First of all we loved leaving from Boston, since we only live 2 hours away. Not taking a plane gave us the leeway to bring along extra stuff - like games for kids and adults - for those quiet times on sea days. Getting on board in Boston was easy and quick. There was a line to wait in, but it moved quickly. Parking was pretty close and 17 dollars a day.

We had a cabin with a balcony - and it was a great cabin. It was quite roomy with a queen size bed and a sofa that opens up. There was a slide out screen between the two sleeping areas. Four (or five if you include as small child) would be quite comfortable in this cabin. The only warning is that the sofa bed is as hard as a rock and uncomfortable. The bathroom was spacious with a separate door to the toilet area and a tub with a sliding screen. One caveat was the cruise supplies body wash and shampoo - but no conditioner!! This was a big deal for my daughters, luckily we brought our own. Our party also had an inside cabin and a outside window cabin. These were adequate for 3, but 4 is too tight in these type of cabins. Bring one of those extension cords with multiple outlets as there was only one american type outlet in the cabin.

The food in general was excellent. There was a bit of a wait in the dinning rooms, but my interpretation was that the food was being individually prepared because it always came out hot and fresh. Once when we went at peak dinning time the wait for our food was very long and we got very frustrated and left for the buffet. One caveat, the quality of the steaks in the main dinning room was poor. They looked like supermaket quality steaks, not that you would receive in a restaurant. I'm sure in the pay extra steak restaurant their steaks are top quality. Freestyle dinning means you eat whenever you want, and so there are not a flood of people arriving all at once and this does give a more intimate flavor. The problem is that everyone wants to eat at the same time so that at 6 to 7:30 there can be long lines for the dinning rooms. Since we were a party of 12, we decided to eat early to avoid the waits. We only ate in one "extra price" restaurant, the italian one, and we were disappointed in the food. The food in the main dinning rooms was excellent, and we did not have a need to go elsewhere. Some of our party did go to "noodles" for asian noodles and suishi and that got great reviews. The buffet style garden cafe had a great variety of foods, and everyone found something they liked there. Some preferred it to the main dining rooms. We did have one vegan in our group and he found it difficult to eat in the main dinning rooms and he was much happier in the buffet area because there were more options, such as Indian vegetarian dishes. Kids also much preferred the buffet. I was pleasantly surprised how they had hand washing stations everywhere and how important hygiene was on the ship. Read more