We were very hopeful that this would be a great trip as we have booked a 24 day cruise on another HA ship next year and were using this trip as a litmus test to decide whether we should continue our booking next year. We also were aware it was a 4 ½ start ship and were lenient! But we will most likely cancel the next trip. Cruise critic advertises that mature passengers are the norm on HA and I would agree. Most passengers I would say were in their late 70's, 80's and beyond. One solo woman passenger was celebrating her 100th birthday! She is my role model for the future!!
The ship itself was nicer than we expected. The public areas were clean, nicely furnished and appeared fresh. The veranda cabin (we were on 9th floor which was in a perfect location for going up to lido deck (2 flights) and down a flight for dinner/show) was comfortable in size with plenty of storage space. Nice unobstructed view from Veranda. We had excellent service from our room stewards who quickly expedited the few requests we had for fixing bathroom issues.
The entertainment was fair to good. Given the 1000 passengers, it offered much more than our favorite 600 passenger Oceania line. The dancers were friendly and accessible and the last night "Dancing With the Stars" was a fun production.