Help Needed

Embarkation was as slow as it could possibly be. There were thousands of people sitting and standing around for hours beginning around 11:00. I am a well seasoned cruiser (125 cruises) and that was the worst boarding experience ever!

The Executive Chef or whoever makes executive decisions should be fired! For some reason it was decided to abandon normal dining protocols and change seating to open dining for everyone. The results of this would have been predicted by a first-time cruiser, 4000 people were standing in line to get into the restaurants at 6:00 on the first night. The lines lasted hours. This was the most idiotic decision I’ve ever seen made on a cruise ship. The food in the main dining room was bland and unappetizing. The service staff, although very nice, was definitely under trained. The Teppanyaki restaurant was horrible. The sushi appetizer looked like it had been sitting out for hours. I was afraid but I took a bite. I was right, it had either been sitting out or the fish wasn’t sushi-fresh. The Miso soup tasted like water. I’m not Japanese but I make Miso soup 10 times better than that. The vegetables were good, one asparagus spear and a small piece of bell pepper. The rice was just ok, not near as good as what you get in a mediocre Japanese restaurant. The entrees, well, you see the pattern. All the chefs did this stupid thing where they threw a piece of cooked egg into each diner’s mouth. I could tell that hardly anyone wanted to participate but were forced to. Eggs were going everywhere, mostly in people’s hair and on their clothes. STUPID IDEA, who made this part of the experience? The buffet It is unbelievable that I’m saying this (I never ever thought I would) but the best dining experience was the buffet where I had to walk a mile to select my choices. I was actually happy to do it versus the alternative of eating in the restaurants. The food was pretty good and fresh. In conclusion, the dining management team should go on a cruise with one of their competitors and see how it’s done.

The hot tub was the only activity that we did. It was nice.

We watched the magic show. Nice enough guy but not entertaining.

Professional training needed by all.

The ship is beautiful and unique. There are venues hidden here and there. That can be frustrating and exciting at the same time.

The cabin was outstanding. It was large enough and well appointed. The very large mirror made the room feel huge. The bathroom was as nice as any I’ve ever seen in a standard cabin.

We carried our bags off so we went to the disembarkation floor at 7am to beat the crowd. Wrong! There were already many hundreds of people there. It did go pretty fast, I was impressed.