The cruise was great. The ship was nice and the staff was friendly, however they were very overworked on our trip. Because we went when school was out, the ship was filled to capacity. The staff just seemed stretched thin and overworked. It also made eating at the buffet a 4,000 person game of musical chairs. We quickly found ourselves avoiding what we called "deck 10" or the lido deck almost the entire cruise. It was so crowded that I started calling the main swimming pool the "cesspool". But we ARE middle aged and the young folks seemed to be having a nice time, so who am I to judge?

Besides trying to avoid the crowds, the buffet food ranged from totally nasty to extremely good and was hit and miss. The main dining room dinners were excellent and the sea day brunch was OK to good, but never great.

This was our first cruise and everyone told us that there was plenty of food at all times on your average cruise. I didn't find that at all. As a matter of fact, the first couple of days, we only ate breakfast and dinner because finding lunch was like playing whack-a-mole. Once we found the fun times lunch schedule, we used it like a treasure map to when and where we could finally eat lunch. Just as a warning--the only food you will find between 3pm and 6pm and after 9pm is pizza or a hot dog with the occasional deli sandwich. Room service is also available, but consists of pizza and deli sandwiches unless you want to pay extra, which the cruise line seemed to encourage everyone to do often. Read more