This was my first "real" cruise on any ship; while the Elation is a bit older & smaller thank most ships my wife and I had a wonderful time…..was the food 5 star quality, no, was the entertainment 5 star, no….the food was good nothing fancy but good (almost cracker barrel quality)….I bright some seasoning (tony's/slap ya mama) to add to it…….the wait staff we had (Darlene, Abdul, Tata) worked their tails off to make sure that we had everything that we wanted & were beyond friendly…..these people often work 20 hour shifts & they always had a smile on their faces and a greeting for us BY NAME. The servers in the Gatsby Bar Elena & Jada (hope i spelled it correctly one was from the Ukraine and the other from India) remembered us by name as well as what we were drinking. The rooms were an ample size (we stayed on the main deck room 207) Komang (our room stewart) was there at our beckon call……they weren't huge but we weren't going to hang in the room all day anyway. I suggest you bring a power strip, some clorox wipes, & fabreeze……the rooms can get musty but i'd give them a 4 out of 5…..I don't understand how someone can't enjoy themselves when they have all the pizza & ice cream you can eat….24 -7…..in the end the cruise wasn't about how good the food was or how big the rooms were it was about the people we were with and we were determined to have a good time & DID…….one thing for sure, bring patience as areas can get crowded…..the lines move pretty quickly. The loading procedure was a little slow but it did seem that everyone arrived at the same time but the lines moved quickly& orderly…the debarkation was quick and painless….we opted to have our luggage brought down for us which takes a little longer but not tedious…we docked at approx 5:30/6, ate breakfast and were off the boat with our luggage by 9:30…again just be patient & just enjoy yourselves…..