We were looking for a fairly cheap cruise. Did not want to fly to Puerto Rico We chose this cruise pretty much as it was the only line doing 7 day Western carribean cruises out of the continental US within driving distance from Nashville, and the price was fairly low. Did not want to spend a fortune on Disney.
The ship was overall in good condition. Stateroom was in good repair. The decorating was a little over the top, but that made it interesting.
The stateroom was kept clean and the beds were reasonably comfortable. Towel animals in the room each night. We had a balcony with two chairs. The chairs are very narrow, not comfortable to cram ones hips into. Made for very thin people at best.
The deck had more sunchairs than any other ship I have been on, but they were not comfortable. Many were broken. The pool decks had so many sun chairs around the pools it was almost impossible to walk between them.
The food was plentiful. During breakfast and lunch it could be very hard to find an open table in the buffet area. IT appears very few people eat in the dining rooms for those meals.
Service was friendly. Not quite as attentive as on other lines, but no real problems. The waiters were friendly and entertaining. They were willing to tell us places to visit on shore excursions without referring us to the excursion desk to purchase excursions. This worked out pretty well for us and saved us some $$$$.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Food was decent, plentiful and always available in some form. Very hard to find tables in the buffet area at breakfast and lunch peak hours and there were some very long lines to get food at buffet stations. Some of this was caused by lack of enough servers in areas where they had to put the food on your plate.
Food at dinner was pretty good. The desserts were not so great. Worst so called pumpkin pie I had ever had in my life. They need to send their chefs to New England at Thanksgiving to give them a lesson in that. One night there was cherries jubilee. It was a very small scoop of ice cream with three cherries. Other desserts were pretty good.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Evening entertainment in the show room was nothing special. Performers were talented but the shows seemed like a tired rehash of things that had been done a million times before. IT was kind of like watching old reruns of the musical numbers on the Carol Burnett show or someting. In addition, the played the music WAY TOO LOUD. Speakers mounted on the ceiling of the show room and blasted music at volumes that were certainly at levels to be damaging to hearing. There was no place to escape it. Same thing on the pool deck. The stage bands and performers there had it way too loud. You could not carry on a conversation. There are other pools on board to escape the music, but if you want to hear some music at the pool deck you are going to have your ears ringing and not be able to talk to anyone. TURN IT DOWN. Again, at levels that can damage hearing. Other activities and games were well done and fun.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
We had our 11 year old daughter with us. She tried the program the first day at sea and hated it. Groups are by two year age groups, she fell in the 9 to 11. When she went they lumped the 6 to 8 and 9 to 11 year olds all together for activities. They were geared toward the much younger children. My kid was bored to tears. We asked about moving her to 12 to 14 year old group but she had to be within 3 months of turning 12 and did not qualify. So, she refused to go back. You cannot mix 6 and 11 year olds and expect it to work. That was a real disappointment as we have been on other lines that did had a MUCH BETTER program. They need to work on that one. Maybe good for younger kids.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
No complaints about staff. All were helpful, friendly and did their jobs well.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship size was good. The layout tended to lead to some real traffic jams around dinner times in some passageways in the common areas. They had photography stations set up right in the walkways in the lunges or atrium and stairways roped off to take pictures on as well. With people waiting for dinner and to have pics taken, it made it very difficult to pass through the area.
Layout was bizzare in other ways. The casino was built around a common walkway. It was the only passage from the front to back of the ship on that deck, instead of a room off the passageway. I did not like that as there were other things on that deck that you would want to get to without going through the casino, especially as the casino is a smoking area and we had a kid in tow too. I know they want to attract you to the casino but you should not have to walk through it to get to other attractions, or be forced to go up or down a deck to avoid it.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Stateroom was a balcony, 8E. Good size, very roomy bathroom compared to others I have used on other ships. That was nice. The beds were comfy. My daughter slept on a bed that has cushions on the back to use as a couch during day, she was comfortable on that. There was a 19 inch TV in the room that had a quirk. Every few minutes the volume would suddenly go up or down without us touching the TV or remote. We thought maybe it was picking up remote signals from another room, but either way it could be annoying.
Typical hotel/cruise ship decor. Nothing special.
Room steward did a good job.
Been there before so we just went ashore to shop. Previously did the turtle farm, Hell and Rum factory tour. Nothing special. Might book snorkling, though not the one right by the pier. Right by road, no beach and you walk down concrete steps to swim.
Took the city tour. IT was interesting. Remember, this is a 3rd world country so you will see terrible poverty and a lot of garbage, but, the tour guide is an excellent ambassador for his country and people. Stops at a small cathedral and the national museum were interesting. The museum is small, about the floor space of a small church. The tour was interesting and educations. Small tourist area to shop. It is not recommended you stray out of that unless you are on a booked excursion.
Again, a small island part of a 3rd world country, but it is has great beauty and potential. We booked a cab to take us to Tabyana beach. For 20$ per person you get the cab for the whole day. They stay at the beach so you can leave right when you are ready. The beach is beautiful. You can pay 10$ to enter through a club and have chairs to use and a restroom. The beach is public but there are no public facilities. IF you want a beach chair or restroom you will have to pay.
A guy came down the beach offering to boat people out to a reef to snorkel, equipment included. I took him up on it and when he got about 7 or 8 people he stopped back to collect me. 10 minute ride to a reef were we snorkled for an hour. It was incredible. He did not take payment until we got back so no problems there.
The water on the beach was clear and gorgeous.
The port has very little at this point, only a couple shops, but willl grow rapidl, as will the industry on the island as a whole.
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency,
and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners
(travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our
users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or
prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site
for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on
external web sites.
Contact us
Submitting...
Need help from a personal vacation planner?
Loading...
Find the perfect cruise with weekly tips and cruise deals for as little as $30/night!
Sign up for weekly cruise deals
Join other subscribers and get the best
cruise deals of the week in your inbox every Thursday.
