This was my much anticipated first cruise. The first day of the trip I spent an agonizing 5 hours freezing aboard ship. By dinner, I was too cold to stay in the dining room and spent the rest of the evening in my room trying to stave off the bone-chilling cold.This would be the same for the next 3 days, As time went on I heard the familiar hacking cough that I and numerous other guests developed. Six days after the trip ended, I still can't completely shake it.

On to the food of which I had heard so much. While plentiful, it was more often than not bland, over-cooked, and boring--except for the desserts which were uniformly good but one cannot live on sugar alone. This includes both the MDRs as well as the specialty restaurants we tried after purchasing the 3-dinner package.

I don't eat meat other than fish so I can't attest to those items except to say I observed a fair number of brownish-grayish steaks being served, The fish, however, was generally bland and overcooked. The sea bass at La Cucina was tough and served with the slimy skin still on, The gnocchi appetizer should have been little potato pillows drizzled with pesto, instead they were globs of potato paste literally drowning in a bowl of pesto sauce.The lobster bisque at Cagney's was served with a small piece of rubber that served as the only hint of lobster in a soup that smelled and tasted of metallic fish stock. Neither my companion nor I could eat more than a few small sips before sending it back, My main course was simply 6 skewered unseasoned shrimp served with clarified butter ($25). At Le Bistro, the small slightly over-cooked scallops were served on something that looked like it had congealed. The mushroom soup was tasty but had an off-putting grainy texture. They did, however, serve the best dessert, a chocolate napoleon. The seafood skewers and the swordfish at The Manhattan Room were well-executed, but the final dinner there, penne alfredo, did not live up to those other dishes. The pasta clumped together and the mushrooms and scallops were sparse. Taste and the Garden Cafe were serviceable but not particularly memorable. Read more