Cigarette Smoke and Feces Odor

We were made to wait on our bus for an hour. The upside of waiting that long was there were no line ups o wait in. Downside we were so thirsty but could not get a drink of water because the bars shut down for the safety briefing.

Taste, Savor - good food but super loud. It was hard to have a conversation with people dining with you because of how loud it was. The Manhattan Room - we only had a group supper at this restaurant. The food was delicious and it wasn't as loud but we were in the back corner. The Garden Cafe - most of the time the food was cold by the time we sat down. However there was a good selection of entrees to choose from. Note: I'm not sure how often the line cooks washed their hands or if they replaced the tongs during the meal time. I had to ask for clean tongs at least five times and I probably should have asked more often with the amount of people who refused to wash their hands on their way into the cafe. Staff at the entrances were persistent in telling everyone to "washy, washy".

The pool was nice. There were plenty of hot tubs. Not sure if the hot tube were cleaned daily... our son used the water slides and enjoyed them however a friend was hurt pretty badly using an overinflated tube that was given to her by a staff member.

After Midnight, The Choir of Man and Vox Futura were excellent. Howl at the moon and the comedians were excellent as well. The singers/bands were just "ok". In The District Brew House was too loud most of the time. The musicians did not have the "party" energy that we experienced on the Breakaway.

Entourage was a lot of fun according to our son but not as fun as it was on the Breakaway. "No Adults Allowed."

Room steward - ours was a very young man and I think he did the best that he could. Our cabin was cleaned daily but it still felt dirty. The top shelf in the closet was dusty. I wiped it down myself. There was a garbage can in the desk cabinet that hadn't been emptied from the guest before us. The carpet did not feel or look like it had been shampooed ever. And when we were quarantined to our room for 24 hours due to flu like symptoms we discovered that he did not know how to sanitize our cabin. He had to ask his supervisor. Then when he did "sanitize" he sprayed the bleach mixture sparingly. (I'm a preschool teacher and I know how to sanitize.) When we asked him if we needed to remove our items from the bathroom and desk he said, "no". He made a couple wipes on the wall and the edge of the bunk over our bed. Later when I was feeling better I wiped down everything. I found items from other guests under the beds. Plus, our son had been using the stool to get up to the bunk, he never told us there was a ladder under the bed. We found it the day we were quarantined. The waiters were very nice and efficient. Bartenders were great, most of the time! (They did their best even when some patrons were being nasty) Customer service - Some were not very good at understanding "English". When we were allowed to leave our room after being quarantined we were given new key cards. We went to customer service and asked the staff member who was manning the Restaurant desk (he had no one in line) if he could grab us the hole punch and he said "No, you have wait in the customer service line for that". We walked away! Medical staff - the nurse and doctor that tended to us were wonderful, they were patient and kind and they were in the middle of a complete meltdown from a man threatening to sue. He went up one side and down the other over and over to the point where additional security had to be called in. Through all that and another medical emergency and the phone that never stopped ringing, they still remained calm, patient and kind. Thank you nurse Heidi! Shore excursion personnel were great too. Store employees were very knowledgeable of their products and helpful. "Washy, washy" staff put up with a lot of people refusing to wash their hands and being verbally abusive to them and they still kept smiling and singing and joking with those of us who understood it was in our best interest to wash our hands. Security staff for entering and exiting the ship including ports of call were polite, professional and efficient.

Overall - not good. They have the casino and the Skyline Bar that allow smoking inside the ship. The ship wreaked of cigarette smoke on decks 6, 7 and 8 plus "5 O'clock Somewhere" bar outside and one side of deck 17 was smoking too. There was no avoiding it through deck 6, 7 and 8. The elevators even smelt like cigarette smoke sometimes. I felt bad for the staff who had to work in the bars with that allowed smoking. Secondhand smoke kills! One staff member told us he submitted his resignation because of having to work in a smoke filled environment. Cleanliness was just ok. The Atrium seemed to be well-maintained. The bathrooms were not maintained. It was well into the second week before I saw staff cleaning the bathrooms and after the Norwalk virus was confirmed) They started sanitization and fogging in staff areas and conference rooms. (When we were on the Breakaway there were cleaners posted outside the bathrooms on deck 16 poolside. The bathrooms were impeccable.) On the Escape they were not maintained. The garbage cans were full and sometimes the bathrooms ran out of toilet paper. There were times when there was garbage on the floor and even fecal matter on the toilet seats. (Which I reported to the bartender as there weren't any cleaners present.) One other item to note: While eating our breakfast we noticed a bun on the floor a few tables from us. We quickly ate and then left for a shore excursion. When we got back at supper time we noticed that it was still under the table. The elevators were always covered in fingerprints and again it was the middle of the second week before we saw anyone cleaning them or smelled bleach. The Garden Cafe had hand sanitize stations at each entrance but again it was halfway into the second week before we saw extra sanitizing stations at the openings into the dining tables.

The cabin was pretty small. We probably should have booked a room with a port hole window considering we had our 14 year old with us but we figured we really only spent time sleeping and showering in it. (Until we were all quarantined to it!) Note: We are not complaining about being quarantined. We know it was neccessary as to not infect other passengers. However both my son and I ate the New England seafood bun and my husband did not. My son and I were very ill within hours of eating it and my husband was not. The beds were comfortable but I had to ask our room steward for top sheets and to put the duvet cove opening at the bottom of the bed instead of the head of the bed. I turned it every day for a week but he either didn't notice, didn't care or was taught to put it on that way.

We waited for over an hour for a porter and then ended up taking our luggage through customs with us.