We boarded in Barcelona on a Transatlantic to Brazil. To start applying for the Brazilian Visa was a big hassle which took over 3 weeks to finalize. Boarding process was not too bad but there were a lot of confusion at the beginning. Once on-board, the ship is showing its age but appears clean and staff is friendly.

Our Jr. Suite was quite spacious but the TV was very small and dated. Our room attendant was very good but he never smiles. Our room was kept clean and all request was met promptly.

The Dinning room is not up to par with other cruises. On the first day we waited for 20 minutes after being seated before we were finally handed a menu. No one came to introduce themselves or take our order until we flagged someone down. The food was always only lukewarm and quite tasteless and on one occasion was cold in the center. When we requested to have hot food and not just warm, the next day our plates were hot to touch but the food was still lukewarm. There seems to be a language problem between our waiters and the kitchen staff. Apparently, there were many complaints that our Waiter and Assistant did not speak Brazilian or Portuguese. A couple of his tables seldom came to the dinning room. There were many inexperience staff who apparently just joined the cruise ship and was still being trained each day. Some of the dining room staff told us that this is the first time on the cruise ship but they were restaurant workers in Brazil. We were told that the Brazilian Government requires the cruise line to hired at least 80 % Brazilian workers but it feels like there were at least 85-90%. If you did not speak Portuguese, some of the Portuguese speaking passenger did not want to speak to you. At one time our friends requested to be seated with a Portuguese speaking table for lunch and when she sat down to say her greetings in English all 8 people just stopped talking and not a word was spoken or attempted to communicate with her and her husband during the whole meal. Read more