This was my first cruise and it was not horrible. I've read some real horror stories and feel fortunate none of those things happened to us. I was not impressed, however, with the experience. I'm low maintenance. I don't care about having towels folded into animals. I don't need to be besties with the bartender or wait staff.

Here's what bothered me about it. There were a ridiculous amount of people. The buffet was like a fight to the death for food. The bartenders were sometimes nice and sometimes rude. There were not enough bartenders. We did not have a drink package, as I absolutely refused to pay $1200 for drinks for 2 people. We do indulge at times, but are not huge drinkers anymore. The problem is there's not much else to do but go to the many bars and drink. So we're paying up to $13 a drink (beer and some other drinks are a little cheaper). They force you to pay 18% gratuity on top of that. They are using the absolute cheapest well liquors available and the drinks are not very strong. Too much mix of any kind means sugar overload or heartburn. I just wanted a few good, strong cocktails. By the end of it, I learned to order something they couldn't water down like a dirty martini. Enough about drinks.

I really felt like they nickel and dime you to death. The forced gratuity, the daily $13.95 charge per person, the "free" room service that cost $7.95 per person, etc. When the guy came to lock our mini fridge, he argued with us about what we had taken, which was one very pricey Red Bull. He looked around our cabin and questioned us about water my mother had given me, which she had purchased. He questioned us about a diet Pepsi that we got elsewhere on the ship. Really annoying. Read more