I regret taking this cruise. It was terrible.

In the past, when I took a cruise there were fresh flowers, a bowl of fresh fruit, a fancy chocolate on my pillow before bed in my room; the stewards were often in the hallway working, calling me my name, offering to help open the door, help with packages, etc. In contrast, on this cruise I rarely saw the room steward, there were no flowers or chocolates or fruit bowl in the room, but that's not the worst of it. Those costs cut backs are probably a regrettable reality in today's economy as cruises fight to cut costs to compete for business.

What was much worse was the food and lack of free water to drink. Great food is an important part of any cruise, but on this one, it was hard to find anything edible and drinking water was not readily available so that no one got enough free tap water to drink. The buffets were filled with an abundance of sugar and fat laden processed foods and the dinner restaurant food and management was poor too. First of all, they herded the entire ship of over 2,600 people into ONE restaurant into three shifts. I was assigned the 7:45 p.m. dinner, and since this was three and four hours difference in time zones from where I live, it was like eating at midnight when my usual bedtime is 9:30 p.m. EST. I did finally get the time moved, but the food was lousy. Read more