The cruise was relaxing despite the poor service and lack of things to do onboard. The personnel were kind, they were just overworked because there were not enough of them.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The embarkation experience in New Jersey was very easy. We were all given specific time slots to arrive so the area was not overcrowded. All of the workers there were very helpful.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
A lot of the meat in the main dining room was of poor quality. Lots of fat and tough. The servers couldn't keep up because they didn't have enough staff. Long wait for food to come to the table and the servers often brought the wrong food. Other guests were all saying the same thing. The buffet was fine, although other cruises that I have been on often had a lunch buffet, or at least a little lunch food, on the pool deck and this one didn't.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
They had plenty of hot tubs, which is sometimes a problem, and the solarium pool was heated, so that was nice. We played mini-golf, and my brother used the beautiful fitness center. The problem was that other activities like trivia, piano, guitar, etc. were always the same. There wasn't enough variety in onboard activities.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The evening shows were great! The ship's orchestra was outstanding. Some of the other ship musicians were not very good.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
It was obvious that the ship was understaffed and it appeared to be the first time that many of these people had worked on a ship. There were many who were in training and had a lot to learn. The cruise director only seemed to be around to introduce the evening performers. The shore excursion personnel seemed to lack knowledge of how to move a couple of thousand people to their tours. One day everyone who had an excursion had to wait in one line in the auditorium, go to the front of the auditorium to get a sticker, and then go back up to some assigned place in the auditorium climbing through the long line once again. Our room was spotless and serviced twice a day. However, all of the cleaning things were left in the hallways by the rooms and looked "tacky."
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The common areas were clean, but the main promenade was always extremely crowded. It was easy to get from place to place except through the promenade. Smoking is still allowed in the casino, so we did not go there. The ship's decorations were dated even though the ship has supposedly just been upgraded three years ago.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We were in an inside cabin on the tenth floor, aft. It was very convenient to the pools, fitness room, buffet, and dining rooms. The cabin was serviced twice a day and was always spotless. It's a little difficult to get around the bed because the end of it is right next to a couch on one side and the vanity on the other. We found it easier to climb in and out of the bed from the bottom.
There is a lot to do here. We could have used more time. We did the duck boat tour, but I think I would have liked a more historic tour in this old city.
It's a pretty coastal town with not a lot to do. The worst thing was the down "escalator" in the cruise terminal. It is not steps, but a moving downhill ramp. Passengers were not prepared for this when stepping on it, and several people fell, causing more people to fall. We did a land and sea tour (sailing) which was excellent.
You have to use tenders for this port, but that was no problem. We were too late to sign up for an Acadia tour through the ship, but rented an electric vehicle from Acadia GEM, and it was a lot of fun.
There is really not much to see here. The tour to the Reversing Falls is not really worth it. In order to get a better idea of the huge tidal changes here, you need to go on the Hopewell Rocks tour.
We enjoyed our hop on, hop off tour with the highlight being the stop at the Citadel. We also did the Alexander Keith Brewery tour which was very good.
I generally agreed with most of what you said. I was on the same sailing. We stuck to the buffet the mdr was clearly overwhelmed and not great. I will say though I thought the activity selection was fine, it was just somewhat inefficiently allocated. Too many empty karaoke sessions but overly packed trivia.
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