we had had very good comments on this cruise line from family members and it was suppose to be a little more fancy than our only other cruise which was with Carnival Victory (it was very enjoyable although the ship ran low on breakfast meats on the last day). This was to be a very special cruise our first with just us and we planned to redo our vows for our 20th anniversary. Embarkation day we probably should have seen what was to come as my wife dropped me off at the dock with our luggage and left to go park the car and got sideswiped by a taxi enroute barely making it back in time to board. Boarding was great as soon as they saw I had a cane they got me a wheelchair and a steward pushed me through the building onto the ship. Three hours before we could get into our room and no swimsuits with us in our carry on. Most of the bars were closed. we had to go to one end of the ship for the 911 drill and then the other end to get into our room. 1st I knew that the room was inside and there would be no window what I didnt know was it was basically a closet with a bed. The refrigerator "mini-bar" was warm and the few bottles in there looked really old rusty tops and the like and the fridge didnt and hadn't worked for quite a while. We had bought a 12 pk of bottled water (not even spring water) 12ltrs for $33 (I wont even buy liquor at those prices). So after the first round of Bacardi and coke @$25 we went to see what it would cost to add the drink package it was around $300 when we were planning the cruise and we weren't expecting the prices to be this high. We were then taken aback at the new price quote of $700. So even if we wanted we didnt have capability because we were now on the card locked in for shipboard charges and it was only clear for $500 and we couldn't get more money as atm was broken at the time. So on we go signing every time we wanted a drink. The bars we're pretty sure charged different prices for the same drink no proof though. The buffet was mediocre at best nothing like what we had on carnival carving stations not there (oh they had one to cut up a 4ft sub) even golden corral had better options. The Japanese steakhouse left us wishing for a Kobe food wasn't great and the bar closed before our dinner was 1/2 done no more sake! the Brazilian steakhouse food was pretty good...when we finally got some 30 min wait for the meat as they were feeding the captain and friends. The bistro French restaurant the shining star in their crown awesome food and service they were what we expected from all of their meals. Dont ask any staff onboard where something is they dont know but will tell you somewhere even if they dont know. We didnt know there was a smoking section on deck 7 till the last day and found that out from other smokers. My wife is allergic to lime and dont you know they always brought her drink with one even after being told not to. It seemed every turn we were being nickel and dimed. My wife went for bingo and came back later told me it cost her $60 to play including the pull tab lottery tickets she got talked into. They had a "shopping class" that was just a diamond broker telling you to buy at their store on the island. (the satellite was down on the island so not too much sold there as no credit cards worked. The next stop it rained monsoon style for 2 hours as we tried in vain to get to the taxi stand to get to our excursion so no massage for us. all this time I'm not sleeping because my bad back cant take the worn out mattress I fall asleep sitting up a 1/2 hour at a time. my wife asked at customer service the night before leaving what tag to put on our luggage the response "your already too late it should have been out a 1/2 hour ago. never told her which tag. On the first stop I asked about using a wheelchair they said I could rent one for $150 for the cruise but it cant leave the ship (we couldn't have even got to our room hallway always cluttered.) oh and we had heard the Irish pub had good wings so we stopped in twice the first time we never did get waited on. the second time we got there and my back spasmed so we sat at a table and were told in a rude voice we had to get a hostess to seat us. we went to the bar and sat 5 guests at the bar all got served we sat there for 30 min before the bartender finally acknowledged us at all and when we ordered our drinks we asked for some wings he wouldn't take our food order we finally flagged down a server who ordered them for us and with the poor service and all they just weren't good enough to make us want to come back. The whole cruise kind of ruined our reaffirmation and all those great memories we should have. Sad I could have done Carnival for the same money and had a huge balcony room with a drink package and great food and buffets. Maybe next cruise.