We thought we would spend some extra money and book a highly rated cruise line with great service and food and amenities. Our expectations were shattered with this cruise! In a nutshell, this cruise line is too darn expensive for what we received!!

First, there was the scare of the norovirus. On the previous cruise, the ship did have the norovirus and came in 2 days early in order to take measures to rid the ship of it. We felt there was hardly any communication from our ship as to what we would see or endure as to getting rid of this potential virus. We saw the crew literally putting on the walls, elevator doors, tables, chairs, hand rails, etc.(everything a passenger or crew member would touch) this liquid that was dripping wet . . .running down the walls. Everything was sticky due to the liquid, the chairs especially. The liquid left a chalky film- made me nauseous looking at all of this. We "heard" our ship had 72 hours to get an all clear or probably the ship would have had to return to Miami. And if you read the reviews from previous years, this ship has had the virus before. We have taken about 17 cruises before this one, and we have never experienced this all out war on the virus.

We usually are not negative about a trip or cruise . . .we are easy to please. But this ship was not a good fit for us. (1) This cruise is expensive so it therefore caters to the retired and people who are wealthy . . .we like a smattering of ages and incomes. (2) We were expecting such great food and we would rate it 65-75% depending on which restaurant we were in. (3) The service was for the most part just ok. We heard some of the experienced staff had to get off the ship due to being sick, so inexperienced staff took their place. They were overwhelmed with the cleaning procedures and overworked (our cabin steward and helper had 25 cabins to clean!). (4) For a ship this size, the tendering was slow . . .the bigger ships do a better job. (5) The boutiques onboard are too high end - thank goodness we had ship board credit so we spent part of it on a jacket. (6) We never met the Captain of the ship- maybe because we were first time cruisers with Oceania. Read more