I should have listened to the warnings of others on sites like these, but really how bad could this ship actually be? After the fire last year I figured it had received a nice little "facelift" of sorts, and everyone would try to make our vacation a special experience. Yikes, was I wrong (picture the ship being Kenny Rogers and the facelift being the ship)! You know its a ship, but WTF?

From a visual perspective it looks a combination of Pepto Bismol meet Dr. Seuss, the interior decorator must have been high. With that aside, as I know that seems kind-of petty, you cannot get around the ship in a straight line; ever. VERY, VERY poor design and very dark inside. So, ok, its like an ugly cousin; what can they do about that now? Maybe try harder to please? Nope, not that either. The dining room staff, stay far, far away from the Pearl restaurants, act like they are running a Gulag. The choices are awful, they forget or don't deliver your orders, and when they do deliver it they nearly throw it at you. Most of the meat choices in the dining room are entirely unrecognizable as protein. The pasta is gut-wrentchingly bad, to look at and eat. I ordered lasagna once (really, how can you wreck that?) and had plastic-looking un-melted cheese throughout with some kind of grey-meat that tasted like cinnamon(?). All meals in the Black Pearl were inedible. I reccommend the buffet (not too bad for dinner) or pay the $30.00 extra for the Steakhouse (superb food and staff). Breakfast at the buffet consists of a lot of "powdered" eggs; but there were other tasty options. Lunch; burgers the best (by the big pool) but be careful of the Ruben or grilled sandwiches by the adult pool. Again; all of the the meat is the wrong color.

If you like to do some "duty-free" shopping on the ship there is very little choice. Not many store available and all of the "stores" are small and minimally supplied (although the alcohol choices were good). Read more