We all loved the ship. Now that I have been on an oasis class ship, I'm not sure how I will go back to a regular sized ship.
I enjoyed sailing out of NYC. I would consider other destinations from there, like Bermuda. Beside Perfect Day at Coco Cay, I would skip the other ports,
Embarkation
5 out of 5
That was smooth and quick!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We had one complimentary specialty dinner and chose the Chops Grille. It was in Central Park which was lovely. I would have spent more time there without kids. The restaurant was very good with excellent service. Best steak I have had in awhile.
There was a mix-up with our dining. We all had chosen My Time but only one of six of us had it entered on our SeaPass. To smooth it over, the maitre'D offered the 8PM seating on deck 4, which we agreed to. So, we had the same waitstaff and they were lovely. They were very attentive and remembered our foibles each night.
The food was very good most nights. I was not too impressed with the lasagna, though.
We were sent to the Solarium Bistro one night ( different dining mix-up), and we were not impressed with that. We would not go back to there.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Pools and hot tubs were fine. We had one child so could not go in the adults only solarium. The slides were good but my daughter was one inch too short to ride the "toilet bowl" slide. Apparently, it's 52 inches. Beware. The kids did try the rock wall once, minigolf, laser tag (all of us) and ping pong. We missed the sign up for ice skating and it was too cold for the flowrider on the last day. My daughter loved playing soccer one evening, too. The kids thought that there were plenty of things to do. It was tiring having to make reservations for some of the activities like ice skating and laser tag.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I think that we loved all the shows. Cats was well done but a little slow for my 9 year old. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat would be a better option, if they did that! The Aqua80 show was our final night' show and was amazing. I would see that again. Very talented and innovative show!
Children's Programs
2 out of 5
Our 9 year old and 16 year old visited the club to sign them up. They never wanted to go and we did not make them. Basically, it looked like windowless rooms with screens. They could watch TV or play video games. I had hoped that they would function more like a camp with activities around the ship like playing dodgeball, pickleball, pingpong, etc. I would have paid more for that type of service.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Once, a maitre'd gave us a negative brush-off when we had stayed in line for My Time Dining without a reservation. We had used that service the night before and was seated there without any problem. This time, however, they were busier and he would not accommodate us. My friend wouldn't take no for an answer, so he sent us to the Solarium Bistro. It was an expedient resolution albeit not a very great dining experience for us there.
When we stayed at the set dining room, our staff were wonderful.
Sonny was our room steward. He did fine with us. My daughter was thrilled with the towel animals that he made.
It is impressive how our regular staff remembered our names without a glitch. They have such a quick turnover of guests and work so hard to make each of us feel welcome.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
This was my seventh cruise. I understood the layout of this ship better than any of the previous. It was very clean and well-maintained. Due to our kids, we were mainly on deck 15 for the sports and pools. Everyone works very hard to keep the areas clean.
I was impressed by one worker cleaning the baseboards on one of the decks. What an endless job. I wish that i could have hired him for my own house!
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We had two adults and a 9 year old child. I traveled with my adult brother so we had to have the bed separated. I also needed an outlet for my cpap. That outlet was hard to reach on the floor behind the head of the bed. It was very tight walking around our cabin when the couch was extended for a bed. I had to throw my duffel bag on the balcony for storage. I would hesitate to put three in a cabin again.
I did like the shower head; it was a handheld with great water pressure. There's not much space in the shower to bend over.
Ship tip
Be prepared to make reservations in the APP! Even with My Time Dining, they want you to reserve a time ! That was new for me and it negates the whole theory of MyTime. Also, you have to reserve shows, skating, laser tag. Oh! They don't give you a printed day's intinerary (Cruise Compass) anymore. It's all in the APP. If you aren't tech-savvy, it might be annoying to you as it was for two of our party.
We drove to the port a day before the sailing and stayed on the NJ side. We booked our own tour of Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. It was a good choice. We were a 15 min . drive to the port. My cruisemates had an additional day to tour NYC themselves and loved it. They took an Uber to go there and back.
Originally, I was excited to go there to see the space center. Then, I learned that the space center closed at 5PM. We disembarked at 1:30PM and that is not enough time to see the space center. Instead, some of us went to Cocoa Beach and that was fun, but not the most picturesque beach. My brother's excursion to Daytona 500 Speedway got cancelled without any reason. He was very disappointed and stayed on the ship. Another friend went to the Icon Park in Orlando. She thought that was a waste of time.
This port could be eliminated unless they docked early in the morning until late at night. Otherwise, there's no time to go to Disneyworld or other Orlando sites or the space center.
My favorite port was here. Easily, they could cancel the above port and tack on an overnight stay at Perfect Day. It rained twice while we were there and it was still fun.
We paid extra for the Thrill park. Next time, I would skip it and play at the other parts. The waterpark was fun but my daughter only wanted to play at the wavepool. I forced her to go on three slides only before capitulating to her desires.
This was my third trip to Nassau. We went to the Blue Lagoon Island and did the Stingray encounter. That was interesting and I got good pictures of my own. It rained so it's hard to not let that cloud my review! It's good enough if you haven't been there before, but it's very touristy. Most of it appears developed versus authentic.
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