Ship - The ship was comfortable and well-maintained, though showing its age in a few spots (the floor of my shower collapsed the second day into the voyage, but was repaired promptly). The layout is logical, though I tend to think they dedicate too much space to on-board shops. The overall design is of a giant shoebox so it won't win any awards for aesthetics. The ship is extremely top-heavy, meaning she rolls quite a bit even in calm seas.

Enrichment - The enrichment programs were mixed. The on-board naturalist was excellent and provided well-considered presentations that sparked interest. He was available throughout the cruise in various venues and was quite approachable. Fellow travelers thought highly of his abilities as well. The port and cultural expert was more interested in self-promotion and name-dropping than he was in offering useful or interesting information about the ports or cultures we would visit. His talks were disjointed, disorganized and frankly, worthless to me. He was available to sign copies of his book on a daily basis and sales were fairly brisk: perhaps other passengers found him fascinating. The Celebrity dimensions program (focusing on health, food or enrichment) seemed to be a waste of time.

Dining - This was perhaps the worst part of the voyage. The quality and selection of food on board, with the exception of the SS United States, was on par with what I can find at my local 24-hour diner. The food was inedible in many cases and the selection extremely limited, with theme and variation on standard staples. Most annoying to me was that items on the menu differed substantially from what was served: heirloom tomatoes (menu) were, in fact, tough, tasteless, commercial tomatoes appropriate for a Whopper; pork loin (menu) was a piece of ham; maple syrup (menu) was a packet of corn syrup which didn't even have maple flavouring. In the end I ate all my dinners at the SS United States ($30 a night out of pocket) and struggled to find something to eat at breakfast and lunch. In fairness, the food services manager, the maitre'd and the executive chef offered to make me anything I wanted so long as they had the ingredients on-board. This is what ended up happening when I visited the SS United States, where their maitre'd personally prepared my meals table-side each night. I give him the highest marks. I should also point out that the food problems were not the result of problems in the ship, but, apparently, the result of corporate decisions to cut costs. Read more