This is a great itinerary and loved all the ports we visited. This was our first time on HAL and not sure if we will give them another try. Embarkation was smooth and seamless I did like this part. We had an oceanview room on lower promenade and I loved being able to run out to the deck to take a quick picture or watch us dock. The rooms are dated and small but we were comfortable.

We choose open dining. What a nightmare that was. First night they were not prepared and we did finally get a table around 7:45 pm. Our waiter told us the table we had was reserved but the people did not want it and we were welcome to have for rest of cruise. Wrong, we could never get anyone to agree because it was never released in their system. We tried calling for reservations, showing up in person, to secure reasonable dining times and again wrong. We finally gave up and ate in Lido for the remainder of the cruise where the staff was excellent. Another dining fail the pizza oven area was always closed at 5:00 pm. when it would be a great appetizer. Food on the ship is mediocre and our favorite meals were off ship.

Since we were in port almost everyday not many activities that we did participate in on board. My husband attended some of the Microsoft classes which he enjoyed. America Test Kitchen classes beware. While the class was good you don't get to taste the recipe at all. Fail for HAL have the kitchen cook the same recipe and serve it after the demo. Read more