We got a good deal and had never been on a cruise so chose the Seaside to celebrate a family birthday. It was a new ship and appeared exactly what we were looking for. We read the reviews before coming but arrived with an open mind... First of all the service was SO bad! I have never experienced customer service like it. I’m only commenting primarily on the bar and waiting staff but for the majority they did not want to be there and it showed. They were extremely rude, visibly annoyed when you ordered drinks and on one occasion one of the waiters walked into me at speed elbowing me in the arm (which was very painful) and he scowled at me! It wasn’t just a couple of people; our whole party commented on the atmosphere. The entertainment staff always appeared in high spirits though.

The food was not great. The buffet was OK and what you would expect; the dining in the formal restaurant was hit and miss. Certainly not to the standard of a 5 star ship I would say. We upgraded to speciality dining and I would definitely recommend it - the food here was fantastic! Not so much the seafood restaurant but the pan-Asian and Butchers Cut were very good.

My last comment would be that the ship is not very child friendly - at all. For most of our trip the children’s pool was closed because it was too rocky which basically left very little for my son to do. He doesn’t like kids clubs and the indoor playground was mediocre to say the least... Read more