Embarkation: Arrived at the Black Falcon cruise terminal at 11:45 am, dropped our bags off with porter and entered the line to register. By the time we got our Sea Pass they were letting people on (noon). We were on ship by 12:20 and I headed to Minstrel dining room to check out our table for ten. We are traveling with four other couples all from the Boston area. All rooms were ready by 1:20pm.

The Ship: The ship is in great condition for being 12 years old. Both pools were salt water and deep (5’8”) compared to the newer ships. We were at the main 6 pm dining and our table was by a large window. Very nice. The Centrum is where a lot of the action took place on this cruise. It has a nice bar and set up for a band to play. There was always some type of music playing. The Casino did allow smoking but it wasn’t too bad. They now have a large screen in the outside pool area. Last time we were on ship it was in 2010 in Europe. They played movies at 4, 7 and 10pm on this screen. The Pacifica Theatre hasn’t got a bad seat. We were in room # 3614, and outside view that was plenty big for the week. The rooms in the area come with a constant hum from the engines. One couple was in room #3120 on the other side of ship and they did not have the hum. Another couple in room #4548 on our side of ship did not have the hum. Sign in room notified you that you must ask for ice. I asked the first day and the bucket was kept full for the entire trip. The Sea view Café is now called Izumi. It offers sushi and other Japanese food at an extra cost. Part of the Windjammer Cafe is called Rita’s Cantina where at some times it was offering Mexican food at an extra cost. Did notice that on first day, the menu had a lot of lobster dishes on it. We did not try it. We also did not try any of the specialty restaurants.

The Food: We ate in the main dining room every night and the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch. The service at the evening meals was excellent. The food was OK but not as good as Celebrity. We were on the Equinox last March. We did try the Main dining room for one breakfast but didn’t go back because it took too long to be served. The Solarium has the Park Café that offers Panini sandwiches, pizza, sweets, coffee, lemonade and ice tea. This is the only place that stays open late at night (2am). We did not try room service but our friends had all ten of us in their room for wine before dinner one night and their attendant made sure they had 10 wine glasses and ice buckets to hold the wine we had brought on board. Read more