This was our first cruise. We booked it 5 weeks before we went, as we fancied a change from resort based holidays and wanted to visit more of the Caribbean and get some winter sun.
We liked the style and size of the ship - though many passengers who'd cruised before grumbled to us about the size (is there some kind of competition to see who can moan the most??). We ate on the 1st sitting in Peninsular - nice food and good service, though it wasn't as fancy or tasty as I was expecting. We also ate in Glasshouse and Sindhu (both lovely food). The buffet restaurants were OK, though the cold food they served got a little repatative after a while (curry buffet night was very tasty though). Good waiter service in bars, though I'd avoid the Mojito cocktail as they can't mix them very well, tased like water & some mint and not much else!!
We were very dissappointed with the entertainment on board. The main act headliners could dance but their singing left a lot to be desired. Some of the other acts were good (freddie mercury tribute act and Andrea Dickinson) - too much repetition of movies on sea screen though (chicago and sherlock holmes were on 3 - 4 times over the 2 weeks). Not all the photographers were that good at their job, some of ours had bad shadowing and colour.
A606 - Good space, view restricted by the rescue boat/tender, but you could peer through it to see what weather was like or whether you were in port. Found that on about 4 days at port they'd taken down boat and the difference in light it made to the room was incredible (though not enough to pay the extra �200 pp we were offered to have an un-resctricted view). Be warned - they tend to maintain / check the rescue boat/tender on most days - found myself running to bathroom on a few occasions, as I was cooling down and reading on the bed in just my bra & knickers!! A fair bit of engine noise, but no other noise than this - not far from laundrette for popping back & forward.