This ship is beautiful but sadly plagued by ostensibly poor management and quality control. Great staff who seem to have given up.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
The upgrades dining experience was overly crowded and service was incredibly inconsistent. Some of the platings appeared to be done by toddlers. My chicken parm (wish I had a pic) looked like a fried egg (just as thin) and where the yolk would be was a tiny blob of tomato sauce with a tiny blob of cheese. And it’s an Italian ship! They want elegance in the dining room but have created a space that is impossible to navigate with food you might expect from a low end American chain. Additionally My Choice dining is advertised as any restaurant any time but it’s just one section of one restaurant. It wasn’t all terrible but everything was over salted. Someone at an adjacent table quipped that it tasted like someone dipped her plate in the ocean before serving.
2 buffets. Sometimes better than dining room. All coffee stations ran out of coffee more than once!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Entertainment
2 out of 5
When it wasn’t too loud it was fairly mediocre- like watching high school kids. The dining crew did just as well for their little presentation. No “broadway style shows.”
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Service is uneven. Staff either have no motivation to help or no support from above. Slowest bartenders on the 7 Seas! Bar service was largely a source of frustration for the hundreds of guests with whom I interacted. They need training.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
5 out of 5 for design. It’s a beautiful space with so many open outdoor areas that it never felt crowded. Dead birds however sat on boxes outside and crew is slow to clean up large puddles.
Broken glass on an “infinity bridge” had crew opening and closing the walkway randomly.
Room assigned- an Aurea class experience- smelled of sewage and had a partially obstructed balcony. Nowhere was this made clear. Staff told me I should have specified I wanted an unobstructed balcony.
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
Obstructed Aurea balcony. The room also smelled of sewage. Ironically it didn’t smell in the bathroom. Finally was moved to 13036 which was a downgraded balcony but clean with a beautiful clear view and impeccable cabin maintenance. I tried to disembark because the experience was so stressful.
Ship tip
Book Aurea and make sure your balcony looks into ocean. The Top 19 area and the thermal spa make it an excellent upgrade.
A port is a port is a port. Currently the pick-up/drop-off area is a mess so they squeezed all the traffic into the road that runs along the ship. Otherwise amazing immigration experience and genuinely enjoyable port staff.
Used to be a great stop but it would seem they’re pushing a new cruise dock area which is a few miles from anything worthwhile. Cab is inexpensive but when there are 2 ships and 1000 people waiting for cabs it’s just not worth it.
Hands down the best disembarkation experience. Never felt crowded or rushed and ship was full. I thought Norwegian put Disney to shame but this one tops them all.
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