We had read several negative reviews of this ship, we had a wonderful experience! Yes, some of the soft goods were a little worn (i.e. scratched leather furniture) but the elegance of the ship more than compensated for wear and tear. We had originally booked a Signature Suite but were offered an upgrade at a a reduced price to the Neptune Suite. Since I will be retiring soon, we decided to treat ourselves to this concierge level suite with it's own lounge. We couldn't have been more pleased! Our two concierges (Arvee and Michael) went out of their way to help in any way they could. They arranged shore excursions, priority dining reservations, priority tendering, replaced a non-working room key and printed our boarding passes and arranged a direct luggage transfer from our cabin to the PreTSA checked security line and the airport which we did; however, the boarding passes that HAL printed out did not scan (this happened to everyone on HAL), so we had to go to the regular line and then get new boarding passes at the gate. Not sure why the scanning process failed, but apparently this was a common problem.

The lounge was open until 8:30pm and always had food and beverages available as well as a computor and TV. The ship was very clean and the service was excellent.

The Lido buffet had some unique foods and overall was better than any of the other 20 cruises we have been on. Lots of lamb dishes, which I really liked and you don't find a lot on other ships. Both the Pinnacle and Canaletto dining experiences were wonderful. We had received free dinners at both with our package and would gladly have paid the charges if we had had to. Especially was concerned about Canaletto as it it had received negative reviews, but other than it is tucked away in an corner of the Lido area, the food and service were exceptional. Read more