This was our 5th HA cruise. We've been on the Niuew Amsterdam, Eurodam, and Volendam in the past. We've also cruised with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. We're a younger family (by HA standards), around 40 with two young kiddos. We travel with my sister's family, aunt/partner and my 91 year old Gma. What does this all mean? We have a unique and varied perspective about the ship. In general you can tell HA is making changes with this new class, hopefully based on customer input and shifts in the travel industry.

First off, the ship is gorgeous. There is unique artwork all over. The venues are much more modern than on other ships (Lincoln Center Stage, Billboard, World Stage, dining areas). The new Lido deck movie screen is great. That said, we weren't super thrilled with the choices and times. It would be easy for them to run it during the day, but they don't at all other than early morning some BBC Earth. But we would much prefer it to the movie theatre on older ships. We were kind of surprised by the lack of holiday items decorating the ship, either Christmas or Hanukah. Maybe the minimalist nature has truly taken over. Would also love to see some more music piped in and playing during the day or bands/DJ on the lido deck. Nothing loud, but something to boost the festive nature of cruising. And moreso than normal, there was a ton of opening/closing the roof. Too much too. And when it's closed it gets stuffy in there, would be nice on these new ships if HA invested in some fans or something to circulate the air when closed.

The food has really been kicked up a notch. This was the best food we've had on an HA ship. The dining room food was all well prepared. The Lido added a welcomed custom salad bar. Tamarind, the one additional restaurant we ate in was amazing, food and service. We really enjoyed the pizza/bagel/deli for snacks. Our only complaints on food - the menu in the MDR is seemed smaller. There is no mid-afternoon free ice cream, instead you have to buy gelato (which is reasonable at $2 and delicious mind you). There was no late night chocolate buffet. And the Lido buffet was a zoo on the San Juan port day (but that was more a result of scheduling I guess). Service was high quality, though you can tell that the servers are handling more tables now as it was not the previous super attentive service we've had. Read more