The food always looked great, but the looks did not match the taste. It was mostly bland unless you ate in a specialty restaurant. I would try to get set seating in the main dining room, vs getting the Dine as You Wish. If you do get the Dines as You Wish option, make sure to make all of your meal reservations as soon as possible. Waiting until you get on board did not serve us well.
If you bring your own water bottle, be aware that there is only one water station on board. The water is warm and the ice maker next to the water machine was mostly empty. The line to use this station was always long.
Service in the buffet eating area was sparse at best. The As You Wish Dining experience turned out to be "go to the buffet". We also had the drink package that included drinks at $11 and under. This was mostly true, although it didn't work in the buffet. It ended up being a hassle because it slowed down the process of ordering and is something that I would not purchase again. The ship was in the middle of switching out their liquor supplier, so many of the specialty drinks in the bar menus were unavailable or were substituted with other liquor.
For those of us who have cruised prior to Covid, the post-Covid experience is just not the same.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Great, no problems
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
We only got to experience the main dining room once, as we did not realize we needed reservations each time we wished to use the main dining room. There were never any reservations available, so we gave up and dined mostly at the buffets. The food there always looked good but, the food never tasted as good as it looked. It became obvious that they were cutting corners to save costs. The juice drinks, lemonade and orange juice were severely watered down. There was only one water station, and that water was mostly hot and ice was mostly empty. The specialty restaurants were great, tasty food, the service was spotty though. Later reservations suffered from a tired and wore down staff. Wait times for your food exceeded an hour, despite having reservations.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Buffet staff service was non-existent. They would clear your plates but getting drink service was next to impossible. They had all they could do to keep up with cleaning tables off so that the next group could sit down. It was a total self-service experience. I got the impression that this was a training cruise with less than normal staffing levels. Room stewards were fantastic and most likely the best we have ever had in 7 cruises thus far. Other ship personal were always trying to be helpful but, they were always overwhelmed by passengers.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Ship was always clean but only has one water station for refilling water bottles. This was a big bottle neck that really slowed things down.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
It was a little cramped but always clean and tidy.
Ship tip
If you don't like using stairs, the elevators are slow and crowded.
The food service on the island was very poor. Staff had no idea what to do or what was on the menu. It appeared many had a hard time understanding English. The Sting Ray Adventure was fantastic.
Our tour of the island was really very good. If yoou do not go on an excursion, you are pretty much left to your own. The ship provides no general information about each port. The shops on the ship provided some maps of the stores that they wanted you to visit. This helped some.
We did not do an excursion but got off the boat and walked around. The ship provided no maps or ideas of what to do ashore other than the excursions. This was disappointing compared to other cruises we have been on.
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