We did a river cruise for my retirement two years earlier and loved the Viking experience, with the exception that the food was not what we expected and very disappointing compared to other cruise lines we have experienced, i.e. lacking vegetables, salads, healthier foods, chef had poor choices/poor preparations. Then we tried the ocean cruise for my husband's retirement, because we wanted to experience Costa Rica and the Panama Canal in particular. It was a joyous experience for meals and time on the ship. We did NOT enjoy the excursions. The buses taking us to adventures were run down and worrisome that they could break down and leave us stranded in dangerous areas of Belize, Costa Rica, Cartegena, etc. The Cartegena trip took us to trashy shopping, even though we wanted to go to upper scale shops. Our best experience was the cruise and time on the ship; our next will include as many days at sea as possible! The ocean cruise was a truly relaxing vacation, always able to go to breakfast, lunch, or dinner, no clean up, never had to make my bed, etc. Some of the food was not the best, however, there were always enough good choices, AND the ice cream bar was a daily must!