Overall I would say there are many better options out there. If you do take this cruise I would highly recommend the local traditions and flavors tour in Puerto Plata. Maybe you will be lucky enough to have Raphael and his famous "yummy yummy" speeches. This was the highlight of the cruise for me. Other than that, we meet some really cool people on the cruise, and the food was pretty good overall.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Easy enough, no issues
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining room was decent, although one night service was extremely slow. Good was got our miss. Steak cooked perfectly on one occasion, West undercooked the next, and overcooked another. Ordered the fruit with cottage cheese once and the amount of cottage cheese served was less than a teaspoon.
Overall good but not as good as you would expect. No specialty restaurants, steakhouse selections not worth the extra money.
Guys burger was ok, the tacos at the cantina we're pretty good. Buffet was underwhelming.
The sushi at sea was also very underwhelming, only like 4 told as an option, and want very good.
Fantasy Dining Room
3 out of 5
Average and about what you would expect. Good was pretty good, but inconsistently cooked steaks kind of hurt the overall experience.
Mirage Bar
3 out of 5
Good bar, right where the trivia mostly happened. The unfortunate part is it is also the smoking section. So if you want to do trivia with the family, be prepared to deal with second hand smoke. I would have abided this are if my kids were with me because of that. Maybe the family activities should be held at a smoke free location.
Kaleidoscope Discotheque
1 out of 5
Terrible. Not sure what else to say but just terrible.
Joe's Cafe
2 out of 5
This coffee was not good.
Alchemy Bar
4 out of 5
This is specifically for the alchemy bar. Loved it. Good drinks and laid back.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Very little to do. The gym was nice, two waterslides, other than that very little
Beauty Salon
2 out of 5
Extremely over priced. They also get you roped into the raffle. My friend actually won a $75 spa credit, but it is only allowed to be used on regular priced services, so it was actually cheaper to take advantage of the specials than to use the "credit". He just have the certificate away, but wasted way too much time with the your and raffle. Everything is extremely expensive compared to local salons.
Guest Services / Shore Excursions
3 out of 5
Guest services was fine, nothing special. Local traditions and flavors tour in Puerto Plata was fantastic, ultimate snorkel adventure in Grand Turk was a letdown. Overall balances out as just average.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
This was the biggest disappointment to me. The entertainment was below average. Other than the comedian Macio who was quite funny and the comedy club mc Andy who was also funny, I was bored to tears. The other comedian Percy Crews was possibly the least funny person I have ever seen. Open mic night at a local bar has funnier people.
The other shows were ho hum and did little more than help kill a bit of time. Or cruise was during St Patty's day, and at one point there was two different music options happening. Unfortunately they were both playing Motown. So if you didn't like Motown, nothing for you. Why not have two different musical styles so people have options? Also not sure what Motown had to do with St Patrick's day, but whatever.
Both of these starts are for Macio and Andy. Without them it would be 0
Art Gallery
4 out of 5
Had some cool pieces, the auction was fun, but ran too long. By the end only about 20% of people were still there.
Children's Programs
My kids were not on the cruise
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
What you would expect, nothing great or poor, but very inconsistent. We had the drink package, some bartenders would let you sub the brand of alcohol in your drink, others wouldn't. Inconvenient to have to find another bar to get what you want.
One evening at dinner one of the staff always seemed to be inconvenienced, other than that the service was very good on all other nights.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship was clean but the design was very outdated.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
We booked the least expedite cabin. It was fine, about what was expected.
By far the best part of the cruise. We did the Local traditions and flavors tour. Or guide Raphael was amazing. You could tell he lived his job and enjoyed sharing info about his country. I would do this tour again without hesitation. Amazing.
My only small complaint is that our excursion was very early so couldn't really explore the port in the morning. When we got back around 130 the place to get your passport stamped was already closed. Why would they not be open when people are returning from excursions? Makes no sense.
We did the ultimate snorkel adventure. The guides were good, specifically Happy, but the excursion was not worth the money. There was very little activity and few fish. In retrospect would have just saved the money and hung out at the beach.
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