Just back from our first cruise to Alaska, first cruise with HAL and first cruise with "as you wish dining". We are in our mid 40's, middle class lifestyle and have sailed with Carnival and Royal Caribbean many times and travelled without our teenagers.
Embarkation: Wonderful! We arrived at 11:00am and were on the ship by 11:20am. Cabins were not ready til 1:00pm so off to the Lido we went for the buffet. I hate this part, it is so crowded, people sitting at tables but not eating, but we survived.
Cabin: We were in an SY cabin and it was fantastic. Plenty of drawer/closet space, walking room, etc. We loved the bathroom with 2 sinks, shower and tub and was probably my favorite feature of the cabin. Okay, maybe it was the balcony big enough for 4, or maybe it was the bed that slept like a dream....we loved it. Only 2 things to improve in our opinion: the tv is to the side of the bed making it hard for the person on the other side to view and I hate that so much of the window is blocked by a 'wall unit' type configuration. Not much to complain about at all..... Service: Worst we have ever had on any cruise. No point in trying be nice about this one. Rarely ever saw a smile, rarely ever did anyone speak to us before we spoke to them. Our cabin steward took care of our room at the minimum levels, never restocked the fridge even after asking, never replaced the breakfast card without being reminded and never ever spoke to us again unless we spoke to him. I know people beat up Carnival but seriously, their staff would go out of their way to be friendly and speak yet on HAL i found people felt bothered by even the slightest of conversation and this was true throughout the ship except for the blackjack dealers and the Lido staff.