Yes, I read the reviews before our cruise but thought maybe we would not be as irritated by the issues we read, so off we go on a 7 day cruise from hell.

After a 1.5 hour ride to the pier from LaGuardia we waited in line for over 2 hours to be processed onto the ship only to be told our room keys were lost and we would have to wait while they made new ones. They stated they were very busy but would try their best. Like we could not see the hundreds of people waiting in line for processing and the other thousand trying to board. After about an additional hour and a lot of griping and blood pressure rising we finally received our sea pass cards. Then on to the ship! The atrium was beautiful as we entered and we proceeded to the 6 elevators (no stairs) that were to take us to our room on the Dolphin #9 deck. We waited for 30 more minutes to get an elevator. Finally we arrived to find the smallest balcony room we have ever had. The bath was so small you could not turn around without stepping back into the shower. The arrangement of the toilette left little room to dry after a shower, however the shower stall itself was a bit larger than most. As for the room we could not pass each other at any point. It was clean and the bed comfortable, but allowed only one person at a time in any space. The balcony was hardly large enough to walk onto without fear of falling overboard. The table and chairs were miniscule in size.

The shows were wonderful-probably the best on any ship we have been on. The theatre is smaller than most however they did have 3 shows per night which allowed everyone to see them. The food in the main dining room was very good, however, the selection was very limited. It was fine though as they do have a menu that stays the same all week that has a nice variety of pasta, steak, and chicken dishes. We ate off of that menu 3 of the 7 nights. The Horizon Buffet was not up to par. Service was awful. We barely got offered any drinks and no refills which would have been fine if there had been a self serve counter readily available which there was not. The food was the usual tasteless buffet fare. It is arranged so you have to go into different rooms for the courses. It felt very closed in and crowded. As for the casino which is one of our favorite things to do while cruising-it was tighter than I have ever seen. For 7 nights we didn't win one penny. We might have gotten lucky a couple of pulls and won about $30 which was quickly taken back. It is the first of 15 cruises where we didn't come home with some of the money geared for the casino. Read more