Bahamas in May

You have to plan ahead accordingly. Plan for extra traffic, print your tags at home, and navigate to the entrance while bypassing the people that are blocking it. The last two miles of actually arriving to the ship by car took an extra 25 minutes. Once I got there, I had to find a porter to drop my luggage off with tags already attached. There seemed to be less porters and less overall management this year compared to last year.. Last time I went, there was a station for printout of luggage tags, this time I didn't see it. Also , there were passengers who looked like they arrived too early and were outside of the processing center blocking the path to the entrance for the people that arrived on time for their correct time slot. Once you are inside, it's a smooth process. They ask for your passport, take your picture for the seapass card if you didnt already upload a picture at home, and then you pass through some security lines with carry on luggage.

Windjammer buffet was honestly the best place to enjoy dinner on the ship that was complimentary. There was different food stations catered to vegetarians, Indian, Americana, Caribbean, Dessert , Meat Carver. My favorite was definitely the Indian food this time around which was surprisingly good without the extra spicy hotness. My fave dishes for them was the Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, and the Curry Chicken all with Basmati rice. They had different food theme nights where they add something special. My favorite was the Lobster Tail night, where you get 2 tails at a time before you go to the back of the conga line to get more. I ate 6 total that night. There was also another night where they served Oxtail with Caribbean Rice and Beans. Delicious. The Main Dining room, I tried the first night I was there and it was not the best experience so I only did it once. I had reservations for 5:30 pm. Once I got there, there was 2 lines one for reservations and one for no reservations. The one for reservations it was line up backed up not exaggerating over at least over 100 people hugging the wall. The line for no reservations were shorter. Once you actually get a table, the chairs were nice but were cramped near another table, had to watch your back when you got up to make sure you don't hit the person behind you with your chair. I had appetizers of shrimp which was okay and buttered escargots which were yummy. My favorite main dining dish on my last cruise was the opposite for this one, the NY strip steak. Almost every bite was either fat or nerve that was indigestible at least for me. Then you had a guy telling everyone to pose a certain way so he can take your picture. While this may appease some people, I told him a firm "No." and waved him away. I came there to TRY to enjoy my meal in peace but that was impossible after waiting in line for 20 minutes, being cramped in the seating section, food being not up to par, and a cruise photographer trying to get people to buy their pictures while interrupting their meal. The specialty restaurants were pretty good. I tried Chops Grille restaurant twice, I ordered the Filet Mignon medium rare, it came out perfect. For the appetizer, I tried the Jumbo Shrimp which was very good. I got two orders of that. And for the dessert , I ordered the chocolate lava cake with side scoop of vanilla ice with some berries. It was perfect, I love the hot and cold effect of the lava cake hotness followed by a bite of ice cream. I also tried Jaimes Italian, for the appetizer, I ordered the crispy squid, it was so delicious I finished it in a minute. The waiter was nice enough to bring me another order without even asking. For the main entree, I got a burger and a side of Polenta Chips , those two dishes were okay. For the final restaurant, I tried Izumis. This is one place you will not leave hungry. I prepaid for this and it included for each person 1 appetizer, 2 large entrees, and 1 dessert. There was 3 of us so we shared what we ordered. For the appetizer, we got the Crispy Chicken Kara Age which was delicious, couldn't ask for a better appetizer. Also we got the Fire cracker spring roll and Pork Goyoza Dumping which were good but the Crispy Chicken was the best. For the entrees, I got the sushi Izumi Ryu Fotomaki Roll and a bowl of the Chicken Terayaki cuz that is what I always get when Im at the mall at a Japanese place so I wanted to try theirs. It was pretty good, I finished all the Chicken but didn't finish the rice on purpose because I still had the other entree of sushi that I really wanted to finish. It had lots of flavor, I enjoyed it. For dessert, I tried the Green Tea ice cream and it turned out to be pretty good, I'm not a green tea fan to begin with but for some reason I just kept taking a bite after bite till it was gone.

I really enjoyed the onboard activities that I attended. I had an injured foot just before the cruise set sail so my activities were limited but I was able to try one of the water slides that swish into bowl before you get flushed. It starts off very fast and slows down once you get to the bowl area. I also tried the The Ultimate Abyss slide which is a dry mat slide that takes you from deck 16 to deck 6 towards the boardwalk area of the ship. It was fast and had lights in the tunnel slides. I'm glad I was able to try it at least once. The pools were overcrowded and small I don't see how anyone could enjoy them, they looked like sardines in a can. I liked the Solarium, again the pool area were even smaller than the main pool decks but the jacuzis were less crowded there and even though there were signs that said no food or drinks in the Jacuzzi, almost everyone had a drink in their hand from the nearby bar. At one point event the waiter asked everyone if they wanted a drink from the bar, all you had to show was your sea-pass card and they bring it to you in the Jacuzzi. Other things that I didn't get a chance to try but wanted to was Ice Skating, Rock Climbing, and Zip Line.

I have to say the shows were great on this ship. I saw all of them. Hairspray I thought would be the best of them all because that was the only one that I was familiar with and it was funny to watch and with a drink in my hand, I couldn't be more entertained. Hiro is the water show on the ship and it was very entertaining , it was like a combo of Circus Du Soleil, Diving, and Aquatic Street Dancing with colorful tones of red black and white. Ice Skate 2.0 was one of the skating shows and it showed the dance ice skating moves as they dressed up in different interesting outfits, my favorite was Mica, she has a presence about her with her long legs able to stretch out with ease into the air. The songs and music in that show was really enjoyable so many different types of music from love to rock to dance, it was just a great combo. The second ice skate show was 1977, it was about I believe a person going through time to different parts of the world and taking a jewel in each scene. It was very different than any ice skating shows I've seen in the past. The choreography scenes that stick out in my memory was Queens Guard, it reminded a lot of the Nutcracker's toy soldiers except this was on ice skates. A very interesting scene was that of the Indian Hindu gods in blue skin, I don't know who they were exactly representing but it was very entertaining and they had this upbeat Indian tempo chant music in the background that made you want to dance.I wish I could have videotaped this show, I think it was my favorite one. There was also a comedian show, that was I guess good, I did laugh but felt some of the jokes were not that original and easily targeted the front row guests about their sex life. It was eghh for me, maybe a little too crude for my taste but my family liked it a lot and went back a second time.

no kids

Different restaurant waiters did mess up a couple of times with either giving the wrong dish to wrong person or completely messing the order with something that wasn't ordered. Room steward was great day one , made towel sculpture and left an itinerary for day 1 activities on the ship. Day 2 - Day 7, I don't know what happened but the service fell flat, I had to call House keeping to request conditioner, shampoo, and body lotion that were never added after speaking to the steward the first day. Shampoo and Condition arrived after the phone call but the body lotion never arrived. Instead, they gave me a small bottle of body wash that was already in the shower gel dispenser in the bathroom. I had to call to restock towels. TV remote went missing after the stewardess took it by accident and returned it an hour later after we arrived to the room.

This ship could have done a lot better with the main dining area, it was cramped seating, and terrible congestion entrance just to get in at your designated food time. Honestly, its not worth waiting almost 30 minutes in line for a reserved time slot when you can get what you want right away with no line at the buffet Windjammer.

Beds were very comfortable after removing the bottom mattress cover that kept coming off. Size was very descent and roomy considering it was meant for a handicap person to move around easily. Room was for the most part clean, I only had to strip the bed one time that had a pizza stain to get the sheets changed.

For some reason, they diverted the people that were taking their own luggage off the ship from gangway level 3 to level 5 with people that the reserved time slot. So the line was really long backing all the way back to middle of the ship near the customer service area. All said and done you were off the ship in about 25 minutes after your designated time slot to disembark. Once you get outside, that was another long line for people like myself that had to wait for their Uber or Lyft ride. What is normally a 5-10 minute way turned out to be another 35 minutes wait for the Uber. Some helpful hints, plan accordingly for Uber, I saw some huge families who ordered Uber and they all couldn't fit with their luggage. They had to order another Uber while half the family left with all the luggage and the rest of the fam took a second Uber 20 minutes later.