We have just returned from a 14 day cruise from Santiago up to Fort Lauderdale via the Panama Canal which, at the time of booking, was portrayed as a cruise of a lifetime. Having cruised many times before, 19 in total, this cruise was one of the poorest. The travel arrangements from London to Santiago and our return from Miami to Heathrow were shambolic!Iberia airlines are NOT well organised!
The ship is clearly in need of a facelift and the senior crew members need to revise their attitudes to passengers. There is too much emphasis on self-importance and a general lack of passenger liaison. The general crew on the other hand were excellent and made the cruise more enjoyable. The food was repetitive and generally poorly presented. We chose select dining and received excellent service at table. However it was evident that the availability of tables was a problem and the space allocated to select dining was insufficient to meet the demand. Shore excursions were expensive and over-rated!
We cruised the East Coast of South America including the Antarctic two years ago with another cruise company and that was a trip of a lifetime!! So my advice to would be cruisers is to look at other cruise ships which are clearly more passenger orientated and not as revenue motivated.
