One of the best cruises I've been on in the last few years

This was such a fantastic turnaround from my cruise earlier this year.  I really enjoyed the ship and the variety of food choices available.  The sushi was delicious as it always it, but the choices they had were very limited.  It seems there were only about 4 different kinds of sushi rolls and the menu had alternative non-sushi items on it.  I guess they limited the sushi choices to add the non-sushi choices.  I agree with adding non-sushi choices, but limiting the sushi items so much makes it less inviting to sushi lovers.  I guess they'll figure out what works over time and make adjustments. 

I loved that the Red Frog pub had freshly brewed beer and had some food choices.  Obviously the food items cost extra, but it was really nice to sit in the pub and have food and drink together. 

Another newer item is the seafood shack.  It had a decent amount of choices and the food we had was really good.  They had both fried and no-fried choices, so it wasn't all the unhealthy fried stuff, though that fried stuff was really delicious. 

The Havana Bar on this ship has lost some luster from the Havana setup on the Sunshine.  I like the arrangement on the Sunshine much better.  This was was kind of out of the way and didn't really seem inviting.  I think they were too focused on having that Havana cabin privacy kind of thing going on.  Not sure if it would be worth it or not. We did not book one of the Havana cabins since my children are too young yet to be there.

We did explore the family area on the lower deck (cant' remember if it was deck 1 or 2.  It was nice for younger children and if your cabins were relatively close by, they children could play video games without having to go all the way up to Camp Ocean.  There wasn't supervision, so it was up to you to keep a close eye on your kiddos.  It didn't seem like a place to go out of your way to visit, but was very nice for those in the cabins near it.  I think it is a nice addition for families with younger children.

I'm already getting tired of the Dr Seuss focus.  I know its a new partnership and all that, but it makes things seem more focused on younger children to me and now that mine are pre-teens, it is not really interesting to us.

I'm trying to remember what else is new on this ship.  The sky ride thing is nice, but barely open for maybe 3 or 4 hours a day.  Same with the ropes course.  I think the opening times being so limited makes it difficult for people to have the opportunity to try them out.  You definitely want to get there as soon as they open to be sure you have a turn.

The casino seemed a bit small for such a large ship.  It gets really crowded at show end times and dinner end times.  It wasn't always crowded and the casino staff was nice and friendly.  I do like the 360 degree bar in the casino.  Its a bit different from most cruise ships, but I think it works and it looks nice as well.  The bar staff had a separate area to retrieve drinks from, so that helps keep the bar area a bit less crowded that you see on most of the cruise ships with the older configuration.

It seems that they have focused way more on the your time dining concept and are moving away from the early/late dinner seatings.  I don't know if that is a good idea or not, especially when we prefer the standard early dinner seating and want to avoid the your time dining.

My biggest complaint on the last cruise was the total lack of wifi service.  it worked well in most areas on the Vista and made for a very nice cruise.  We all used the chat feature on the Hub app.  There were transmission delays at times and some lost messages, but overall, it worked well and helped our party of 10 keep up with each other.