First, this is my daughters and my second cruise, and after reading the last couple of reviews, I wonder if we were on a different cruise than them. Compared to our first one on Carnival, this one was wonderful. We found the food in the dining rooms much better than that on Carnival. True, there were a few things that I didn't really care for, but no matter where you go, you are going to find some things on a menu that you don't care for. We found the wait staff friendly, and quite efficient. My daughter had the steak every night at either of the main dinning rooms and found it tender and cooked just the way she ordered it. On Carnival, the steak they had on the daily choice was like shoe leather. She loves steak and enjoyed the fact that she could have a New York strip one night in Windows and a ribeye the next in Gardens. As for the food, come on people, this is an inexpensive cruise compared to ones like RCCL and Celebrity. If you want to have gourmet, pay extra and cruise on one of them.

We chose this cruise for the itinerary, and were not disappointed. The ports were wonderful, some of the best snorkeling ever!!!! I was impressed with the little tent they had set up at the port were they handed out cold drinks, wet towels and even offered to spray cool water on your face if you liked. We did not do the excursions through the ship, and did not find the fact that we had to wait for the people that did do them through the ship in Belize to be a problem. If enjoying you breakfast for '½ hour more is going to ruin you vacation, I guess I have a different idea of what vacation is supposed to be all about.

The staff...On the first day, we brought our own bags onboard. As soon as we got out of the elevator, a crew member stepped up to us and asked of we would like help getting our bags to our cabin. He took our bags right to the cabin and even helped us get them in. I didn't think to get his name. All of the staff was friendly and helpful. Our room steward Krystaly was very sweet and if we asked for anything when we saw her she did it, the only thing was she didn't make sure the ice bucket was full every time she cleaned the room and after the first day, never brought back a bath mat. We also didn't get beach towels in the room on the first day and after we got some and used them, she took them away to get cleaned but didn't put clean ones in the cabin. A minor inconvenience though, all we had to do is pick up the phone and all was well. I defiantly wasn't going to let small things like that take away from how wonderful the vacation was. Read more