The cabin was fine and for the most part the food was ok, not exceptional. They ran out of steak and chicken by the fifth night so the people we dined with didn't eat a main course as there was nothing to their liking on the menu. The area captain was rude when they asked about having steak and said the maitre d' was too busy to talk to them. When they finally got to talk to the maitre d', he basically said, that's tough. He wouldn't go to the Pinnacle and get a steak for them. The buffet ran out of tuna fish and sliced turkey by about the fifth day.

We ate in the Pinnacle one night and it was terrific, worth every dime (sorry, I mean $20). Even the Pinnacle ran out of Porterhouse steak (one of their signature items) around mid-week. The Pinnacle has the same menu every night. We probably would have eaten there again if the menu had changed.

The ship is beautiful but I wouldn't rate it 5 stars. It might be 3.5 or so. This was our fourth HAL cruise and the service has really deteriorated, especially since they were taken over by Carnival. Many people joked that the line has been "Carnivalized." They now charge for everything. The classes in the gym are $11 each. Additionally, in order to use the spa's steam room (the only one on board) and the hydropool, there was a $25 per day fee. When we got on board, passengers had already pre-booked all massages for the sea days, and there was a 3-4 hour line at the spa for sign-ups before we even sailed. When we had to go to the lifevest drill, we simply lost our place in line. Read more