe and we had frigid air coming into the room for 12 hours. Then they plugged up the air vent and we had no air circulation for 24 hours. This was an inside cabin. One morning none of the toilets would flush. We had booked this room on board a ship and they neglected to mention that our room was directly below the centrum and we could not to sleep until 11:45 pm each night because of the loud music. We complained and the cruise director said that he did not think that the music was too loud, but he was not in our room. On the 3rd formal night none of the toilets would flush in the ladies room next to the main dining room so that women in formal clothes could not flush their toilets. On the departure day, we received no service in the dining room and had to eat cold eggs from the buffet line. They called groups one to ten all at once and then five minutes later called groups one to fifteen so that everyone was trying to leave the ship thru tight doorways all at once. They lost my luggage tag and it took 20 minutes before anyone would show me where the untagged luggage was. The bus to the airport did not leave until 10:00 am even though we were getting off the at 8:30 am. The bus driver had no idea where any of the airlines were located at LAX and we had to read the signs and tell him where to stop. This made the foreign guests very nervous. During the cruise the shore excursion group had people routinely waiting for 45 minutes to l hour before going out on the tours. We had to get up early, lose rest and then wait unnecessarily. We complained about the room and finally gave up getting a better room.
No refrigertor in room. Freezing air for 12 hours and then 24 hours with no air circulation.
Room was located directly below the centrum and we had to listen to loud music every night until 11:45 pm before we could do to sleep. There was a broken pipe and this was why we had to endure 12 hours of cold air and then 24 hours of no air. We made several calls each day to maintenance. One morning we could not flush our toilets. The first day the phone in the room did no work. They would not give us a different cabin no matter what we said.
This was a very long tour. We spent over 2 and 1/2 hours walking on roads that were described as cobble stone but were the worst that I had ever countered. There was nothing between sharp stones and I had to hold onto my husband to keep from falling. Even the sidewalks were in poor condition. We walked a very long way between the central square and the restaurant stopping several places before lunch. There was entertainment at lunch which was very good. Shopping was so so. We were followed by indian ladies with fabrics on their heads mostly shawls and table runners. I finally found a store where I could buy a Guatemalan blouse after lunch.
This tour was described as land and sea. The best part about the land portion was that we stopped for a view of the port and the ship where we saw some Mexican badgers. The second stop I could have skipped. The main attraction was a large sign which spelled out Huatulco and a harbor view. The sea portion was much better. We went on a sunset boat trip and they served margaritas!