This trip was our 25th anniversary celebration. The trip was extraordinary. And there were people on the ship who made our vacation wonderful. The things that were not good, though, were through the ship, and that was very disappointing.

First the ship. It is beautiful. It is big. There are some 4900 passengers on board. We had a Spa Suite, which is a balcony cabin one level below the spa (physically, the spa was next to us, but there is no entrance on that floor). Our cabin was fine and was kept immaculate by our steward Sheila. Simply wonderful. And talk about being personable. She actually spent time with us, looking at our tour pictures when we returned from one of the ports. Simply lovely and good at what she did. She was Philippino, as was most of the staff on the ship.

The food was good in most of the venues, even the main buffet. The problem with the buffet, of course, is the mob of people and the often inability to get a table. But once you get past that, the food was good. Two things about the food. First, the French restaurant was awful. It was the worst food we had on our 15 day vacation. And we chose it on the night of our anniversary. Our two waiters brought out a cake and sang "Let me call you sweetheart." While the idea is nice, it should NEVER be sung by people who can't sing. These two were tone deaf. And "Let me call you sweetheart" is a long song! Also, the service there was poor. The vegetable for our entry was brought out after our plates had been cleared! In short, they did not have their act together. The Italian restaurant, La Cuchina, was excellent. The best specialty restaurant, though, was Ocean Blue. Our waitress was amazing, the food was amazing and the environment was amazing. Ordinarily, I'd leave things at that. But I must add one more thing. Although we had the "free" specialty restaurant package, this restaurant was not free. We were charged an "upcharge" of about $40. That is unacceptable. It was bad enough that we were charged a "gratuities charge" of $25 for the "free" restaurants. But an additional $40? No good. And that is one example of the nickel and diming I referred to. If your advertising is touting up to 5 FREE choices, why is it that they are not free? Charge me somewhere else. Build it into the cost of the cruise. But free means without charge. This was not free. Even the unlimited beverage package -- also touted as "free" -- cost $250 for "gratuities." I don't get it. Same with the internet. First, it was 250 minutes per cabin, not per person. Why? And why not make the internet free on the ship? It was EVERYWHERE else, even in Russia! And, to make it worse, the internet was horrible. Each time we logged in, we had to log out, then log in again before it would work. Not only was that frustrating, but it wasted our precious minutes, which we had to spend 20 minutes getting replenished by the cruise internet people. Read more