I agree with much of what smajy said in his review. But I would add a few more comments. Our biggest disappointment was the lack of intellectual content to the "Enrichment Lectures." South America has a rich culture and history. We had many sea days where we could have learned about their history and culture. However, the "enrichment lectures," (and I use the lower case purposely) consisted of fluff: "The History of Rock and Roll," "Great T.V. Moments," "The '50s-The decade of Elvis, Hula Hoops, and 3-D Movies," and "Great T.V. Commercials." Even those that attempted to have some intellectual content, about the history of computers or the moon landing (most of us lived through those events) had nothing to do with South America. I spoke to people from the U.S., Australia, Canada, England, France, and Sweden, and all had the same complaint.

Our room air conditioner did not work right. When we got to the very hot temperature areas in the northwest of South America and Central America, the temperature in the room consistently measured 25 degrees C (that's 77 degrees F) when at the lowest position. We had the air-conditioning techs attempting to fix it for at least 3 or 4 days. They finally gave up. My husband, who was most uncomfortable, asked for a different room, but was told there were none. When he challenged that, telling them that we knew that there were people who had left the ship, they offered us an inside cabin on an upper deck. We declined and they finally offered us a "whopping" $170 for our discomfort.

Many of the public restrooms often had a toilet and/or a sink out of order. In the first part of the trip, when it was very cold, the temperature in the Princess Theatre was kept too cold for comfort. People were wearing outdoor winter clothing just to see the show. Someone suggested that they kept it that way to reduce the growth of bacteria and viruses. Judging by the amount of coughing and sneezing, it didn't work! Read more