The places we visited were nice, but the cruising experience does not seem a good fit for us. The embarkations and disembarkations were a pain and seemed not well organized. Maybe a smaller ship would have been better; maybe it was just poorly planned and disorganized.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
The lady who handled our registration and document check was excellent as was her supervisor. Some of the other employees seemed uninformed and unhelpful. The whole process seemed a little disorganized and it was time consuming..
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The specialty dining rooms were very good. The buffet in the Garden Cafe had a very good variety of good food, but the food was uniformly under seasoned, probably to account for people with high blood pressure who need to reduce salt consumption.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
There were a lot of possible activities on the ship, such as ropes courses, miniature golf, water slides, etc. but we didn't use any of them. The weather was too cold for swiming.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The comedy act we saw was excellent. The song and dance show, After Midnight, had great dancing and some great singing, although the singing was inconsistent. The on-board entertainment was not big on the list of things we wanted.
Children's Programs
No children.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The room stewards were excellent. The restaurant service people was generally great. The people handling the embarkations and dis embarkations were generally not great.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship and facilities seemed new and in good condition. It was also huge.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We were completely satisfied with our cabin, which seemed in good shape and well designed. The seal on the shower did need some attention.
Ship tip
Do the shorter shore excursions. The longer ones are rushed and you don't get to do much.
It is hard to rate Halifax itself because we went on a 7 hour bus excursion of the iconic towns of Nova Scotia. We were rushed from the ship to the bus and spent most of the 7 hours on the bus. Our excursion group which was on the longest excursion, was the next to last of twelve to be allowed to leave the ship. The time limit for getting back on the ship was 5:30 PM, and we arrived back at the terminal at 5:27. All of the shops in the terminal, which looked interesting and nice, had closed by then, so we did not get to shop. The tour guide was great, and we had a great meal at the first stop, Lunenburg, but the meal left us with 4 minutes to see the harbor. Overall it was not a good day.
Bar Harbor was excellent, and we went on a shorter and very nice nature excursion. However the process of being tendered between the ship and shore seemed very disorganized and poorly planned.
Try a smaller ship next time. I’ve heard a few people with the same feelings that you had about crowding. I have felt the same. Disembarkation always seems pokey, but I noticed it was much smoother with the facial recognition in nyc.
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