Wanted a fun ship for the kids. My husband and I have cruised 10 times on various lines: Princess (most), other RC, Oceania, Disney, and Carnival. We have always experienced exceptional service on cruises... until this one. With 6500 passengers, they were about 800 crew short of meeting expectations (passenger to crew ratio was 3.8). Slides and rock climbing wall and others closed during parts of the day... I sat at the pool on the "at sea" day for 6 hours and not one single person came to see if I needed a drink etc... you can't find food at all hours -- they close food venues and the windjammer buffet was so poorly staffed that tables were very slow to buss (I bussed my own twice just to get a seat)... they nickel-and-dimed us to the point of ridiculousness (on the Boardwalk, it costs $2.50 PLUS 18% GRATUITY for a small box of popcorn) and they add on 18% to everything, even a bottle of water. We paid for the soda package but the soda machines were always broken so you had to roam all over the ship to find any!

The lack of staff is obviously felt by the staff as well -- I never before saw so many glum faces. We chatted with them and they feel overworked, underappreciated, and have missed the personal feel you get with a smaller ship. We really felt sorry for them as there just were not enough staff.

And then, unless you buy an excursion, good luck getting any help as soon as you set foot off the ship -- not even directions off the pier! Be prepared that if you do the "Pisa on your own" or the "Pompey on your own" they don't even get you in the group line for tickets -- we had 2 hours in Pompey but it took 52 minutes to get through the ticket line -- everyone on the bus was upset. Read more