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We enjoyed our cruise a lot. Met some very friendly people. Hardly anybody was rude or pushy until near the end of the 12 days. Our stateroom was as expected and the attendant was terrific. We always came back to a clean cabin with plenty of fresh ice as requested.
Many of our fellow travelers neglected to request early dining and so they were put on a waiting list. The dining room was so full at early seating that, at a table for 10, we barely spoke to the 2 couples at the other end. The noise was such that one had to yell to the person next to him. This was because of the sheer volume of people trying to speak at a normal level. On day 2 service was terrible. The Captain's table was opened for an additional 20 guests and our waitstaff was overburdened. Even the head waiter was serving. We couldn't fault the servers, though. You could see that they were working hard and all pitching in to help. After that one night service was smooth. All of the dining room staff was efficient and courteous.We heard that the late dining was only about 1/2 full, but 8:30 was too late for us to be starting dinner.
The food was good and, as long as you could order as much as you wanted, plentiful. Chops had the best food on board, as it should for an additional $30/person.
Early dining was at 6PM and late at 8:30. The theater times were 8:45 and 10:30. If we went straight to the theater after early dining we had to wait at least 1 hour before the show started. I nearly fell asleep waiting. If you waited until later to go to the theater there were no seats left. We saw one early and one late show only.
The islands were, of course, beautiful. Even when there was rain we were happy to be there.
The worst part of the entire holiday came at the very end. After disembarkation we were to take a shuttle bus back to our hotel to get our car. We were in the parking lot with our luggage around 10:00. The shuttle wasn't allowed to come to us so we had to move all of our stuff across the parking lot. The shuttle finally arrived at 11ish. Surprisingly there was no room in the van for us. We were told by one of her traveling companions that a cruise critics friend, had encouraged some airport bound friends of hers to take our shuttle. We were displaced by people who were not even going to our hotel! We had to wait an extra hour standing in the parking lot surrounded by our luggage before another van could be dispatched to pick us up. We didn't get on the road until after noon. Finally got home about 8:30 that night.
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