This was a first cruise for my husband and I - my husband went under protest but at the end of it, I had a great time and he had a good time. I'd read a few reviews prior to boarding on Jan 28/07, most of them good but a couple not so much. Planning ahead, I decided we would spend a night in Long Beach the night before so any airline delays wouldn't affect us. Good plan as it made the day of embarkation quite relaxing. We were very impressed with how smoothly the embarkation process went. We arrived earlier than we were told and expected to wait until our allotted time of 1pm but were allowed on-board shortly after noon. Made our way to the Windjammer which had just opened. We found the food in the Windjammer pretty good but buffet style eating isn't really our thing so although we ate there mostly for breakfast and lunch, we didn't really have a lot to eat. Fruit/toast/juice/coffee for breakfast and salads for lunch with the odd dessert for a treat.
The Aquarius restaurant was great and we thought the food was good. The quantities seemed quite small but at the end of each meal we were both more than full. Wait staff were excellent and the head waiter made a point of learning as many of the passengers names as he could and would greet us accordingly each evening. With 2 sittings and a change of passengers every week, that was some feat! Our table companions were wonderful and we enjoyed there company. Supposed to be 10 of us but only 8 showed up each day.
Neither my husband or I gained a pound but we made a point of using the stairs instead of the elevators most of the time and went for 1 to 2 mile walks around the track on the top deck. Also didn't pig out in the buffet which seemed to be a popular thing to do!