My in-laws booked this cruise as a family weekend getaway. From the beginning, the ship felt crowded. The lobby bar area was always very full as were quick dining locations. You could wait in line for 30-40 minutes at the food options around the main pool. We chose to eat at the restaurants on board. We were very pleased with the steakhouse, Fahrenheit 555 and the Chef‘s table. There were some rude guests on our cruise; however, the staff impressively handled these difficult situations. The cruise ship needs to update and use room key bracelets rather than the cards. It got to be insulting how many times crew members would ask you for your card and a bracelet would have been a much simpler way of scanning for drinks, towels, etc. Disembarkment was a little messy in the morning, we paid for the faster to the fun pass but had to wait 45 minutes to disembark as some of the rude guests mentioned earlier needed to be escorted off of the ship by NYPD. It would have been nice to have had them wait with NYPD on the ship so the rest of us could have left on time (my husband and I needed to go straight to work).

Our cabin steward, Larson, was wonderful! He sensed our needs before we had them! The highlights of this cruise for our group were Nikola and Denis at the Alchemy Bar and Scott at the Piano Bar. Nikola was a highly knowledgeable and talented bartender, we took his mixology class on the Sunday afternoon of our cruise. You could tell that he loves what he does! Scott had us laughing and singing for hours. He had a great personality and played off of the people in the room.

For adults on this cruise ship, I recommend using the Serenity area of the deck (quieter, just get there early for a daybed). Overall, I think that the best way to do this cruise is to pay extra for the better dining options and to spend your time at the Alchemy Bar and Piano Bar.