My wife and I picked this cruise because the Company was well known and for the ports to be visited. The ports did not disappoint but the catering did. The Oceanview restaurant was inadequate for the number of passengers using it on sea days. The layout of the gantries caused a lot of additional traffic as diners were forced to move around the area to select the elements of their meal. We had recently completed a cruise on Carnival Horizon where the buffet restaurant was a pleasure to use, with a better choice and quality of food, never felt crowded, and provided adequate seating. In the dining room, table 224, Rudi, and his team looked after us very well. However, the menu didn't vary much over the fortnight, and sighting the vegetables required a magnifying glass. The optional side dish of vegetables was cauliflower every one of the 14 nights. Toward the end of the cruise the chef and supervisor came round the tables and we voiced our complaint about the absence of vegetables and how hard the few we had had had been. The supervisor accompanying him took note of our table number and comments and we were promised more veg the following night. Anticipation around our table the following night turned to disappointment as no action turned the hot air from the previous night's discussion into a PR own goal. Disembarking 2 days later, my wife could not face breakfast, feeling the effects of food poisoning, which I felt later in the day. This caused our car journey home and the following week to be most unpleasant.

Our booking offered free drinks which proved a worthwhile benefit. We are not heavy drinkers but could not help noticing the proportion of ingredients and alcohol varied quite a bit between bars. In some the service was very slow.

Early boarding/disembarkation was the only perceived benefit of our Concierge class booking over and above any inherent in the cabin. The almost daily canapes were uninspiring, and the free sparkling wine (It was not champagne) was sent back tasted, but unused. Read more