The ship is absolutely beautiful - both public spaces and cabins. Like a very luxurious hotel. By appearances, you could easily forget that you were on a cruise ship - more like being at a Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons, and our Explorer Suite category cabin was extremely comfortable. But that was the problem. It was all about appearances. That may be enough for some, and you would not be disappointed in terms of high end comfort. The library, lounges, restaurants were all very attractive.

But then the service. Didn't even come close to matching the surroundings. I actually found some staff downright hostile. They seemed so unhappy so much of the time. Our butler was nowhere to be found the afternoon of embarkation and for the rest of the cruise it was like pulling teeth to get anything out of him. At one point he threw away newspapers I had set aside on our sofa (needed them for work) and he took it upon himself to throw them out when he brought in the newer newspapers then tried to blame it on the room steward who swore up and down that he never throws anything away if it's not in the garbage can, which I believe because when I did have things right next to the garbage can to throw out (they didn't fit in the can) he did not take them. The room steward seemed pleasant enough, but overworked and doing his work somewhat begrudgingly. They seemed really "cheap" about things. For example, a spare roll of toilet paper is usually kept in the bathrooms. They would never replenish this - even after we had to call for more tp and you could clearly see there were only a few sheets left on the existing roll. You would think once that happened they would be better about restocking. The last night, we needed to take tp out of one bathroom for another. Toiletries were never replenished, even when soap was down to a sliver. Service was quick and perfunctory. We had to ask multiple times for them to put the cushions back out on the deck chairs. I understand taking them in at night in inclement weather, but even when we were in port overnight with very pleasant weather, they would not put anything out and often we had to do ourselves. Not a big deal, but you would think at these prices they could make sure details like that were attended to.

Also, with all it's beauty, the ship itself still seemed kind of odd. We are used to the creakiness when a ship is at sea. But this one made all kinds of weird noises at all different hours - especially at night. We did not get one decent night's sleep over the 12 days we were on board. Read more