Honestly it felt more expensive than it was worth. With all the hidden fees and taxes it came out to nearly twice what we expected before anything we actually ordered on the ship. The food and entertainment were okay but if we'd stayed another night we likely would have been pretty bored.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
What to do and how to pay for things until the staterooms we're ready was confusing. We also didn't realize we couldn't enter the staterooms until 1:30. If we'd known that we might have chosen a later arrival time. Also the muster experience was a bit dumb. We spent a ton of time being herded into pens to to learn how to use a lifejacket but they didn't tell us where lifejackets were. The whole thing could have been done in an online video.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Main dining was very good, but the sauce for the beef was the same the entire cruise, and since we didn't really like it that kind of limited the menu. Additionally the portions on some of the food was pretty small. The shrimp cocktail and strawberry tart the first night in particular we're a bit tiny.
Buffets on the lido deck we're also nice, but the hours were confusing and I often found myself unable to get food when I wanted it.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Pools were cold and too crowded for COVID since you can't really wear a mask in a pool. Mini golf was fun once but why play through it again. Fitness classes cost money which was just one more reason not to get up early to be healthy.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Jersey was funny the first night, but he reused a lot of material night to night. This would have been fine but he kept insisting if we came back tomorrow he'd "continue the story" and we didn't really get any feel for a continuous story in his shows. Kristen, the other comic, kind of put us off the first night focusing on one scenario the whole time and we didn't go back to her show again.
Franco the piano player was fun, but would have been more fun if I wasn't the only one singing along.
I can't remember their group's name but the singing teen troupe was really great. We wished we could see more from them. The first night we only caught the very end of the show that was ostensibly about a safety briefing. Really buried the lede there in the schedule. We'd have seen the whole thing of we knew there was a show involved too. There also wasn't a show on the last night which was disappointing.
Take Two was our favorite performers. They were both great singers and we really enjoyed watching them throughout the cruise.
There also wasn't much to do between noon and 4pm.
Children's Programs
No children
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The only complaint we had was if we got to breakfast 30 minutes before closing we would get served then basically ignored after closing time. Typically this just meant we couldn't get coffee refills, but it was pretty frustrating.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Cleanliness: It was fine. No complaints. 5 stars.
Design: Very frustrating that the access route to our stateroom was blocked on one side. We had to go back to the stateroom from the front of the ship. If we'd known that we'd have chosen a stateroom on the other side of the ship which was accessible from midship. We were midway between the MID and FWD on the starboard side of deck 1 so bring unable to take the MID elevators was really annoying. I think this was what soured the cruise more than anything else.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
It was fine. Window was pretty dirty but other than that it was nice. Good size for 3 days.
We didn't realize we had to be out of our cabin by 8:30 until we'd already sat down for breakfast at 8:08. The check out time wasn't on any documents we could find so we didn't realize it was so early in the morning. This should have been in the hub app.
If you did not know where your life vests were you were either not paying attention when told and not very observant when in your cabin and never opened the closets and read your information.
I’ve been on numerous cruises and it’s been made abundantly clear when you need to be out of your room on debarkation day. There’s announcements the day before saying to watch the presentation on the TV and you get paperwork in your room with the directions. For someone to say they didn’t know speaks more to them than the cruise line.
A cruise is what you make it. Our first one we spent a lot of extra money. We also packed way too much. But you learn as you go. Sounds like you enjoyed some things. And from what others are saying, the experience during this time isn’t as good as pre Covid. Try a different cruise line next time.
For any kind of vacation, it really helps to find out what it is going to be like, what you need to do, not do, etc before hand. Fortunately, for cruising there are tons of resources to prepare. Very brave of you going in blind like that, I could not do that. Cruising is expensive but if you count up all the expenses on a land based vacation, it is a good bargain in my experience. You know what to expect a little more now. If you try it again, I'm sure you would enjoy it more.
Surprised you were ill informed. The video you were supposed to watch after your directions for donning your life preserver, should have told you where they were stored. For your next (if you decide to go again) you will know to look at the deck plans (available on this app) to locate a good cabin. Hint: be sure you have cabins above and below. Sorry this cruise didn’t meet your expectations. Better luck next time.
Thanks for the review. It’s always important to read and understand all of the information provided prior to boarding and once on the ship. Most of the things you mentioned you were unaware of - taxes, extra charges, time to be out of your room, etc. - are all covered either online, your boarding documents provided by email, documents left in your room once onboard or in the app on your phone.
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