Just off the Wonder--and I Wonder about this dry dock

First let me say we had a decent vacation overall--its a Disney cruise after all but with my prior experience being on the Fantasy twice I was so sorely disappointed by the Wonder.

We were greeted in our room with soaking wet carpeting. The shower in our ADA cabin back of Deck 6 was flooding and the carpet was completely soaked and moldy smelling (I can't believe housekeeping didn't notice this, it was clearly not a new problem). We worked with Disney but over the next 3 days dealt with commercial fans, air purifiers and workers in and out until they finally "fixed" the leak. We could not move rooms because the only other place they could put us was an inside ADA room that they would not negotiate price on while we were on the ship. Eventually we did agree to move to that room temporarily only to find out the toilet doesn't work so back we went. By day 3 fans were appearing all over the back of Deck 6 in the halls and people were being moved like crazy. Smelled like a sewer. They had options to move. We didn't. We were given a $200 onboard credit for our troubles and were told shoreside may do more when we got home. We will see. The CM were all very nice and professional but there was nothing they could really do short of what they were doing.

Numerous places throughout the ship I saw LIGHT FIXTURES leaking. We were in an elevator that "dropped" two floors....free Tower of Terror ride. Honestly, the ship had issues everywhere we looked. Dorys reef was closed all but two days. It was just a mess.

I was shocked to find no Midship Detective Agency (I just assumed) and a really limited amount of programming compared to Fantasy. Although half the people at Castaway Cay was very nice.

I would never book on the Wonder again. I am shocked this was an improvement to what it was before. I hope they add Tiana's to the other ships because that was really a hit as well as the Frozen production. Both top notch.

Wow. Just WOW!

The shower was leaking? Was there not the drain across the doorway to prevent water from getting into the cabin (in addition to the one across the length of the shower), or did the leak overwhelm both drains?

We once had a room on the Magic where the ceiling was leaking (I'm assuming an AC pipe with condensation), and we went thru the soaked carpet, constant fans, etc. business. We were on a B2B and after tolerating wet carpet and "fixes" for the first 12 nights, I demanded and received a different cabin for the second leg. Unfortunately, it too had issues until they got the correct guy to recognize the problem and fix it. Housekeeping was working like crazy, but it needed a plumber.

I'm always a little cautious right after a dry dock, but it doesn't even sound like these were dry dock issues. Sounds like at least the cabin issue was long standing. You have my sympathy.

We were in 7136 on the Wonder way back in 2009. No problems then except that when they cleaned the higher decks, water ran onto our balcony...so it was wet most of the time. I don't have a lot of Wonder experience, but LOVE the Magic.

Sorry your situation was rather a mess. And I hope shoreside does something for you...at least a good discount on a future booking!

So what they finally figured out was happening is that the drains themselves were leaking. They weren't properly sealed and so as soon as the water hit them it was escaping through open seams under the wall and flooding the carpet on the other side. I have no idea where all the leaks in the hallway were coming from but the carpet was soaking wet out there on a few occasions as well. Didn't seem to be from above.

One particularly funny leak was in the Crown and Fin during a presentation on Disney Innovations. The light fixture above the poor CM's head was dripping water on her.

Joyful....glad they finally figured out the problem. How ridiculous that you had to endure this.

We were on the same sailing and noticed the sewer smell as well as a strong fish smell around the mid ship stair ways. My 3 year old niece was extremely upset about Dory's Reef being closed almost the entire time too. We enjoyed the cruise, thankfully we didn't have problems with our room at all but I know others did. The crew made it amazing for us, we ended up booking a place holder deposit but we'll be booking with one of the bigger ships. This was our first Disney cruise, but we've sailed with Carnival several times and never had the motion that we did on this ship. My 11 year old spent only 2 nights in the dining room for dinner. Other than that he was so sea sick that we either left dinner, or didn't bother to go at all. I've been reading about the Fantasy and the Dream and they seem to have a lot more options too. So overall, we enjoyed the cruise but I wish that the boat had been bigger. We'll still sail Disney again, just on a bigger ship.

First let me say we had a decent vacation overall--its a Disney cruise after all but with my prior experience being on the Fantasy twice I was so sorely disappointed by the Wonder.

 

We were greeted in our room with soaking wet carpeting. The shower in our ADA cabin back of Deck 6 was flooding and the carpet was completely soaked and moldy smelling (I can't believe housekeeping didn't notice this, it was clearly not a new problem). We worked with Disney but over the next 3 days dealt with commercial fans, air purifiers and workers in and out until they finally "fixed" the leak. We could not move rooms because the only other place they could put us was an inside ADA room that they would not negotiate price on while we were on the ship. Eventually we did agree to move to that room temporarily only to find out the toilet doesn't work so back we went. By day 3 fans were appearing all over the back of Deck 6 in the halls and people were being moved like crazy. Smelled like a sewer. They had options to move. We didn't. We were given a $200 onboard credit for our troubles and were told shoreside may do more when we got home. We will see. The CM were all very nice and professional but there was nothing they could really do short of what they were doing.

 

Numerous places throughout the ship I saw LIGHT FIXTURES leaking. We were in an elevator that "dropped" two floors....free Tower of Terror ride. Honestly, the ship had issues everywhere we looked. Dorys reef was closed all but two days. It was just a mess.

 

I was shocked to find no Midship Detective Agency (I just assumed) and a really limited amount of programming compared to Fantasy. Although half the people at Castaway Cay was very nice.

 

I would never book on the Wonder again. I am shocked this was an improvement to what it was before. I hope they add Tiana's to the other ships because that was really a hit as well as the Frozen production. Both top notch.

I'm stunned at all of the problems on your cruise! So not acceptable!

I hope shoreside treat you well and can compensate for your troubles.

This is the biggest problem with dry docks. Sometimes the workers do more damage than good. Other times the saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is true as well, as work nearby can cause problems to other services.

ex techie

I am very sorry this happened to you. We were on deck 6 and had no problems. We never noticed any smells. I will say that in the main theater, near the doors, there was a dripping ceiling.

I do not know why they did not do more refurbishment during dry dock. It's as if they picked a few things and forgot anything else.

Hope your next cruise is way better.

I am very sorry this happened to you. We were on deck 6 and had no problems. We never noticed any smells. I will say that in the main theater, near the doors, there was a dripping ceiling.

I do not know why they did not do more refurbishment during dry dock. It's as if they picked a few things and forgot anything else.

Hope your next cruise is way better.

If by do more you mean replacing all of the plumbing, that would take many months, probably 6 or more. And then there is no guaranty that the work done will be acceptable or work.

It is an unfortunate part of drydocking a ship. Not every thing works when it is switched back on, or has been disturbed.

For that reason alone I would never recommend sailing on a ship out of drydock for at least 4-6 months.

ex techie

Yousee were you in the back? That is where all the problems seemed to be concentrated. I never noticed midship or forward when delivering FEs or any other reason. We were 6654 so the huge ADA room and deck on the very back.

I'll let you all know what Shoreside says on Monday. Like I said every CM we encountered were very kind and apologetic but due to my sons wheelchair there was no where to move us. They even told us that they contacted other ADA rooms to see if they could upgrade them to move us but everyone needed their ADA room.

We booked a placeholder as well but it won't be on the Wonder and probably not on a cruise just coming out of dry dock. What is perplexing though is that 2 other cruises went before us and we walked into it like this so this was not something new that just happened. They had to know this was happening.

The smell and mildew didn't develop in the first few hours of your cruise. It was obviously happening for a while. SO sorry!

What is perplexing though is that 2 other cruises went before us and we walked into it like this so this was not something new that just happened. They had to know this was happening.

They probably did know, but short of calling you and cancelling your cruise since all of the other ADA Staterooms were booked, there are few other options apart from try to fix it, or hope you don't complain too much and offer compensation.

ex techie

We were aft. Not that far from you. Close enough to wonder why there were fans,but far enough away to not know it was a stateroom and not a crew room. Yeah..sounds like they were just hoping no one would notice there was an issue.

We were aft. Not that far from you. Close enough to wonder why there were fans,but far enough away to not know it was a stateroom and not a crew room. Yeah..sounds like they were just hoping no one would notice there was an issue.

I am so glad you didn't have problems. There was no way not to notice it. My foot squished when I walked over the carpet LOL. That's the funny part. It was VERY noticeable.

Ex Techie-you are right. There wasn't much they could do other than hope we didn't complain too loudly. I have pictures of all of this so I will send it along with a letter to shoreside and hope they do something for a future sailing on the Fantasy or Dream :)

Being on Deck 6 in the rear of the ship I am wondering with the work done to close off the "secret verandah" on Deck 7 at the back of the ship and installing the Aux Generating equipment if some of the plumbing above Deck 6 was affected and that is what caused the leaking and other problems for that part of the ship. Hard to say, but I sure hope that DCL will do more to make this right for you especially when they wanted to charge you to move to another ADA room, that seems like a little uncalled for, if the room you originally booked becomes uninhabitable they should relocate you elsewhere on the ship at THEIR cost not your's. The leaking obviously was a result of the Dry Dock work and they missed the leaks in the inspections after the work was done and through no fault of your own you shouldn't have been inconvenienced in such a way and then be expected to pay for it!

Being on Deck 6 in the rear of the ship I am wondering with the work done to close off the "secret verandah" on Deck 7 at the back of the ship and installing the Aux Generating equipment if some of the plumbing above Deck 6 was affected and that is what caused the leaking and other problems for that part of the ship. Hard to say, but I sure hope that DCL will do more to make this right for you especially when they wanted to charge you to move to another ADA room, that seems like a little uncalled for, if the room you originally booked becomes uninhabitable they should relocate you elsewhere on the ship at THEIR cost not your's. The leaking obviously was a result of the Dry Dock work and they missed the leaks in the inspections after the work was done and through no fault of your own you shouldn't have been inconvenienced in such a way and then be expected to pay for it!

Bolding mine.

From my understanding, DCL tried to move the OP to a different ADA Stateroom that was an inside, but were not willing to discount that room based upon the price of a verandah vs. an inside. Not charge more.

As it turned out anyways, that ADA inside has a faulty toilet. No excuse for them to move the OP to a room that wasn't fully functioning.

I do wonder if when the OP was told to speak to shoreside for further compensation, that was due to them wanting a refund of the difference between their balcony room and an inside?

OP?

ex techie

Being on Deck 6 in the rear of the ship I am wondering with the work done to close off the "secret verandah" on Deck 7 at the back of the ship and installing the Aux Generating equipment if some of the plumbing above Deck 6 was affected and that is what caused the leaking and other problems for that part of the ship. Hard to say, but I sure hope that DCL will do more to make this right for you especially when they wanted to charge you to move to another ADA room, that seems like a little uncalled for, if the room you originally booked becomes uninhabitable they should relocate you elsewhere on the ship at THEIR cost not your's. The leaking obviously was a result of the Dry Dock work and they missed the leaks in the inspections after the work was done and through no fault of your own you shouldn't have been inconvenienced in such a way and then be expected to pay for it!

I think you misunderstood. My reading is that they were in a balcony and paid for a balcony. The ship wanted to move them to an inside HA cabin, but not give them back the difference between a balcony and an HA. However it didn't matter because the toilet didn't work in the inside cabin!

It was not possible to upgrade them as ALL the HAs were taken by guests who needed them. DCL did try by contacting every guest in an HA cabin and offering upgrades to "standard" cabins. None of the guests could take that as they all needed the HA facilities.

Thanks Bartman. I don't think I was clear on the price negotiation issue though. We had paid for room 6654 which is a ADA veranda and quite a large room and deck because that was important to us. They wanted to move us to an interior ADA that was very small but would not discuss what they would be reimbursing us which I thought was only reasonable. Why should we still have to pay for the nicer room? At the least I wanted the cost difference if I had booked that interior. I was initially very hesitant to move since it did not seem fair at all to me. Then it got worse and we decided to go to that room only to find out the bathroom didn't work there so it didn't even become an issue.

Ex Techie--yes, we were told we would need to deal with shoreside for any price negotiation which I was not happy to do because once I was off the ship and had accepted the downgrade I didn't feel confident shoreside would fully compensate us and no one on the ship could assure us they would. They were basically asking us to roll the dice.

This was early into the situation and I hadn't really grasped that there was very little to be done. This was before they asked others to upgrade and so on.

After all of this they told us again to reach out to shoreside to see what can be done to compensate for all the issues we had. The manager onboard said there would be a report on all of this and his recommendation that they work with us.

Ex Techie--yes, we were told we would need to deal with shoreside for any price negotiation which I was not happy to do because once I was off the ship and had accepted the downgrade I didn't feel confident shoreside would fully compensate us and no one on the ship could assure us they would. They were basically asking us to roll the dice.

 

This was early into the situation and I hadn't really grasped that there was very little to be done. This was before they asked others to upgrade and so on.

 

After all of this they told us again to reach out to shoreside to see what can be done to compensate for all the issues we had. The manager onboard said there would be a report on all of this and his recommendation that they work with us.

That is what I suspected.

Do not agree to anything aboard, just sort it out with corporate afterwards.

I make you right not agreeing to move without clarification of compensation Wheeling TravelingMom.

100% right not to.

ex techie

FWIW, we've usually found DCL to be very reasonable when something has been seriously messed up. However, it is sometimes necessary to escalate the matter to a top management level as the lower level people are trained to say "no" regardless of the situation.

If you have the ship's hotel manager notifying shoreside of the issues, you should be OK. Just push it up the shoreside ladder if necessary.

Thanks Bartman. I don't think I was clear on the price negotiation issue though. We had paid for room 6654 which is a ADA veranda and quite a large room and deck because that was important to us. They wanted to move us to an interior ADA that was very small but would not discuss what they would be reimbursing us which I thought was only reasonable. Why should we still have to pay for the nicer room? At the least I wanted the cost difference if I had booked that interior. I was initially very hesitant to move since it did not seem fair at all to me. Then it got worse and we decided to go to that room only to find out the bathroom didn't work there so it didn't even become an issue.

My apologies for not understanding the original statement, I still hope you can get some kind of remedy from DCL about the situation, it's so sad that you had to suffer the wet floors and smells through out the cruise though that would have totally put me off the trip completely. Good Luck and hope your future cruises will be better than this one was!

We have the Wonder booked for a March Cruise. I hope they shake out the problems before then.

Sorry to hear you had so many issues. We just got off a 7 day cruise on the Wonder. We did not have any issues like you described. Our cabin was a veranda on deck 7 forward. I really like the new addition to the pool area where the old Mickey pool was. I thought the new slide was awesome and the splash area. Dory's Reef was closed a lot but our girls spent most of their time in the pool. The one time they used Dory's was the very first day and it worked then. I think the upgrades to the adults area were nice. I did think it was odd that they did not replace the seating in Walt Disney Theater. I could tell those seats were still old. It also seams like there were less Character pics on this cruise. This was our 4th Disney cruise it seemed like there were less opportunities to see the characters. All in all we had an amazing time and we booked our next cruise while on board. I think it is going to be an Alaska cruise this summer.

That is very sad that they were giving you the runaround.

I guess I am a little different and more passive aggressive and would have told the person to have shore side call me on my wave or room phone since you obviously have no financial power to correct the situation, no further communication with you is needed at this time.