Relaxing Cruise Vacation

The food was good. It wasn't phenomenal but I really enjoyed it. The desserts were the best part, and I am not normally a dessert person. I had a steak on the last night and it was one of the best I'd had in a long long time.

Very little variety. Pools and hot tubs were often closed for no apparent reason. Really unfortunate that we couldn't go to the bow of the ship. 3 stars instead of 2 because the water slide was great.

My wife and I attended several different shows and performances and some were far better than others and some should probably be scrubbed. All in all 4 stars. Here's how it went: Autumn in Paris Show [3 stars]: Entertaining but not very cohesive. Singing and dancing was great, but there didn't seem to be any theme or any connection to Autumn in Paris save for one French song. Extreme Show [0 stars]: Terrible. It was the same show as autumn in Paris with different music and all of the good parts (juggler, costumes, good singing) cut out and some inexplicably odd parts thrown in (what was up with Isabela's song about a broken coffee machine in the middle? Made no sense. Also, the guy with the gravely rock voice should have sang eye of the tiger) Chris J. Clarke [4 stars]: Ed Sheeran tribute was fantastic. Beatles tribute was very good. Great musician. Soulmates Trio [5+ stars]: Absolutely phenomenal! Easily the best show I've seen (anywhere!) in a while! Why on earth are they tucked away back in a little bar in the bowels of the ship? These guys were inventive, cohesive, completely in sync, and top class professionals. My advice, for what it's worth, would be to scrub the Extreme show on the main stage and put Soulmates up there and have Chris Clarke open for them. Between sets they came over and talked with my wife and I and my brother and sister-in-law and were so friendly and even played a song for us! Stellar musicians and total stars of the show. I'm sad we didn't find them until the last night.

Service was very good. Cheekory and his team of Kumar and Rajesh were excellent. We ran into them with masks on and they recognized us from across the ship! We were totally bamboozled and impressed by that. They were always very attentive and caring. Our room steward Lino was also very good. Nothing above and beyond but still very good service. The cruise director Monica was wonderful. We got to talk with her a little bit after the shows and she was very down-to-earth and genuinely kind. Sometimes I feel like cruise directors are just always in character and putting on an act, but Monica seemed totally authentic. She talked to us about her dog, and we shared stories and good conversation. A fantastic hostess.

Yes, everything was perfectly clean and well-maintained. The ship was easy to get around for the most part. Sometimes you could get lost looking for your cabin. It was a real bummer that we couldn't go to the bow of the ship. I was looking forward to that.

Our cabin was 12216 actually. It was very nice.