I was very excited to go on this cruise. We had been on several other cruise lines and this was billed as pure luxury. I was curious to see how much better they were then previous lines we had enjoyed. To my surprise this was not as luxurious as other cruises we had taken, less courteous customer service and generally a lack of concern when questions were asked of the Destinations staff and the dining room service personnel. The first two nights in the dining room were annoying. We repeatedly asked for bread and were not given it. Everything took forever, dinner took nearly three hours. The third night we sat in another section and the wait staff was wonderful, Ferdie was an enjoyable personality and tried to find the food that would make us happy. I will say we are a picky group of eaters, having said that, we have had wonderful meals on other cruise lines with much less hassle. The two specialty restaurants were a better experience. The food was for the most part good and the wait staff much more attentive.

The two people taking care of the cabin were excellent, Nathalia and a man that I unfortunately can't name. These three people were the highlight of the cruise in terms of service. Our friends traveling with us had terrible service from the destinations staff and the internet staff. Not only were they surly, it was incomprehensible how nasty they were. Additionally, when we asked for the concierge we were told it wasn't available. Now the procedure was to call reception and every time we called there was no one available. We had to ask to be called back. Other times when a question was asked we were told to ask someone else, even at Home Depot the staff take you to the place or person that can help you! If I were to guess on the problem with this ship I would say employee moral is very poor.

The shore excursions were a mix. There were two tour guides that could speak very poor English. Which made it difficult to get information. One of the guides in Florianoplis was very knowledgeable, however, he let one person monopolize him with conversation that didn't include the rest of the group. Read more