We flew Jet Blue from Portland, OR to New York, overnight. Their leg room and service is great, but the seats only go back about 2 inches, so we couldn't sleep a wink. We decided to forego any New York City sights this trip so we could focus only on the cruise.

We had a fabulous time, and we would rate the ship a very strong 4+, but not a 5. Despite the fact that this critique seems negative, we really did enjoy ourselves immensely. Perhaps we are mistaken, but to us, 4+ means very good, with occasional excellence. A 5 means consistent excellence in all categories. A 6 means consistently exceptional, offering surprisingly outstanding food, service and amenities. Based on this ship being advertised as a 5, here is our critique.

Food: Even though the presentation was always beautiful, the food was excellent on occasion, very good some of the time, and very often bland or weird (this, coming from two women who love exotic and different foods). Also, little things that count big were missing. For example, this was a supposedly 5 star Caribbean cruise; yet we could not get any papaya or mango the whole trip. We came home to Portland, Oregon, and went out to buy papaya to relieve our disappointment at not being able to order it in with our coffee each morning as we are used to doing when we take a Caribbean cruise. This may not seem big, but to us, it created a daily hole in our expected vacation pleasure! When we inquired about it (we're not the kind of people who stay silent!), we were told they would have it after San Juan. That was our last stop! And even then, they didn't have any. They kept sending us a melon plate instead, with very low quality, tasteless melons. This is not 5 star. Continuing with 5 star expectations, there were 3 formal nights. When we sail on Norwegian, we are offered prime rib, delicious escargot, and other high end foods on each formal night. On the Noordam, the only night they offered escargot was the last formal night. Even their $30 fancy restaurant didn't offer it at all on any night. These are little things that seasoned cruisers expect in even 4 star ships. Now for at least a couple real positives: the omelet bar was 5 star, the pasta bar 4, the Lido Restaurant consistently 4+ star any time of day. The servers there got to know our names, where we liked to sit, what we needed in the way of water and coffee, etc., and this was not the sit down restaurant, but the cafe. The deserts were consistently 4+. Better than any other ship, 3+ to 5+ that we've been on. Read more