Overview: This cruise was a terrific value and included Cartagena, Colombia which we'd not visited before. This was our first cruise on HAL. All food venues were comfortable and the food was excellent. All lounges were also spacious and comfortable. Service was very good at the Buffet, Dining Room and all lounges. The cabin staff was excellent. We visited two shows, one was a vocal quartet that was okay, the other was a steel drum band—they were terrific. We attended a couple digital photograph workshops; they were both informative.

Cabin: Our cabin was a balcony/verandah on deck six on the starboard side. It was quite ample and even though we were adjacent to an elevator lobby it was quiet. The beds were quite comfortable. The view from the balcony/verandah was compromised by life boats and hoists on one side and on the other side the view was limited by the adjacent exterior ship’s elevator. Storage in the cabin for garments and personal effects was awkward, and the bed side storage was inaccessible due to bed linens obstructing the drawers.

A few thoughts on the ports: This was our first visit to Half Moon Cay. Lunch there was unexpectedly good. At the beach, without the "clamshell" rental there was sun, sun, and more sun. We'd visited Aruba and Curaçao before and we only went ashore briefly. Unfortunately the port we were looking forward to the most, Cartagena, was being deluged by heavy, heavy rain. We learned later (not confirmed) that all the ship's tours were cancelled. Our private tour was one of the few (maybe the only one) that was not cancelled. The city is picturesque and we enjoyed the visit even though many of the streets in the historic city were seen in standing water 20-60cm deep. We'd been through the Panama Canal before (Caribbean to the Pacific), and this cruise only passed through the Gatun Locks and anchored for a time in Gatun Lake to permit those taking the ship’s excursions to disembark and be tendered to shore. We were disappointed we could not visit the new locks and the time in port at Colón was strange. The Colón stop seemed to be only to permit people on the ship's excursions to board the ship. It rained off and on during most of the day. We did not go ashore in Puerto Limon due to illness. Read more