The food and staff were great. There were a lot of sea days given that it was a 14 day cruise. I would have preferred stopping at more ports instead of having so many sea days.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
It was the worst experience of 30+ years of cruising. It was rainy, cold, and windy and we got wet trying to get to the cruise ship. It was very disorganized.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food was good and had a good variety. The only thing bad was the coffee. It was terrible. It was really weak and always left a very bitter aftertaste. We tried the specialty restaurants of Cagney's Steak House, Ocean Blue, and Teppanyki. They were all good since they were part of our package. However, if we had to pay for them separately, it would be about $200 for 2 people per restaurant and it was not worth that amount of money.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
We used the jogging track, library, pool, and hot tubs. The library was way too small and would frequently be filled with people. The pool area was good but it was very difficult to get a spot because many people would go there very early and leave their towels on the chairs and then wouldn't come back until several hours later. So all the chairs were taken but no one was in them for a while. So it was difficult to get a spot.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
It was a 14 day cruise and there were only two main shows: Footloose and Elements which were very good. The other shows were not that great. Also we had to make reservations for both of these and were not able to. We ended up in standing room only.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Ship's staff was always very respectful and helpful. But it seems that there was a shortage of room stewards.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The ship was easy to get around in and was kept clean on the outside and all the common areas.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The room size was good. However, it seems that the there were not enough stewards for cleaning the rooms. Our room was always cleaned late and sometimes things were not replenished when they ran out, like kleenexes. Sometimes not all the garbage cans were emptied. All the room stewards seemed to have a lot of cabins to clean and there was a shortage of staff for that. The balcony did not have a light so it was difficult to read in the evenings.
Ship tip
Do not sail out of the Los Angeles port. It was extremely disorganized during the embarkation. It was a horrible start to a vacation.
We visited a coffee plantation and it was so interesting in how they made the coffee. As part of the excursion, they served us coffee from their plantation and homemade biscuits. It was very good. We bought a lot of coffee because it was so good. The tour guide was excellent and the ride through Guatemala was nice. The only negative was when I bought some chocolate by the port from one of the vendors. It ended up being very bad chocolate.
There wasn't much to see during the actual transit. Although, being in the locks and seeing how they worked with the ship being raised up 85 feet was very interesting. There was someone from Panama City on board who was explaining how the locks worked and would explain what we were seeing along the way. He was very informative.
We took a tour to an old fort which was very interesting. The view from the top was very good in that we could see all of Cartegena city and how it was surrounded by the water. It was a beautiful view. The tour guide was good in explaining about the fort. The last part of the excursion we were taken to the old part of the city and left to wander on our own for a while. It was interesting and we found a really good Gelato place that had awesome Italian gelato. We also had great coffee at one of the restaurants. The only negative was that were weren't a lot of shops in which to purchase any local items. There also were not a lot of restaurants or cafes in which to get a bite to eat.
We took an excursion that took us around Grand Cayman. Our tour guide Jedd was wonderful and very knowledgeable. The scenery was beautiful with the beaches and ocean and it was great to get away from all the people in the "touristy" areas. Part of the excursion included a lunch at a local restaurant. We had fried grouper which was very good.
There were a lot of long lines having to stand and wait. It took us 3 hours to disembark waiting in a lot of long lines. They were only letting in a few people at a time at customs. It was very disorganized at the port and at customs. There didn't appear to be a lot of customs agents and it was an extremely slow process. There were several ships that were getting off so they should have been better prepared for the amount of people.
Appreciate your feedback. At least you learned that you prefer a more balance of port and sea days. Therefore won’t book one with so many sea days. My DH is the same way, which is why I will probably never get to do a Transatlantic sailing.
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