We took this identical cruise last year and liked it so much we wanted to do it again. The ship is showing some of its age. The most noticeable thing in our room was the handle on the safe door was cracked/broken, slightly more difficult to operate. we mentioned this to guest services before the ship left the dock, but it was not fixed ever during the trip. Also, dining room signs are confusing. Last year, deck 3 dining room was "Sound of Music". This year, that was on deck 5, while deck 3 is "Rhapsody in Blue", but elevator placards still show the old name/deck arrangement.

We'd ordered a romance package that was supposed to include a bottle of champagne delivered before sail-away. When we were well away from the dock, a call to guest services revealed that Texas laws meant that the champagne could not be delivered until we were in international waters. Now that RC allows wine to be brought on board, if you are inclined to order a romance package I recommend ordering one without champagne, bring your own and have the cabin steward bring the ice bucket as soon as you get to the room.

Cabin steward was very attentive. After we first met, he made a point to call us by name whenever we passed in the hallway. But while the care of the room was very good, there were a couple of irritations. First, it seemed like there were almost always cleaning supplies in the hallway. It was rare for us to be in the hallway and not see laundry bags, vacuum cleaners, and carts (multiple of each). Also, several times the steward asked us "How is my service? Is it excellent?" This happened often enough to become annoying.Food was hit-or-miss. The breakfast that we got as part of our romance package was excellent, most of the other breakfasts we had were pretty good, but we had one room service breakfast with scrambled eggs and hash browns that was blander than bland -- my wife said that she'd had better hospital food. The lunches in the windjammer were OK, in fact pretty good for mass-produced food. There was only one really silly thing -- in the desserts on a couple of days were things labeled as creme brulee, but there was never any hint of brulee -- it was just custard with a fancy name. The evening meals got better as the week went on, but the first couple of nights the food was not very good. We had the late seating, and our recollection was that the food we had at the first seating on last year's cruise was much better. Read more