It was a fantastic vacation where we met a lot of nice people! I'm sure this is intentional but we were paired with another couple at dinner and I did not expect to hit it off with them as well as we did. We became very close with them and are actually planning another trip with them next year. The staff was fantastic and the food was top notch for the most part. If you are fine with fun and lowd activities especially if you are taking your family then this cruise is a must experience!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Smooth and quick. The process through security and the health checkup was abut 30-40 minutes before we were on the boat. But considering there were 4,000 people going through that process it was very time efficient.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The main scheduled dinner each night was fantastic, and the different food locations around the boat were very good. I would specifically like to shout out the Bonsai teppanyaki table for a fantastic dinner. The only reason this isn't 5 stars is that I was never impressed with the food quality at the buffet. Compared to the rest of the food I had on the ship, the buffet was subpar.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The activities were very fun when you got to participate in them. We knew it would be crowded since it was a family cruise but we waited in line for over an hour to do the Skytrack, the mini golf was always extensively crowded, so was the basketball court. And the ropes course was closed almost the entire trip for safety inspections
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The dive in movie nights were nice to have nearly every night. The music was also very fun, they did a good job of getting everyone dancing. I also enjoyed the comedy club performances, the only downside was that it was advertised as new material per performance since they only had so many performers and it was not. They definitely mixed it up a good amount and I know that not everyone went to each performance but usually about 10-15 minutes of the act was material I had heard on a previous day
Children's Programs
I didn't participate in the children's activities
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
I understand that it's part of their job to remember our names but I was still very impressed with the personable staff in every department on the cruise. I would like to shoutout two of our staff specifically (I might butcher the name spelling) Agus of our cleaning staff, and Karn of our food server staff. My birthday took place during our trip and I had joked with Karn about having a special performance for my birthday dinner while I forgot that we had booked a special separate dinner so I wouldn't be at there for my birthday. He brought out a little cake the next day along with our other servers to wish me a happy birthday a day late. Agus saw us around the trip pretty much every day and said hello every time and never forgot our faces, we made small talk with him almost every time. Also we signed up for the morning cleaning service but on two of the days we were in the room napping during the cleaning timeframe. He made sure to check back outside of our scheduled hours and get it done regardless. Above and beyond from both of these two gentlemen
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
This might be very specific but I was not a fan of the Elevator system on the ship and that's all I can think of when I think of "Ship Design" when you select a floor you wait for a specific elevator that is either going up or down, makes sense. But if you're on floor 8 going to floor 12, and there are people on floors 4, 5, 6, and 7 also going to floor 12 then it will stop for all of them which also makes sense. The downside is that you might wait up to 5 minutes for an elevator to get to you only to be full of all the people who were on a lower floor than you (or higher if you're going down) my girlfriend and I don't mind walking up and down stairs so we mostly opted for that route but on a 15 floor boat and with how many elderly or disabled people I saw, I wish they had a better system
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Very comfortable, A/C was always cranking so it was very nice in there. The only thing was we put some drinks in the mini fridge on day one only to realise on day 3 that the mini fridge wasn't functioning. We should've noticed so that's our bad but you'd think that the staff would've checked that prior to us checking in
Ship tip
If you want to have Hard Alcohol while on the boat you NEED to purchase it before hand. Anything bought on the boat or at a port is held until the last night of the cruise and then is given to you. There's ways to get around this like ordering shots through room serivce and having it brought to your room but it seemed silly to me
We walked around the market and through town and had a blast. If you're not used to high humidity then you're in for a shock but that goes hand in hand with a trip to Mexico
We signed up for the zipline excursion, we've been ziplining before and it's an activity we love. Unfortunately this was a less than perfect experience. Our guides could not have been nicer but it was not enough to overshadow how many flaws were part of this trip. First the excursion was 6.5 hours long which was listed in the description, but that's 6.5 hours in the sun with high humidity and little to no shade throughout the trip. Again that's something to be expected in Mexico but there were only water stations every 3rd platform. With how many people took part in the zipline excursion it took about 30-40 minutes once you got in line to get to the next platform. So that's an hour and a half in between water stops. Luckily I purchased a large bottle in a sling which I had strapped around my chest, but I gave more than half of my water away to other people who were vomitting and sick from heat exhaustion. There is also a VERY large stretch of stairs in the beginning that was not listed. That's not an issue for a good amount of people but I met a very nice lady on the trip who had recently had knee surgery so I felt very bad for her when we reached that spot and she basically had to sidestep up the entire thing which took her about 10 minutes. Also no food included except for 2 tiny quesadillas at the very end with an apple. That part was listed but after participating I just don't think I can recommend this to the vast majority of people
We did not visit this port because we were just in Cabo San Lucas in February of this year and didn't want to go through the debarkation process and wait in line to get off and back on the ship for a place we were just at. It was also the shortest port and we weren't in a hurry to be anywhere.
Very easy process, if you make sure to watch the informational presentation they are very clear on details and also play that presentation on a chanel in your room for the entire day afterwords so you can see it. Once our group was called we were off the boat and through security within 15-20 mintes
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