I'll start with who we are, a family of 3 with our 8 yr old daughter. We were also traveling with 2 other couples.

Embarkation: We got to the pier at about 11:30am. We were told the ship got in late and we would be boarding later than usual. The porters took our luggage quickly and we got inside where there was a huge line that moved fairly quickly leading to where you check in. All 3couples had to split up to check in because the lines separate check in by cabin type. We were given numbers to board the ship, which was fine but I found it odd that the couple in the outside cabin got number 15, the balcony couple got 28 and we on the inside got #32 even though we were the only Latitudes members in the group. We all came together, so in my opinion we all should have gotten the same number. All in all we still were all on the ship by 1:00. We were able to find our way to our room and drop off our jackets & bags we carried on without a problem. We then headed to the buffet..1st mistake..Because of the late embarkation, EVERYONE was there. The staff was overwhelmed. The place was PACKED! I got a table for the 3 of us, catching someone as they were leaving and pushed their dishes into the 4th seat just to get the table, expecting someone to show up at some point to take away the dishes (no one showed). While I was waiting for DW & DD to come back from the buffet, some couple tried to dump dishes off their table onto mine!! WHILE I WAS SITTING THERE and without even asking!! I had to say EXCUSE ME am I invisible?? They said oh, you have people coming back? I said yes and they took the dishes back with them. I'm originally from NY but I can definitely see where someone could say people from NY are rude. Looking back I'll take some blame for not taking 1 look at the chaos and finding my way to the Grand Pacific or Magenta instead (which I found out later that they were open). However, I will throw some blame at the ship for not letting it be known that they were open.

Ship/Crew/Activities: I'll start with the ship, in a word beautiful. The public areas are very nice, clean, easy to find where you want to go. Some areas are crowded and some deserted, depending on where you wanted to be. For example Bliss was usually empty & the central atrium was usually full. The theatre & lounge areas held a decent amount of people. The sailing was a sold out cruise but I don't think too many people missed out if they wanted to do something or see a show. Which leads me into.. Read more