I went into the cruise with an open mind being a newbie but it did not take long to develop an opinion. Embarkation started with a massive line. It was unseasonably cold and I recognize not under anyone's control but standing outside freezing with 3 children was not fun. Eventually we made it inside to wait in, you guessed it, another line. Having done all the checkin online prior to arrival, the actual checkin process was easy. Once past that point getting onto the boat was no problem.

Let me get to the positives as I don't want to forget there were some of those. The entertainment was quite good. The skating show in particular was quite good and once you actually skate on the ice you realize the show was incredible (very soft, bumpy ice). The magician was fun for kids, and not bad for the adults. Once upon a time was a fun show, only marred by seniors snapping at us for the fact we dared to bring kids on a cruise.

The food was for the most part very good. We ate at the dining room for 4 meals and at the windjammer/jade for the other 3. The show timing made it very difficult to eat at the dining room. That being said we really enjoyed the variety and quality of the windjammer food for diner. I had one bad steak at the dining room, completely overdone. Read more