This was a spur of the moment, want to get away from the holiday madness, decision to go on this cruise. We are retired and can do things last minute, this offer came to us in email, we researched the ship and said let’s go and we did. When we got on the ship we discovered it had a propulsion problem and will go into dry dock March of 2019, this explained the shorter times in ports. We did not mind the shorter days in port but if this is important to you you might want to look at another ship.

We had some rainy weather to start with but we live in Arizona and we love rain. It was warm so you could sit on the covered decks and enjoy being outside and there were plenty of activities going on inside if you so desired. We did have to miss a port, Cartagena, Columbia, because the winds in the channel at Falmouth were elevated and it was felt the ship could not travel safely. We stayed overnight and left at about 5am to head to the Panama Canal. I wish we would have skipped Falmouth, not at all impressed, and our shore excursion was a beach break, which should have been cancelled before we got on the bus to take us there. It was raining, the beach was piled high with seaweed, it was awful, even the guides said it should have been cancelled, we did receive a 50% refund as onboard credit, because the guides complained, it should have been 100%, because it should have been cancelled. Going through the lock was amazing and there is a great view from the Sky Walker lounge. We had watched a documentary about the building of the canal on you tube before the cruise and it made it much more meaningful to us. Costa Rica was ok, they was actually great shopping right on the dock. Grand Cayman the beaches were beautiful, pretty sure there were not too many bargains there if you are a shopper.

The ship is very nice, very clean everywhere and the service personnel are wonderful. We loved that they had self serve laundromats on each deck. They had two washers and two dryers and an iron and ironing board, use your cruise card to purchase tokens to use in the washer and dryer. They also had detergents, dryer sheets, and fabric softeners to purchase. The water on the ship was great, we did purchase cases of bottled water for our cabin and kept it in the refrigerator. When going on an excursion the ship will sell you bottled water for either $2 or $3 per 16 oz. the case was $6.50 plus gratuity for 12 bottles, or you could bring your on container and fill it up. Alcoholic drinks were expensive, we do not drink enough to make the drink package worthwhile. Read more