For first time cruisers, we were ecstatic (pun intended) as we drove in to the port. At first glance, we felt nothing but excitement about our cruise to the Bahamas. We both love to travel and have spent time all over the US and in Mexico. This was our first trip to the Bahamas. First thing worth noting: It was very difficult to find our way to our room. They refer to the different levels of the ship as "decks", "zones" or "floors" interchangeably. We were in a "U" room on deck "6" in zone "3". You can see how this would be confusing when trying to find where to go. Other than that, the first impression of the ship was good. It was clean, the staff were friendly, and we were too excited to notice anything else wrong. When we got to our room, we were pleased with the view. We were not pleased, however, with the smell of the bathroom. It smelled like an outhouse and that did not change throughout the entire cruise. The floor, although "clean" did not feel clean it all. In fact, the entire bathroom seemed gross. It felt like showering in a campground...like I needed flip flops on the whole time. The room was okay except that the bed was two twins pushed together--not very comfortable with a crack down the middle between the mattresses.

Now on to the actual cruise. I'm going to keep this somewhat brief. We are not big drinkers, so we had a hard time socializing on the ship because it seemed that just about everyone was three sheets to the wind all the time. People were drinking hard alcohol at breakfast. There were kids and teenagers running around throughout the entire ship with no supervision. At the buffet line, kids were reaching their hands in to the food without using spoons. People passed by the sanitary stations without cleaning their hands. Day two is when you started to hear people coughing, sneezing, sounding sick in general. We took plenty of vitamin C, drank lots of water, and washed our hands often.

At port, there was not enough time to truely enjoy the local culture. I do not recommend the Bahamas because it is SO expensive. We ended up spending more on shopping and food than we would have in the states. Read more