After booking 10 months ahead so we were sure to get on the whale watching excursions in Samana we were informed (group of 10) that the port was being canceled because of engine problems. This was right before disembarkment, which was 2+ hours late. What great news, well, still 4 great ports with lots of excursions to look forward to. WRONG!!!!! We'll get to that part a little later. There were buckets placed all over ship catching water from somewhere in the ceiling - I can only imagine what it was like if you had a room above the buckets. We proceeded to our rooms where my mother found that none of the drawers in her room had been emptied. They still contained the clothing of the former occupants. Our balcony glass was so dirty that it was impossible to see through a good share of it so I tried cleaning it with a beach towel. Little better but far from sparkly clean. Under the bed was also disgusting with huge lint balls but only the luggage was going under there.

The food in the Venetian was great, no complaints there except the menu wasn't nearly as varied as last years cruise. But what they had was very good and the service was fine.

The next great news was as we were leaving Tortola. We were told that the engines that had been fixed were no longer fixed and we would not be proceeding to Barbados and St. Kitts. We would instead cut hundreds and hundreds of miles and fuel from our itinerary and head over to St. Maarten and St. Thomas. This is just fantastic...I am going to 2 ports I don't want to go to and missing 3 of the ports I wanted. We had private tours booked for Barbados, and no way to contact them so we are just out there. What we were offered through the ship's excursion desk in St. Maarten was pathetic. There were 5 other cruise ships in the port and literally nothing left to book by the time we got there. What a waste! In St. Thomas I booked a snorkel tour which was great for me, but my husband does not snorkel. Since the ship was suppose to deport at 2pm it really narrowed the choices so he decided to go with me. Just before leaving the ship (8:15 am snorkeling trip) the captain came over the pa system and announced that the engines were again working and we would be leaving at 5pm instead of 2 pm. What timing. The engines had been "fixed" and "unfixed" so many times I don't think anyone knew what to believe anymore. Read more