I truly enjoyed this vacation cruise. Thanks to Cookie, Komang, the Violin players, and many other people who work SO hard on this ship, it was an awesome experience and I would definitely recommend it to friends and others. Thanks to all the people who work so hard on these ships in order for us to have a great vacation!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation was very smooth! I was quite impressed.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
It was good, but not quite what I had expected from word-of-mouth. But I didn't go for the food, so it wasn't the most important thing on my agenda during the cruise!
Northern Lights and Southern Lights Dining Rooms
4 out of 5
Guys Burgers was my favorite food on the ship, and from what I could tell, that is what most people were eating!
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Miniature golf, hot tubs, lounging around... I didn't do many of the activities, but it wasn't due to lack of choices! There are enough activities to keep a person busy for much longer than a week if that is what you are interested in doing.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
String Classics with Spicatto Trio was my absolute favorite on the ship. I very much enjoyed their violin talents. We also went to other shows and dance contests, etc. All were great!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our Room Stewart, Komang, was absolutely amazing! He worked SO hard the entire time we were on the ship, it was unreal. And he was SO nice and friendly. I have no idea how much money he earns, but I'd bet it isn't nearly enough for the work he did while we were on the ship! He worked very hard, and always had a smile on his face. Our Cruise Director, Cookie, was awesome also! He was involved in so many activities/entertainment it was unbelievable! He made us laugh more than anyone on the ship... which made our cruise incredibly fun! I'm not sure when (or IF) he ever slept the week we were on there, but it sure didn't appear he did because he was hands-on involved in everything. VERY impressive! And he is VERY funny and kind. My opinion... Komang, Cookie, and the String Classic with Spicatto Trio (Violinists) were the most impressive people on the ship. They definitely made my first cruise amazing!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The people on this ship worked non-stop, what seemed like 24/7. There was always someone cleaning or painting... every day. I was very impressed by the hard work the people working on the ship do. I almost felt some of them needed more of a break!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Our cabin was what we expected as far as size goes. It was very comfortable, and Komang kept it very clean and was on top of everything constantly while we were there. We were very happy with our room and even happier with our Room Stewart, Komang. He was awesome! Very helpful, very kind, very hard-working, and always smiling even though it was obvious he was working non-stop doing difficult work in some cases. We noticed how some of the other passengers had left their rooms some days, and it was nothing I would have wanted to clean... but Komang always had a smile on his face and we never saw him standing still! He is a very hard worker.
Ship tip
My number one advice: get a room away from kids if you are planning to take a relaxing, adult cruise! We had a family in the rooms across the hall from us (we should have asked to be moved after the first night, but we didn't) who were totally obnoxious. The kids were yelling and screaming, and racing in the halls and the parents were just as loud, agging them on in their racing! The kids were banging on our door all hours of the night and that was the worst part of my trip on this cruise. I was afraid to hang the door decoration out for fear they would tear it up. If I ever cruise again, I would definitely not want to be in a room near people like that again.
We did a tour of Puerto Plata which was awesome; mainly due to the driver who took us around. Unfortunately, I can't remember his name, but even though he spoke little English, he did show us a lot of the town and tell us about certain parts of it. He also was very good at keeping us safe. He would tell us where to go and where not to go, etc. The Dominican Republic is an absolutely beautiful island.
My favorite of the islands we visited. Maybe because we did a tour here as well and our guide, Webster, was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. This island is gorgeous and learning about it from Webster was so interesting and fun! He was the perfect tour guide. I would like to go back here and stay for a week or so to see more of this island. We went to Magen's Bay to swim, which was beautiful. I can't say enough about this island at this point!
Puerto Rico was not my favorite island on this cruise, but it is a neat place to visit. It wasn't as pretty as the first two islands we visited (in my opinion). Of course, you only have a few hours to visit each island so what you get to actually see if very limited. BEWARE of the people in the stores who grab you to come in and try to sell you things! In our case, we got ripped off by a make-up/skin-care company and have written the company who makes what we were supposed to get, but have not heard back from them. And probably won't! They sampled a skin-care product on three people in our group and we all three bought the product, only to find out when we got back to the ship that it was not what they said it was. It wasn't what they sampled on us, it was something else. We all tried to research it on our phones before buying it, but none of us had internet connection! They got each of us for $160, so that was a bad experience for us on this island, needless to say.
Grand Turk has beautiful beaches! We only went to the beach and in a few stores just off the ship, so I can only rate a very small part of this island. From what I saw, it is a beautiful island. Again, there were people trying to sell us things along the beach who were not legit. We actually had a security guard there tell us to be leery of people trying to sell us things (beach chairs, umbrellas, etc.).
Since we had bags to check-in (couldn't carry everything ourselves), we had to wait hours for the people who could carry everything they brought to get off the ship first. My opinion is that the people who check-in bags are probably quicker than the people trying to carry everything and get off first so the check-in people should be let off first, then the people who try to carry everything and cause such a ruckus. We waited a long time after having to leave our room, and everything was closed - including some of the bathrooms. They had to get everyone on our cruise off the ship in order to start loading the passengers for the next cruise within like an hour of our getting off. It made me feel a bit sorry for the Room Stewarts and Cafeteria workers having to get all that done in such a short amount of time. This was the most confusing, difficult part of our cruise (in my opinion!). I felt bad for Cookie having to deal with all these people getting off this ship in such a short amount of time, only to start loading the next group as soon as we were off the ship. Seems a little crazy to me.
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