Ship: in decent shape, though there are small niggling details which indicate that a major drydock is in the near future - small streaks of rust on the hull, wear and tear in the common room carpeting. Still a gracious and elegant ship, with well appointed rooms and lovely decorations. The shops are small and, by necessity, lacking in selections in some areas. Wished the Casino was fully enclosed to keep cigarette smoke from wafting into the other areas of the deck.

Cabin: 302 - lower promenade cabin - far forward, port side; a complimentary upgrade from our guarantee interior cabin. Noticeably more susceptible to the movement of the ship and the vibrations of the engines - movement was evident even up into the showroom above us. Not the stateroom for those who want a very quiet place to rest - while the shows are over by 10 pm, sound from rehearsals in the day bleeds into the cabin. However, it is well placed between other public areas and port embarkation points. As our last trip on HAL was the Westerdam, we missed the mini-fridge and interactive TV system that the latter had. As our last sailing was on Royal Caribbean, missed the firmer beds - by mid-week, DH was sleeping on the floor to spare his back. We wondered if it was because the beds may be nearing upgrades or just the new "SOE" initiative.

Sailing: we came into a Noro outbreak which delayed embarkation until 2:00 pm, and the first three days there was no self-serve food service at all. Frankly, we preferred it - though it did make for much more work for the entire crew (often, we would see casino staff in the Lido helping to serve on the line) and left some passengers entirely too cranky when food was not dished up as quickly as they deemed necessary. We felt for the staff. It also meant no whirlpools until mid-cruise - a small, but understandable, inconvenience. Read more