Just not happy with our first family trip back to cruising after 4 years and Covid. Ship layout was weird and too many people on it.
Understaffed? Appeared so. A lot of LITTLE things just got to me and I was ready to go home after 3 days of our 7 day trip. Which is terrible considering I've done 10 days on a smaller NCL ship and didn't want to get off. Just disheartening for the first one back.
I hate having to use the APP for everything. I typically reserve my phone just for photos on vacation.
Even with the amount of food venues and choices, variety and quality just wasn't up to par.
I don't want to be a debbie-downer but this ship just didn't meet expectations--I won't be going back on this one.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
From Canaveral, once the shuttle dropped us off at the port, we were on the ship within 15 minutes. Very impressed with the amount of travellers running through there.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Not happy about the my time dining having to check in on the app for everything. I was always fine in the past for waiting in line for the first come first serve. Service in the main dining room was really slow. It seemed well understaffed for the amount of diners. Allow for about 1.5 hours for a full meal. One weird quirk as well, the bread basket doesn't circulate the room anymore. You have to flag someone down to hopefully get another piece if wanted.
Chibang was underwhelming with its offerings--not impressed and didn't care to go back again. Breakfast menus seemed to be on an A OR B rotation on seadays, lackluster from years prior. I had always looked forward to a good, non rushed breakfast.
Big Chicken by Shaq
4 out of 5
Chicken, fries and the sauces were all excellent. A good quick snack anytime. BEWARE-- the biscuits are not that great and are the only let down here. Frozen southern buttermilk biscuits would have been better than their idea of a biscuit.
Pizzeria del Capitano
5 out of 5
Best snack around. Worth the wait, even when lunch time crowds magically sneak up on them--goes back to being understaffed on the whole ship. Excellent pizza though.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Activities seemed to be pretty diverse. The ropes course was fun. The water slides were really great and the whole family loved them. Bolt didn't seem to get used that much, not sure if it was down for repairs or just the current gimmick going. Probably saw fewer than 50 people ride it the entire trip.
Waterworks Aqua Park
5 out of 5
Slides were very fun and kept us all happy and laughing. Crowds weren't typically that bad.
Pixels
1 out of 5
Alot of space that is never used with the exception of last night photo purchases. Chaos and Pandemonium then.
Mardi Gras Casino
2 out of 5
90% off all slots are the cheap chinese mult-payline units. Not fun. Didn't try the table games due to the minimum bets--10$ and up.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Overall, Not wowed at all. The magic show was crap. The rock musical was pretty good, although the lead singer was not that great. We could never get to a comedy show on time and get a seat. The venues were too small, even after allowing 30 minutes before performance.
Big Plus--the nightly movies on the big pool screen were great. Recommend getting drinks and finding a good lounger for the evening.
Children's Programs
The kids didn't care to even check out the kids clubs this go round, (10 and 14)
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
All staff was nice as always and attentive.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Did not care for the layout of the ship at all. Centerstage/midship--yuck. Single level main theatre-yuck. Lack of artwork and elegance to the ship in all. Looks like budget killed the mystique of this one.
Not happy with the casino. Lots of cheap chinese 100 payline slots--not my kind of fun.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Not much to say about a small inside cabin. The shower was nice. Didn't like the fact that the bunks stayed down and in the way ALL THE TIME.
Ship tip
You have to be tethered to your phone on this trip. Dining reservations made on the app. Daily activites made on the app. Chat on the App-by the way-everyone in your party that wants to chat must pay 5$ each to keep in touch--terrible.
Decent. Sad, poor 3rd world country. We found a great excursion right off the ship that actually charged our room. Still had a pretty good time touring around. Don't care to go back though.
I would agree with you on some item, I didn’t care for the layout of Mardi Gras either. Center stage I thought was in a less than desirable location. But to say you wanted to get off three days into your cruise? You were trying to have a terrible cruise. And complaining about an app, you are using an app to make a terrible review, irony much. I’m sorry you didn’t have the best time maybe you’ll have better luck on a different ship. Cheers shipmate.
I agree with the app; I prefer to leave my device in my room when on a cruise(exception being in port). Since this is your first cruise since the shutdown let me inform you…majority of the cruise lines have everything on the app now. If you cruise on Oasis Class ships on Royal you book your shows and that is where your tickets for those shows are. Get used to cruising with the app.
Maybe cruising isn't fir you if you can grind mire things negative than positive. You're on a cruise, and all you do is complain, and look for something to further ruin the cruise. I've never been on a perfect cruise, cause they don't exist, but when something goes wrong, I don't use that as the baseline for rating rest of cruise. I enjoyed every cruise I've been on and in my opinion, a bad cruise is still a great cruise, cause 90% of the world's population can't experience a cruise because it's out of their budget.
Chat on the app is optional if you don't want to use your phone why complain about the $5 anyways. Only one person needs to check in you do it and then put the phone away does not have to be in your hand if you don't want it. I don't go to the dining room often but isn't an hour to hour and a half normal? If you want fast that's what the buffet is for.
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