Check in was an absolute breeze (in 3 minutes max), although it must be disconcerting to anyone who has never sailed before to step out of a cab and be greeted by over-sized, gap-toothed bag jockeys hollering at you to give up your luggage. Not that this is different with any other cruise line. Although we arrived quite early (just before noon), we were invited to have lunch in the buffet restaurant on the 14th deck.

That restaurant was better laid out than any of the ships I've been on, featuring 3 sets of food stations and a lot of space among each service module. Also there was never a shortage of seating, and the food never ran out, even temporarily (as I have experienced on Carnival). We only ate at the buffet for breakfast and the occasional lunch, but never for dinner. Variety was good for those meals, but the general content never changed....you always had bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausages, smoked salmon, English breakfast, Asian breakfast, etc. etc. There were three lines for freshly made omelettes/eggs, and you never had to wait more than a minute to be served.

One of the "same olds" was the endless pursuit of drink sales on open decks, although like on RCCL, the staff wasn't relentless - after you said 'no' three times they tended to leave you alone. Drinks were mixed strongly, and they always had interesting cocktails of the day, many with ingredients and combinations I'd never seen (or tasted) before. Read more