We have cruised on most of the 'contemporary' cruise lines to many destinations. Our expectations were not too high for this cruise as we had read and heard much. However, we thought that it was reasonably priced and had a great itinerary so we'd give it a try.
Pros fairly well designed ship. pleasantly decorated ship. quick embarkation and disembarkation. good to excellent (Scott & Kevin) service in the main dining rooms, Palace and Crossings. main courses tasty and well prepared for the most part in Palace and Crossings restaurants. excellent souffles in Palace and Crossings restaurants. Broadway style dancers and singers were outstanding. Great itinerary and lots of time in ports. Breakfast and lunch and service in the dining rooms were reasonably good and we got to sit with and meet some very nice people.
Cons unacceptably stained linen and towels in stateroom. This plus bad response time resulted in us losing several hours sleep while we waited for bedding without semen and urine stains. Poor and/or inexperienced reception staff resulting in delayed or no response. Buffet food the same unexciting selection daily. Buffet service extremely bad or non-existent. Too many examples to list here. Buffet food selection very limited and often items would run out. A gratuities (service charge) system totally user unfriendly. Structured in such a way as to make obtaining a reduction for poor service difficult to impossible. Comment cards structured in such a way as to not allow for a true picture of a passenger's experience. For example, dining room and buffet service lumped together. Carpets not vacuumed in stateroom ever. In fact we did not see a vacuum cleaner anywhere. As many staff unfriendly as those who were friendly. Dining room menus contain a limited variety and often items listed were strange to us. No decks where you are able to sit on comfortable deck chairs in the open without looking through glass. Those open above on deck 12 were crowded with smokers on both sides. No soft or classical music that we could find. Much loud, two chord, same-beat music predominated public areas. Cruise director OK but would liked to have seen a true Hawaiian director with that wonderful warm Aloha spirit. The Aloha theme seems to end with the dEcor. More storage room in stateroom would have been appreciated.