We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and were thoroughly impressed with the ship, the crew, the cleanliness, the accommodations, waitstaff, etc. I don’t know where to begin. Cheerful day-service by your room attendant; cheerful room service at your beck and call. Cheerful bartenders and wait staff. Very fast casino staff—I won big. Friendly folks in all of the on-board shops. Plenty to do and see. You won’t be bored.

The food was good but one note; over 7 days, the buffet menu tends to repeat itself. We made our use of the “specialty restaurants” to break the cycle. Chops was well worth the premium. Sabor was a delight. We didn’t make it to Giovanni’s Table. So you may want to invest in the dining package. Beware of the drink packages; they come out to about $20+ a day. If you’re doing shore excursions…you don’t get to take the drinks with you of course—so you’re paying for drinks when you’re not even on the boat!!! The Pay-As-You-Go is a better deal with soft drinks costing you in the range of $2-$3 each.

Unfortunately, the pre-cruise interaction with the 800 number and the embarking/disembarking was horrid. You got different answers to the same question from the 800 number. Case in point. The On-Board entertainment was a Saturday Night Fever play that I looked forward to seeing. Each time I went to the website , I saw it there; advertised. Until one day…none at all. So when I called to ask a question, I mentioned the SNF play. They didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. Was it replaced with something else? Was it cancelled? Nobody knew. Once on the boat!!! There it was again. Good news for me but why the 3 months of radio silence? Galveston’s port—not the RCI folks—was terrible. Get ready to walk…and walk…and walk. The distance from where you drop off from the car to the ship is about 40 feet. You could throw a rock and hit the boat. Somehow, Galveston turned that 40 linear feet in to a snake line that is about 900 yards long; I’m not kidding. You go all the way to the end of this one place, through that checkpoint, then all the way back to the other end; up not one, not two, but 3 sloping ramps when an elevator (which was right there) could have taken you in a few steps but you were not allowed to ride. Then there is the gangway which is a 30 degree uphill march. Read more