Highlights were the extraordinarily great weather and ports. The ship, food, entertainment and service was disappointing in comparison to our Celebrity or Royal Carribean experiences so far. Not a fan of the freestyle dining. While convenient and casual is the plus.....it doesn't lend to creating relationships with other cruisers(if at the same tables each night) or our waiters.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Well organized, limited processing wait times from Boston
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Cagneys was our best meal experience. The buffet had minimal diversity day to day and lacked offerings. Salad bar was decent but choice of dressings practically non existent. As a gluten free guest non of the dining options had an abundance of choices. GF toast each morning, only to find out on Day 7 that bagels were behind the counter, no GF desserts on the buffet except jello and it would have been helpful if buffet offerings were GF or not per their postings. I will commend the service of my dining consultant who tracked me down and requested I choose my following days meals (but even this was awkward, deciding ahead). The Jasmine restaurant meal was awful and the servers dismissive. A special celebration cake was overlooked and never served on our final night. We found it awkward to access water for our cabins - had to get at the bars.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
We rarely found anything of interest. We did moderately enjoy the karaoke in the Bliss lounge several evenings. We did Bingo ($$) and did not repeat. We found Deal or No Deal too $$ to be worthy
Entertainment
2 out of 5
This rating is most specific to the stage shows with the exception of the Cabaret show which was better. The other stage shows were really amateurish and uninteresting or ridiculous relative the audience.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
As expected but no real connections were made. We had several encounters with unenthusiastic personnel.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
I didn't find the ships layout terribly easy to master and was getting turned around frequently to find a particular destination but perhaps unavoidable. The ship was clean and appeared moderatly well maintained
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Our cabin was decent in size, had great storage and was clean. I was expecting an oceanview window but there was only a port hole. The cable in the back of the TV was loose and the drain cover in the sink was broken but didn't hamper function
Ship tip
If gluten free, be assertive to exhaust options they may provide. I found the food options very lacking compared to Celebrity or Royal Carribean. Don't expect a smoke free atmosphere in the casino, it was awful. And manage expectations relative to the entertainment....it was disapointing to say the least. Also its incredibly difficult to communicate either on board, person to person or by cell. The wifi situation is challenging for even the well informed and the 150 minutes perk worthless.
Beautiful island. Well worthy of excursions. We engaged a local private tour and especially enjoyed the rural and coastal areas including a beautiful garden stop with plants and decor from Thailand and a stop at Brackley Beach dunes and waterfront.
Outstanding. We took the Captains Cook trail ship excursion by bus. Highlights were the stop at the St James Church for homemade treats and goods, the waterfront stop at Lark harbour, the fishing docks, and the views from Captains Cook statue overlook for a beautiful view of our ship and the extraordinary paper mill.
Apparently not the norm but we waited in lines weaving from deck to deck midship to aft, downstairs with carry on's and back to midship to finally depart
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