North America Cruise Reviews

The food was above average for most ships. Majority of the workers were friendly and helpful. The shows on board seemed a little out dated. Not many activities to do inside. 

The people we were with made the cruise   There were some problems  The staff in the casino did not explain well the charges on the tab or knew the correct bingo charges.  They needed to know the English language better  3400 of the people on the cruise spoke English  The staff should have been the same proportion

This was my 4th time on Explorer. The other 3 times have been out of Bayonne NJ either to Bermuda or Canada. These trips were enjoyable with good food, entertainment and service.

Not quite the same on this coastal trip.  Firstly, although it is called coastal, you only get to see the coast on your way in or out of port.

Also the trip was in Oct, so no surprise, it was cold and rainy, yet most of the tail activities were scheduled for outdoors (most were cancelled or unattended).  The big option for indoor entertainment was Trivia.  Unfortunately, everyone on the ship was there so unless you got there an hour ahead there was no seating (or pencils for that matter).

Food was just ok with little variety. 

We did not see our cabin attendant for the first few days.  but the one bright note is that he was very attentive.  He saw we had a bottle of wine in our cabin and brought us wine glasses I hate the sheets being tucked and without being asked, he left them untucked after the first night. Nice!

Loved stops in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Victoria. Could have skipped Astoria (San Diego, Monterey or even an extra day in San Francisco would have been nicer).

Having been recently renovated, we found the Norwegian Dawn to be vastly improved from our prior sailing on her. The Canada/Bermuda two week cruise was relaxing but we found a few things less than anticipated. The complimentary dining menu during the Canadian segment needs to be improved as most of the offerings were stews and casseroles.....or alternative dining which seems to be strongly encouraged. The second week to Bermuda found the complimentary dining menu much improved and enjoyable. The bar service is sorely lacking with the withstaff ignoring you by not making eye contact resulting in you having to go to the bars yourself to obtain a drink, but they still get their 18percent tip!  It took five hours for our luggage to arrive in our storeroom, and we were two of the last four people to arrive at the ship that day. Cabin service was slow...most times our cabin was not "made up" for the day until after 2pm and as late as 6 pm one day. I don't fault our steward, it's apparent there too few of them assigned to too many rooms as well as luggage responsibilities. Entertainment was exceptional in all venues. Debarkation was smooth and efficient. Pleasant surprise to us was that this was a 2 segment cruise for which we were given double dining credit for each segment and a ship board credit to use. Overall the ship was clean, well maintained and vastly improved since it's overhaul.

The Explorer of the Sea is a beautiful ship.  I loved the common area (The Promanade) where everyone gathered.  It reminded me of a little village.  I was impressed with the fact that some of the inside staterooms actually had windows overlooking this area. There was a few shops and a 24 hour cafe where you could get coffee, sandwiches and pastries included in your package.  It also included Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's ice cream that was extra cost.  The cruise staff hosted many celebrations in this area as well.  We had a really fun 70's disco party.  

I could not rate this a 5 because I was not impressed with the shows that were offered on the ship and normally I love going to the shows.  Additionally, the times offered were a bit inconvenient.  Also about scheduling, we had a situation where we wanted to go to Karaoke one night and when we showed up at a place called the Tavern there was a group of people watching a game on the big screen.  At first the cruise director wanted to cancel the show but then he waited and we got a late start.  It seems to me that if this was a scheduled activity in that venue it should have been coordinated better with the Tavern.  

I have done this cruise before and did not participate in any shore excursions but I love all the ports the ship stopped at.  

Everything else was o.k. but they did seem to be short staffed and I felt better services had been offered on other cruise lines.  

The Regatta is a wonderful ship.  The cabin service is superb.  We had great meals and had a choice of five locations.  The service in all dining locations is top notch.

The whole staff is helpful. 

We we had great food, all sorts of wonderful choices.  The desserts were great and the afternoon tea should not be missed.

The captain was wonderful as was the cruise director.  The communication was excelltbe.

canada is wonderful and we had perfect weather throughout the trip.

I highly recommend Oceania. It is a cruise for adults, no children were onboard. 

This is was our 7th cruise on Oceania and we have two more booked.

It started like most cruises but even a little bit better on the boarding process.  That was where the good mostly ended. We (wifey & I) were travelling with eleven other friends and our expectations were high because four of our party had cruised RC b-4 and really talked them up. They ended up apologizing saying that this was an anomaly and not the real RC. It took me three days to finally make the room stewards understand I wanted four extra pillows not the four that I had. No stationary or pen in the cabin. The server team in the dining room was slower than mud going uphill and when we got the nearly stone cold food because of their lack of speed it wouldn't have been much better if it were hot.  The food for the most part was bad in the dining room and totally terrible at the 11th deck buffet. We complained to the team supervisor to no avail and finally got tired of going over their heads and went directly to the food and beverage director after two days of piss poor service. The service got better but the food was still second grade at best ediblwe but not of the quality we have come to expect on our 12 previous cruises on Norwegian, Carnival and Holland America. It kind of makes me feel a little apprehensive about using RC again

Cruising downswell at 12 knots is so relaxing. The usual 24 knot speed makes for more ship movement.

Victoria, B.C. Is a must visit! Such a beautiful place. We had perfect Fall weather with just a tiny bit of chill in the air. 

Traveling under the Golden Gate Bridge via cruise ship was on my bucket list and was very exciting. Cheers could be heard from the whole ship as we made the transit. San Francisco was so accessible from the cruise terminal. 

A bad start in Vancouver though. Be prepared for LENGTHY immigration and customs. We had priority and were still there 2 hours to clear!!!! Not a fun way to begin a vacation. Then Norwegian greeted us with our conceireige and refreshments. The pampering and relaxation began. Wonderful crew! Bagus, Chris and Yashira, special thanks.

Bouchart Garden was the favorite.  It changes with the time of year.  In the spring it was tulips.  In the fall its dahlias.  Its always a beautiful place to visit.

Food has very limited options. Buffet foods are the same every day... Only the main dinning restaurant maintains good standard of food tastes, other restaurants serve very crappy foods. Limited varieties. 

I don't enjoy the free style of the ship. Less organized, less fun. People come and go. The disembarkment at San Fran was chaotic. We were made to wait in line for 2.5 hours outside of the ship, in the cold outdoor. 

The cruise was nice enough and the ports were awesome, but we were some of the youngest people and I felt like I was in a nursing home.  The people were nice, but there was often nowhere to sit to eat in the buffet areas, forcing us to sit outside in the rain and/or cold. The balcony stateroom was nice, but the toilet area was too small for my husband who is a big guy. The buffet food was very repetitive and there was rarely more than one place to eat breakfast after 9 AM, forcing us to always eat at the buffet. The specialty restaurants were great!!  I had set up a payment arrangement once onboard and now that I am home, it looks like I may have been overcharged by $1000, despite what my invoice says...looks like I will be on the phone a lot. Fun.   I don't think I will sail with them again and I am kind of turned off by cruises now and this wasn't my first. 

Enjoyed the staff and the food. Excursions could have been better. The ship needs an overhaul. Disappointed the pool area did not have a cover so we could enjoy the pool in cool and rainy weather. 

We had a wonderful time on the cruise.  Emma the cruise director was amazing at entertaining the folks in the atrium area of the ship.  The shows, and staff were very good.  If we needed anything big or small they were their to get it for us. 

The best part of this cruise was the staff, they were helpful and pleasant. They are Carnival's best asset. Getting on and off the ship was easy, we carried our own luggage off and was out in a half hour.

Food and wait staff in main dining room was very good. Biggest issue was the lack of sea day activities. The entertainment was mediocre. Ports of call were not very interesting. All and all this cruise was not a good value for what we paid for it. I would not recommend this cruise. 

The NCL Gem is a comfortable ship. It's not as big as the newer ships, which is good ecause it allows you to get around faster and familiarize yourself with all venues available. Staff is always friendly and the atmosphere onboard is upbeat. It is newly redone and the changes are all positive. I recommend going to the specialty restaurants. The Gem provides a pleasant getaway. I cruise on it at least oncea year. It is like an old friend!

A complete review of my cruise can be found here:

http://www.bapcentral.com/2016%20Carnival/2016Cruise.htm

It includes everything I found aboard the Carnival Sunshine and the port excursions.

Summary:

JiJi dining room on ship was excellent. Comedians were fantastic. Food was average in other areas of ship.

We sailed with a group of four.  Fun for all on a very nice itinerary to Boston, Portland and the Canadian cities of St Johns and Halifax.  The crew was really friendly all around the ship  It was obvious that their kindness and warmth were a priority up and down the chain of command.  The food was wonderful, especially in light of the opposite experience with Royal Caribbean on a recent cruise.  Carnival's food service was far superior.   

Our room was nice and we had a large balcony which we enjoyed. The housekeeping crew were great and greeted us by name. The food in the Lido buffet was poor quality and generally luke warm to cold by the time you sat down to eat. The dining room food was a bit better and was at least hot. I was really looking forward to afternoon tea but was highly disappointed. They only had Lipton tea unless you paid an extra 1.95 for a different kind. Not much of a selection of finger sandwiches or goodies. If you wanted milk in your tea, they brought the milk and poured it into your tea. If you had a second cup, you had to ask for milk again. There were lots of entertainment and activity options. The spa was very pushy in selling additional services and their products.

Although we had driven to each of the ports a number of years ago, we decided to take the cruise because we didn't need to take an airplane, but could simply drive to the embarkation port in Brooklyn.  We had a beautiful sail away with great views of lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazano Bridge.  Our stateroom was extremely comfortable, the staff was outstanding, the ship,  especially the Piazza, was beautiful and functional, and the entertainment was exceptional.  They hired very talented musicians and they were very important to our enjoyment of the cruise. The negatives: the weather was not great and at least one or two excursions were in the rain; sitting on deck was not something we were tempted to  do.  We had also hoped to see some foliage, but learned that the trees usually change in the first or second week of October.