This was my first cruise. I booked this particular cruise because it was right out of Boston, where I live, and because I believe I got a good financial deal on it. Now that I know I like cruising, though, I would not take another cruise on this cruise ship. Not really sure if the cruise line is my thing either.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
horrendous, there were delays and confusion on my bag was given to the wrong ship and I spent a couple hours trying to get it back before I could finally get on to the right ship. not sure if this is a port thing or a cruise line thing.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Food quality less than acceptable. Perhaps due to increased costs everywhere, but the food was warm when it should be cold and cold when it should be warm, and overall quality of ingredients and cooking not good.
It honestly seemed like they weren't enough staff to service the fully sold out ship. As for the bars, the drink menus were all virtually the same. As for availability of food, variety of restaurants and bars- it was less than acceptable.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
No locker room for fitness center. No sauna, no steam room. While there was the solarium for adults with couple hot tubs, there was no roof.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Entertainment overall was pretty low quality except for the jazz quintet which played for 1 hour on two different nights. Better entertainment definitely needed
Children's Programs
0 kids
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
The staff was superior in all respects. The only obstacle appeared to be not enough staff for a fully sold out ship.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Just want to make it clear that the staff was amazing. They were always busy, cleaning things in public areas, so helpful. But, Ship was old, dirty and appeared poorly maintained. The layout was odd, and bars were used for multiple activities. It felt like there was not a quiet corner with a good view to find on this ship, except on couple outside deck areas. The ship needs more public areas with nice views of the ocean. And key to this is having furniture that actually faces the windows.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The furniture in this small room was too big and not multifunctional. The interior balcony screen rarely worked and rarely had a clear, sharp view of what was going on outside. The entire time the camera faced frontwards so it was pretty boring. The room was quite small, you could definitely make more of this space with better furniture placement and use. I'd rather have a coach than a gigantic desk. And the main reason I didn't bother booking and ocean view room. Is that the Ocean view rooms on this ship. Don't have furniture facing the windows. Would be great if they were bigger windows but don't open in your ocean view cabins.
Ship tip
unless you're taking this cruise because you got to bargain and it's your first time and you just want to see how cruising is, I would not book a cruise on this ship.
The city itself was gray and depressing. Being a New Englander, it reminded me of New England. My main peave is that all of the nature excursions were expensive and located far outside the city. So unless you can pony up a couple hundred dollars you're stuck with just the city of St. John.
This was another gray, depressing port visit. Again, without money to visit the far away excursions, you're left with a depressing little town with not much going on.
You have a lot of opinions for this being your first cruise. You should of done more research on the ship before booking. I have done 80 cruises and there was nothing I did not expect, except there was no omlette bar! The entertainment is hit or miss on this size of ship. There were enough staff.
I was on the ship the same cruise
We enjoyed this boat but it is a little old. We loved the food so maybe it your Canada/ New England stops was the problem. We were in Europe and it was great.
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