I must say, I was quite disappointed with this cruise, after all the hype I heard about it. I travelled with my husband and 18 other people, including my 2 nieces (ages 3 years old and 6 months old), sister and brother-in-law, parents, 2 friends of my parents with their 14-year-old daughter and her friend, aunt, uncle and cousins (23 years old and 17 years old), and our 2 neighbors with their 2 children (ages 9 years old and 10 months old). So, we had a variety of ages in our group.

The ship itself was beautiful and not too difficult to get around. The artwork was nice and the ship was not overdone or too loud. The Venetian Dining Room was the most elegant looking restaurant we ate in, and the Pearly Kings Pub was the nicest looking bar in my opinion. Most of the food tasted good, but much of it was way too salty. In the Italian restaurant my mother had to send back the chicken parmigiana because it just tasted like salt. Salsas was a really good restaurant, as far as food goes. Service on this ship was another story...

The service was terrible everywhere we went, except for the room steward who was excellent. It took us about 3 hours each night to eat dinner, whether all 20 of us ate together or just a few of us (2 or 4) ate together at a time. The service was way too slow. Bar service was much quicker, but of course it was...we have to pay extra for it!!! At breakfast on the last morning, it took them 10-15 minutes just to give us menus after we sat down! And the table next to us, who sat down after us, had already gotten menus and ordered their breakfast at that time! We were told on the first day of the cruise (by the Maitre D') that you cannot reserve a table in the Venetian dining room, but you can only reserve in Aqua (another dining room). So we reserved for Aqua each night for 20 of us, and cancelled early in the day if we did not plan to eat altogether. The last night of the cruise, we decided to try out the Venetian (slightly different menu), so we got there at 5:30 when it opened to assure getting a table or even 2 or 3 tables to accommodate all of us. When we got to the Venetian, we were told that we should have made a reservation in advance! But we were told that we could not make reservations!!! Too much inconsistency on this ship. The crew should all get together and get their "facts" straight. Even in Salsa restaurant, where the food was great, the service was poor. It took 3 and a half hours for 6 of us to eat dinner. We arrived at 6:30 and got out of there at 10:00! Way too long for dinner. Read more