First of all, despite the problems, my wife and I enjoyed the cruise immensely. The ship, while smaller than any we had previously travelled on (Royal Caribbean and Princess), was nicely laid out, and reasonably well maintained. We chose this cruise because of the price, and the fact that we are a short commute from Boston.

The crew was as friendly and pleasant as any I had encountered, but I got the impression that they were, for the most part, not well trained (we'll get into that later). The food in the complimentary dining rooms was fair, but unmemorable. The Garden Cafe (the buffet) had the exact same menu for breakfast every day. We didn't go there most days for lunch and dinner, but these too, seemed to have mostly the same items each day.

Another reason for choosing this cruise was the chance to see an island for a few days, instead of the brief visits most cruises offer. Instead of booking excursions on the ship, we chose to buy ferry/bus passes, and explore on our own. By comparing the ship prices with what we paid, we estimate that we saved about $200, and were able to meet a number of the locals (who were all very nice people). And while we were warned that October is the rainy month in Bermuda, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the 80's, with only a couple of brief showers (much nicer than Florida). Read more