The ship was nice for it's age (10 years old) but time had left its mark on her. Most notably was the noise and vibration from the engines. I guess I have no one to blame but myself for not doing my homework beforehand. The cruise we scheduled was apparently the last cruise before the ship's scheduled dry dock date. Therefore the vibration and noise were about as bad as anyone would imagine. I can only hope that once the ship leaves dry dock on 1/20/2012 that all of those issues will be resolved. The cabins showed signs of age as well, dented lamp shades and weathered balconies were the norm.
The boarding process was horrible, taking several hours to board the ship. The workers seemed clueless as to the reason for the delays when approached. I could understand if the reason for the delays we security related, but the security station seemed to be the only smoothly run area. People were screened and processed in an organized and streamlined manner. Unfortunately the organization and streamlining ended there. Only after looking over the entire boarding procedure was it clear where their opportunities lie. The cruise line had set up what seemed like twenty agents to check in passengers and hand out room keys, yet they only had two or three working cameras set up for security photos.
Needless to say with that many agents handing out room keys and only three working (one being held together with tape) security cameras, a natural bottle neck situation was created causing long delays and frustration amongst the passengers lugging around their carry on luggage and (non-checkable)cases of water. The boarding took so long that many passengers hadn't even reached their cabins before the muster drill was broadcast over the speakers, It was a mess.
Noise and Vibration made it feel like you just placed a couple of quarters in a cheap motel vibrating bed. Although this was the last cruise before their scheduled dry dock so it might be better now.