Outstanding overall cruise - great ship, amazing food, wonderful people, interesting ports and outstanding service. Can't wait to get back on board in the fall. Make sure to bring an extra credit card or membership card to stick in the spot near the door of your stateroom so you can keep your items charging and all of your sail and sign cards with you.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Embarkation was seamless, although due to external reasons only one gangway was open, as other cruisers have previously noted which slowed down the process.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
I have been on several cruises, and the food on this cruise was by far the best. Many complaints I read before departing about lukewarm food were not experienced. The food was outstanding, every time, even the presentation was beautiful. Great selection, great quality, and delicious. There were no negative reviews from anyone we cruised with, including the kids.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
All I have to say is wow! I am a craft beer snob, and the brewery hit the ball out of the park! Outstanding options from the whole ship, including their own specially brewed on board Redfrog selections. The brewmaster, Ronald, is very accessible, giving brewery tours and bringing a face to the amazing brews he creates on board. If you enjoy great beer, especially craft beer, you will love this spot. It has great life music and some unique food offerings (for $3.33 extra per item) that are tasty, although I just went for the beer and positive vibe.
Make sure to visit here or you will be missing out. The Cheers package covers all of the drinks here too for clarity.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The ropes course was great fun for all ages. Make sure to try it on port days or right when it opens, otherwise you might be waiting awhile.
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
All service we received, from our room steward to waiters to bar staff and kid staff were friendly and helpful. Previous reviews that the staff were overworked was not observed, and not once did we receive lacklustre service. On the contrary, we often received service that was above and beyond what we would expect as excellent service back in Toronto.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship was spotless, beautiful, and well laid out. Disney still has this ship beat with the split bathroom in staterooms, but other than that this ship was outstanding. No aspect of the ship was seen to be in rough condition, and it was conveniently designed and accessible.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
All aspects of the stateroom were excellent. Room steward Norman was meticulous in his cleaning, and the view from the balcony was wide and unobstructed. As a plus, it was conveniently located to go about 30 feet down the hall to the elevators and stairs, and up or down to entertainment or restaurants.
Ship tip
Tip-plan your day anticipating 4,000 other people are going to be doing. For example, if you want a chair next to the pool area, you will have to get up early to reserve them, or you won't get one.
If you can, do early or late time dining. The dine anytime crowd always had frustrated people waiting to eat, had rotating servers who didn't know your preferences, and just didn't hold the same value and priority that the set dining time people experienced.
Beautiful spot right off the ship, we never do the excursions as the beach is awesome and a bucket of 5 beers is only $20, so you can't go wrong. The trick is to get off the ship within the first hour of docking to ensure you get chairs and umbrellas. As long as you don't get the first two rows, you won't have to pay anything.
Make sure to bring some towels from the ship, and if you like snorkelling there are lots of colourful fish and artifacts to find within the swimming area.
Here we visited Dreams La Romana resort on a day pass, which had an open bar, lots of good food, a nice pool and beautiful beach. Taxi for 8 round trip was $100, which can be negotiated just outside the port.
There are some shops around the port, but quite low key and nothing that appealing. I would strongly suggest leaving this port, as the port is very new and there is almost nothing to do at the actual port other than visit little overpriced shops.
Cool port with lots of history, and some neat buildings. It is a nice place to do some shopping and take some pictures, but there aren't any nice beaches near the port unless you take an excursion or a long taxi ride. Great place to sit down for a Dutch beer or some blue Curaçao.
Amazing beaches, and probably the most "Caribbean" of the ports we visited, with blue water and powdery beaches. We did a catamaran excursion which was beautiful and fun, and included 2 spots to go snorkelling, including the sunken German warship. I highly suggest it, but not if you have young children or are not a decent swimmer or have mobility issues, as the offshore breeze can make snorkelling a challenge.
Seamless, quick, and well organized. It took probably 20 minutes, but we just took our own luggage and walked off. It was super fast with quick moving lines which made for a quick departure. If you are going to park at the terminal, do it! You park literally right across the road from the terminal and it took 3 minutes to walk across to the parking lot and drive away. Well worth the higher cost, plus on site security is regulated and also a plus.
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