We arrived in Seattle a couple of days early and had a very good time exploring the city. Embarkation day was hectic as most are, but we were able to get on to the ship within about thirty minutes after arrival. Once onboard, we were told that the only place to eat lunch was at the buffet (we normally avoid the buffet on embarkation day because they are packed and chaotic, not the best way to start a cruise in our mind). We made our way to the buffet as this was our only option. It was very chaotic and packed as expected. The presentation was absolutely awful (old beat up pots were used to serve most of the food, seriously!) and the food was just really bad, really, really bad low quality cafeteria at best. The ships condition was the biggest disappointment though. We understand that the ship is older, but that is no excuse for rust everywhere, dirty carpet, broken signage and gym equipment, broken toilets in almost every public bathroom I used during the week, etc. Our cabin was actually very nice. We had a panoramic view cabin, and it was great (new, roomy, and well kept by our steward) one of the few positives on this cruise. These rooms were added a couple of years ago during a refurbishment of the ship. The dining was hit and miss. We do the sit down breakfast in the main dining room whenever possible to enjoy a relaxing start to our day. They offered a sit down breakfast in the main dining room every day, but the menu never, ever changes. It is exactly the same every day of this cruise and its essentially bacon , eggs, or an omelet, no specials at all. It is also worth noting that they place a buffet in the middle of the sit down dining room and encourage you to use it. If I wanted a buffet, I would have gone to the BUFFET. It is obvious that they don't really want to serve you and it shows. The service at breakfast was absolutely terrible (so bad that for the first time ever in 14 cruises, we considered adjusting our gratuities down, we didn't, but it was very, very bad service) Dinner was much better than breakfast and lunch, but only because we had a good server. The food was very low quality in comparison to the other cruises we have been on.

The entertainment was average for a cruise. It was not the best, but we have had worse on Carnival

The service was hit and miss also. Our cabin steward was great. Our server at dinner was great. Our servers at breakfast and lunch were pretty bad. It seemed like the staff who knew they were getting a tip directly from you tried, but the rest did not. Read more