Mixed Feelings

Due to our unavoidable late arrival for departure, there were some last minute changes made of which we were not informed when we checked in.  Essentially, we did not get the cabin we were expecting but were upgraded for some unkown reason.  This created a lot of confusion upon boarding as to actual cabin # and then location of luggage.  The good news is that the cabin attendant was outstanding in resolving several issues for us.

Have cruised on this ship (different itemeary) and the dining experience has improved dramatically from just a year ago.  The main dinning room food quality and service was the best of any of our 8 cruises.  We have also done even more group land tours, and still think the food was exceptionally well prepared and presented.

We were disappointed that there was a big scale back in onboard activities that we were interested in.  This is a great cruise for kids and young adults, but as a Senior, I found very little of interest compared to other cruises.  The choices for shore excursions were also of no interest to us.  We like museums, history, cultural events etc and nothing was suitable for our tastes.  Dolphins and Diamonds and Watches are not our interest anymore.  The Night shows were of much lower caliber than our typical experience.  Also, this ship has discontinued the end of cruise singing by the cabin attendants and wait staff.  We always look forward to that.

Over 50% of the passengers were from Mexico with lot's of kids and we did enjoy trying to socialize, even though a language barrier sometimes existed.  It was also Spring Break, so probably I will be more careful in the future to avoid booking during that time.

We drove do the Galveston port and Kudo's for the folks there who efficiently handled our late arrival,  luggage,  and parking logistical issues.  The ship departure was much longer than usual however due to the high % of passengers with visa's.  US passport holders experienced a 2 hour wait to get to CBP once off the ship and in the departure terminal.

All things considered, we got our moneys worth, for what we rate as just an OK experience.