This was our first cruise. We chose this cruise and cruise line based on the itinerary. The embarkation was smooth. The staff was friendly and helpful. They were mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines. Some of the staff were difficult to understand but always smiling. We had a cabin with a balcony at the back of the boat which was really nice and we had enough room. There were extra blankets in the cabins and on some of the decks to use when it got cold out. The food was mediocre. We did not know ahead of time that the lido closed or had only 1 station open between 10:00 AM and 11:30 AM and again in the evening after 8ish. We learned to order room service for breakfast. We went to the Gala night but it really was not as spectacular as we were expecting. It was just me and my sister seated at our table the entire cruise and there were a lot of individuals that were not dressed up. In the future, I believe I would skip the Gala night. The entertainment was boring to us. It was geared towards an older crowd which we expected based on the type of cruise. We had the drink package which was nice. You could get up to 15 drinks per day. It would not pay to get this package if you did not drink a lot. It was included in our Explore 4 Package. We also didn't know the ship had happy hours. You could get 2 for 1 deals if paying out of pocket. We got a large bottle of water each evening before we went back to our cabin which was nice to have.

There were plenty of excursions to choose from at each port. We planned our own excursions and did not go through the cruise. We did not have any problems doing this and we save a bit of money making our own reservations. There was a ton of places to shop at each port.

Overall, we really enjoyed our first cruise.