We had never been to Hawaii and thought it would be a great relaxing trip. Embarking and disembarking was very smooth with plenty of assistance available. We had great expectations for a pristine ship after a long refurb. How disappointing to see the poor shape the passenger areas are in. The 8 days of rockin' and rollin affected even those who never had been before and we all thought a ship, 949 feet long, would handle the 8 foot seas better. In general the food was wonderful and our wait staff at table 223, Cyril and Presert, were excellent.

The ship is rather noisy with everything done, loudly. It took a bit of investigating to find a place where you were not assaulted by the din and overly excited CDir and his staff. I suppose everyone will mention the slow elevators or the ones that pass you by, but all 2600 of us took it in stride as we tried to move about the ship. Overall the service on the ship was very good even though many of the international staff were rather hard to understand. We didn't take in much of the entertainment so we cannot comment on the theater or Vista lounge offerings. The guitar player in Crooners was nice but the piano player in the plaza seemed to attack the keys rather than play them. It was fun though to see all the ukulele students learning to play and the hula instruction.

It was Hawaii, and the ports tried hard to make you think you were there. It had been a long time since we had been there and were shocked at how commercialized it has become. There was no "smell of the Islands" or the relaxing feeling, that is so heavily advertised. Just the realization of why the Hawaiians are so sad at what their land has become.