I relied on HAL's reputation for excellent food and service and it's reputation for activities for adults and entertainment on previous very long cruises. This cruise was 35 days long, with many, many sea days. I was soon disillusioned.

The food was almost always served lukewarm and , for example, never was the toast at breakfast in the dining room served even remotely warm. Frequently, the eggs were the same temp. The breakfast menu never, ever varied. At tea time, it was the same. The small sandwiches and pastries were identical for 35 days!

The kitchen on decks 2 and 3 appeared to be run by beginners and took forever to deliver the meals. Any meat serving at dinner was covered by a commercial dark brown sauce, straight out of a can, no matter what meat you ordered. With the exception of 1 gala night, meat servings were tough and flavorless (once you scraped off the commercial gravy.) All lamb dinners, if there was any meat on the bones, were so tough, they were almost impossible to cut into pieces. The butter for the table was cut into tiny, tiny cubes with an insuffient number of tiny cubes for the the number of diners. Read more