rayh531308

This is me and my wife with our waiter Leslie. He made our trip an excellent one. We had the pleasure of meeting him on our first night and requested and was seated in his area every night afterward. He was one of the people we tipped extra to because of their service. The positives of the cruise were the many eating options, the almost around the clock activities (many times they played rock concerts on the Lido Deck large screen.) These concerts included U2, Journey, Bon Jovi. The adults only deck area on the rear of the ship (and yes when someone thought that didn't pertain to their kids Security responded), The Deli food station was excellent, The best bars on the ship I found to be The Cool Lounge (smoking lounge) and The Lobby Bar. The Red Carpet Lounge and Punch Liner Comedy Club provided great entertainment. The casino staff were friendly and I actually won over $1000 playing a variety of table games. The Acupuncturist at the Cloud 9 Spa was named SHirlet Seto, after 3 resonable priced sessions I no longer had neck, back leg and head pain I had been experiencing for years. JK a bartender at the lobby bar was also very excellent. The Bugarian Dou of singers were excellent as well as the band that played nightly in the Casino. The sunrises and sunsets were unmatched and I took hundreds of pictures and videos of each to watch in the future. The many jewelry sales were nice but often times confusing and the many, many photo oportunities (backgrounds) were nice but can be costly. Serenity is an adults only area on the 11th deck at the front of the ship, but unfortunately is located below the mini golf course on the 12th deck. And of course kids were unsupervised and acting up so it was not very "serene". The negatives were the "Cheers" drink program, it truly wasn't worth the value because the drinks are weak, unless you got to the few bars I listed. The Lido Deck Pool Bar is the worst I have found. Many nights I found myself bloated and barely having a "buzz". The many passenger participation events also sucked as preference in participating in them was reserved for higher tier passengers and the young and good looking ones. I did have the pleasure of discovering a great comedian named Sandy Beach at the open mike night. Another negative was the couples massage package at the Cloud 9 Spa. It was expensive enough but by the time they talk you into extra services and products the price almost doubled and quite frankly the massage wasn't that good. When our time was done it seemed they were in a hurry to rush us out even though they were not that busy. The Piano Bar singer basically catered to whatever girl he was trying to do that night and seemed to only know 8 or 9 songs, playing them over and over again, this grew old quick. It was his last tour we were told, so hopefully the next one will be better. The martini bar can only make a certain few martinis and I found this to be disappointing. The fact that the Pool bar and restrooms are the only ones that seem to be open late at night sucked as they are located on Deck 9 and all the clubs and casino are located on Deck 5 and the lack of a late night bar on Deck 10 (the smoking deck) was also a negative. It seemed the ship raced back to the cold north Atlantic only to set off the coast of New York, a slower return so more warm weather could be enjoyed would've been nice. there were other negatives and positives but I feel I have rambled on enough and hit the major points.