Being our first ever cruise we were a little worried about travelling to ports with such a large group of people. The arrival at each port could not have been easier or any less complicated. It was once in port that I had my concerns and this was not the fault of HAL. I really struggle with the concept of seeing a new city in one day or in most cases 6 hours and barely scratching the surface. I guess that this is a fact of cruising and I am glad that I gave it a go, but I don't think it is the life for me.

The ship itself was great and the choices for food seemed endless. We are at all of the different restaurants and absolutely loved the Tamarind and the great service with a smile that they provided. As with many other reviews, we found the service in the MDR to be very inconsistent and the Pinnacle, for us, was not much better. As a result we ate in the Tamarind 3 nights and had the cruise continued would have tried to book it every night. The food in the Lido looked OK, but I do not enjoy lining up for my food and much preferred the table service offered in the other venues.

we made good use of the drink cards offered and found the bar service throughout the ship was great. Once we established our favourite bar tender we were guaranteed generous free pours for the rest of the cruise. the negative here was a few headaches the morning after!!! Read more