The overall cruise was a great experience with fantastic ports. The food was good and the boat was quite clean. A far cry from the Norwegian Hawaii cruise we took two years ago that did not have good service and was not as clean. I think it had to do with the all American crew.

The freestyle experience is quite good, especially when traveling with children. It gives you the flexibility to eat when you want with little to no wait at normal diner hours. There was plenty to do on the ship for the whole family. The bowling was a great diversion and my son even rang the bell on the rock climbing wall! Food was of good quality, with the specialty restaurants having a more interesting selection and great service. Yes, you do have to pay for the other restaurants but it can be worth it. The buffet was Ok and predictable all the time. The rudeness of the people was to be expected, but this trip took it to a whole new level since SOME Europeans have no concept of lines. I have dealt with that on every cruise we have been on even with all Americans, but this one was exceptional.

One area of disappointment on the ship was the pool area, but we had a good time no matter what. Going in with a positive attitude lets you deal with the things you can't change. First, try to find a deck chair on the lower section by the pool. These chairs have the nice cushions and are hard to come by. Interestingly enough I always found the same people using the chairs even with the signs on the ship that after 30 minutes unattended they would remove your stuff. This never happened and was not enforced. Even on the port days it seemed guests would come down early and lay towels on the chairs before breakfast. I can not prove this but I think they went to port and saved their chairs at the same time. I seemed like the large groups sent scounts to get chairs for everyone, including 1 for each child even if they were in the pool the whole time. Very annoying! Second, the constant whistle at the pool. No one was allowed to jump in the pool, mainly while the ship was in motion. There must have been an accident and they took a no tolerance stance on jumping in the pool. As many of the guests were from Spain on our ship, there was little control in the pool. Third, the hot tub should be renamed to the kid tub as no adult could even think of going in one since they were full of kids and teenagers of large groups. I think this a by product of going on the cruise during the heavy European vacation period. At least two thirds of the ship was european, with almost 1000 Spaniards. Read more