The embarkation process on Nov. 4th was well organized, and ran smoothly. The entire process only took about 30 min. from the time we walked into the building. Once on board, we were able to go right to our cabins and drop off our carry ons. We met our cabin steward at that time, and only saw him maybe twice in the hallway the entire trip. This was very different from past cruises we've been on, where our cabin stewards were very attentive, and greeted us on at the very least a daily basis. Once we had dropped our belongings in our cabin, we made our way up to the Garden Cafe for lunch.

There was a wide variety of food in the Garden Cafe, and remained so throughout the cruise. The quality of food here was better than we have experienced on other cruises. This was the only ship that had decent coffee, and orange juice compared to previous cruises...a big plus for us!

I was a bit confused about the difference between Freestyle cruising compared to my time dining on other ships. My time dining from our experience was just being able to eat your meals anytime you like without reservations or assigned seating...Freestyle allowed that as well, but also offered a couple of different places to eat. The Summer Palace was the Pearls "formal" dining room, Indigo was a little less formal, and more like a regular restraunt, and then, the Blue Lagoon, which was open 24 hrs. All three places had the same menu, so I'm not sure why 3 different venues were needed. There were also several places you could dine for a surcharge. Read more