a fun first cruise experience

quality of food is fresh/clean, restaurant variety was alright. Lots of choices but the other two main dining rooms had the same menu. the buffet had the greatest number of choices. the asian food wasn't very authentic. ambiance of special was nice but it was sometimes hard to decide whether to dress up (since it felt a bit out of place to walk around dressed up when everyone else in the rest of the ship was dressed casually) but inside the restaurant, it was appropriate to dress up. dining times were hard to get for the teppanyaki but I didn't mind much since I've had this type of food at Benihana many times before. Reservations can only be made one day before (vs. booking all restaurants for the week on the first day) and you can only make them for 30% of the seating available; the rest are walk-in. The soda promotion for $6.25 a day in a souvenir cup was kind of expensive; must purchase for entire 7 days.

there were a lot of activities but some things overlapped in terms of time so I couldn't do everything (i.e. listen to seminar on buying jewelry at the ports v.s. listening to a seminar on how to increase your metabolism) the down side is that there are very limited activities on port days at the spa you sometimes feel compelled to buy the products that were used in your treatment but they won't be unhappy or too pushy about it. you can pick which spa therapist you wanted; i didn't have trouble booking times (in terms of scheduling, but not sure about others) spa is expensive but I think it was very popular it was hard to find a place to sit when there were seminars in the main area (crystal atrium mid ship 7) & shows in the 6th & 7th floor theater / 13th fl spinnaker lounge

very friendly, no one was rude, some of them will get to know you by name

this was the first experience on a cruise so the ship size felt fine/good; as with any ship, you always have to walk from one end to the other if you're going to different places. public areas were in good shape; nothing shabby-- things seemed very new. decor was bright/colorful. it is definitely clean.

location was right near the elevator area so people walk by a lot but it was neighbors that were most often noisy. the stateroom was comfortable (perhaps on the smaller side) though I got used to the size pretty quickly. Amenities included shampoo, body soap, hand soap and hair dryer. It would have helped to include conditioner. The decor was fine; bright colored sofa/floor.