Dining We arrived with six of our party booked for dinner in the main dining room at 6 and two for the later seating. The Restaurant manager was a bit stressed, but politely took our request for a table for all of us at the early seating. We had already agreed to take turns eating as a group and the last two dining as they pleased, but by next day we are all seated together. Yeah! I enjoyed the meals in the main dining room. There were generally choices I liked and rarely was I not happy with the meals preparation and presentation. Our waiter and assistant waiter were wonderful. We had the option of breakfast in the Tuscan Grill as Elite members, but prefer to dine in the Solarium. It is a great healthy way to start the day. Lunches were varied and I did enjoy wandering around the café choosing a bit of this and a bit of that.
Embarkation: We bused down from Canada and had a painless crossing at the border. The bus was early and the embarkation was rather quick. There were some very pleasant helpful people doing crowd control, but a couple of the guides were rather short with people. Our fellow at check in was quick unfriendly and we were happy to get our paper work done and board.
Enrichment Activities. We have some mixed feelings here. On one hand there is lots to do, but there are things that have been cut. We learned that the activity staff have been cut and we noticed the holes where they would normally be. There was a lackluster sail away party. It is really hard for the dj and one rather quiet activity staff member to get people up and dancing. It is too bad as the party band was excellent!!! If you get to sail with Top Notch you will love them. We also miss the activity staff that used to greet you as you enter the theatre. Beyond the Podium with Brent Nixon was wonderful, He is a very talented and knowledgeable man. His introduction on the first night was rather annoying, and put some of our party off, but once they went to one of his lectures (performances) they were sold. We did not do as many of the activities that we normally would as we had 13 of us travelling together and could get into a lot of mischief all on our own. The dancers boarded for this cruise so the dancing with the officers and the dancing with the dancers competitions did not happen, nor did the dance classes normally offered. Several of our group were thrilled with the glass blowing and attended time and time again.