It was a good cruise. The staff were noticeably friendlier than when we were on the Star last December. Almost everyone was smiling and seemed happy to be there. It made for a nice atmosphere.

We just had a few concerns that kept it from being great. One is that the service in the MDRs, while friendly, was sometimes slow and inattentive. (Our comparison here isn't to the high-end lines - it's to Carnival.) The Freestyle cruising just doesn't have the same incentives for the waiters to go that extra mile, plus we often eat late when they're preoccupied with setting up the tables for the next meal. As an example, we were rarely offered a condiment - we invariably had to ask for ketchup, sour cream, etc. Most of the food was good, with a few exceptions. This wasn't the case in O'Sheehans (the 24-hour pub) - the food and service there were always excellent.

The only other restaurants we ate in were the Orchid Garden, which was good, and the buffet, which was actually quite good most of the time (the pizza was a notable exception there). Nice to have both free ice cream and soft ice cream. Read more