Embarkation: Check-in was very fast and the cabin was ready when we got on at 1:00. One suitcase came very fast, the other came later.
Cabin: This was our first time in a Neptune suite and we liked it – lots of room, excellent big balcony. Could not believe HAL is still using old technology TVs and DVD players, though – it’s well past time to upgrade to interactive TVs with on-demand movies. The lighting over the couch could have been better for reading. The cabin wasn’t particularly clean when we got on. The steward who greeted us said that his partner had left the ship that morning, so we thought maybe it was just the crew being overworked on turnaround day. However, the shelves in the bathroom stayed dirty, the floor stayed sticky, the prior occupant’s pills stayed under the sink, and the makeup stains stayed on the counter until I got sick of it and cleaned the place up myself after a couple days. We’re not really people who need to be waited on, so we didn’t use the concierge except to make dinner reservations and were amused when I went to the front desk one day and got scolded by the concierge for not giving her the chore. The concierges were really on the ball – they immediately knew our names and after we went to the lounge one morning to get a newspaper (there were never enough in the buffet), they had one delivered to our cabin every day for the rest of the cruise. The A/C in the cabin worked well, but the table on the balcony had seen better days. Kleenex in the cabin was low quality. The towel animals were excellent. The laundry lost a shirt.
Shorex: Very well run. I loved that they didn’t give out stickers until the tour was called, which eliminated all the people who like to cut the line and go down to the bus early.
The tour description changed after we were on the ship (we were notified by a paper left in the cabin), so the tour ended up with a lot less walking and a lot more time on the bus, but I enjoyed the trip. We had a 1.5 hour walking tour of the colonial area. The guide walked fast and the sidewalks aren't great so this isn't a good tour for those with walking difficulties. Then we had a nice drive past the fish market, the ruins of the pre-colonial city, the new city skyscrapers, the fenced edge of the canal zone, and the outside of the Gehri museum. The bus was completely full, so people traveling alone had to share seats. Good tour but would be nicer with fewer people on the bus. The only bathroom possibility that I noticed was at the church.