The ship was quiet and clean. The food was very good, but breakfast was mostly the same selection of hot and cold foods and THE SAME pastries EVERY DAY, which got very boring. We missed not having access to self serve laundry features, such as an ironing board. Thankfully, the dress code was very informal and relaxing. Bottled water was always in your room, and also handed out on the way to every excursion. The staff was very hard working and friendly.

One odd thing of noticable difference from ocean cruises, was the lack of available snacks between meals. There were self service cookies and hot drinks available, but no pizza or other "proteins". Then, the cookies were taken away over an hour before dinner. Dinner was served at 7. So, You had to keep your refrigerator stocked with cheese, fruit, etc. from the breakfast buffet. It was just odd, and rather disconnected. Then, out of the blue, they served a wisp of canapes and a few themed drinks at about four of the afternoon briefings. Those essences of cordiality were nice. Too bad they were so inconsistent.

The shore excursions were adequate, but on tight schedules, loaded with random trivia, and lacking of much free time. The one activity that got old, was having to sit through a daily briefing before dinner each night about the following day's activities. If you didn't go, you could turn it on in your room on the TV. But, it was 30-45 minutes that just cut out any chance of some down time before dinner, when it would have been nice to enjoy a shower and or some quiet time on the balcony. Since they had the meetings, they didn't bother to put any details in the daily newsletter, which was mostly useless. The director's name was Kane. He was very thorough with details, accommodating, and a personable "propogandist". But, the daily briefings became referred to as "The Kane Show" by the fourth day. He was pleasant, but it just got to be too much of an elaborate yet average ordenance of details that could have been handed out in printed form. Read more