Unacceptable

Of course something got messed up and we had to wait a long time to get on board and then wait in line for reception for an hour to get one of our cruise cards fixed/replaced

Every time were attempted to utilize the main dining room (the D'oro restaurant), we were either met with hostility (due to our thrown together dining schedule for a large party thanks to the cruise line's shortcomings mentioned previously) or abysmally slow, carelessness, inattentive, service to present us with inedible food. For an Italian cruise line, every pasta dish I had tasted like a frozen meal that had been microwaved and every dish I ordered containing fish had an overwhelming smell of low tide and an unappealing texture. At no point did any member of my family leave a main dining experience having positive things to say about either the dining staff or the quality of the food. To make the dining situation even worse, on two separate occasions due to the slow service, the lights in the restaurant came on as the staff prepared for the next round of dining and we were actually asked to leave the restaurant before finishing our drinks and dessert. Additionally we were charged for alcoholic beverages multiple times although we were sure to stay within our premium and easy packages each time we ordered drinks - again taking time away from our "vacation" as we walked around the ship waiting in long lines in an attempt to remove charges that were once again the fault of the cruise line.

It was immediately and consistently apparent that this ship was being utilized to train inexperienced staff, many of whom seemed to have zero previous experience working in customer service. To start off this vacation which I had spent several months meticulously planning for my family, all of the selections we made in terms of onboard entertainment, spa services, specialty dining times, and main dining were completely messed up by the cruise computer system and so my family and I spent the first two days going from the front desk to the main dining manager to the specialty restaurant manager to try to fix our dining times, etc. but of course available spots at that juncture were very limited and therefore we had to piece together a meticulously planned schedule into a mess that bore no resemblance to what we had selected online several weeks before boarding the ship. Not only that, but the staff took no responsibility for this and showed visible annoyance with my having to bother them to try to accommodate my party of 8 even though I made all of these selections previously when it was in fact the cruise ship that made the mistake. Other aspects of the cruise that were very off-putting were bars and dining. Although many of the bartenders throughout the ship were friendly and good at their jobs, there were times when my family would approach a bar (this happened several times at the casino bar and once at the anchor bar) and be completely ignored by a dark-haired female bartender who appeared to be unloading water or doing some other menial task. Rather than simply saying "sorry the casino bar will be open in 15 minutes" (even though the app said the bar had been open for an hour) or "I'll be right with you" or anything at all, we were completely ignored multiple times which made all of us feel uncomfortable. Unpleasant experiences such as those mentioned above seemed to follow us our entire time onboard the ship to the point where it became a joke.

Handicap-accessible, spacious, clean, comfortable, big shower