So I finally talked my wonderful girlfriend into going on a cruise to share our first experience at cruising and other then trying some other cruise lines may be our last for some time. I'll start with the good and don't blink. The service staff (waiters, waitresses, photographers, housekeeping) are phenomenal hard working people and I looked forward to seeing some of their familiar smiling faces as much as the few friends we made along the trip. The majority of people on the cruise were extremely pleasant, friendly people. Our room steward Clark...couldn't thank him enough and his quick action saved a life. The 2 american photographers took amazing pictures and the female (can't remember her name) was an absolute sweetheart and if she were allowed to do so I would have loved to invite her to dinner or to hang out with us. We made sure we filled out the cards recognizing each staff member who we felt deserved to have their work recognized and I truly hope they hear about them. Best part of the cruise was the watches I bought myself and my girlfriend and the salesman who was knowledgable, non aggressive about the sale, didn't push more expensive watches and truly was just a friendly staff member with a fabulous personality.

Now on to the rest:

When we first arrived at the port we were immediately concerned at the demographics of our fellow travelers being most of them were silver cruisers. Little did we know that once we got on board we would quickly realize the flip side of our concern and that was the large population of college kids on spring break and their alcohol infused loudness. If I wasn't being run over by a electric wheelchair, or listening to the silvers complain about something insignificant, I had to deal with frat house behavior. The first night I was awoken by a group of college kids having a grand time in the 10th deck aft hallway which I politely asked them if they could take their conversation somewhere more appropriate. Of course in my face they were polite (I'm not small by any means) and a few minutes after dozing back off one wanted to be a smart ass and yell outside my door. After dealing with noise most of the night on our 2nd night I spoke to the front desk about the issue and of course...nothing was done. Speaking with several other cruisers this seemed to plague the ship throughout the sailing. Read more