OK if someone was to tell you they are going to visit your home town and want you to tell them 5 things to see or do... think about it..........ok now are all 5 things the name of jewelry stores in your town? If not why? On the Solstice their daily guide, map of the town has nothing but jewelry stores they are pimping for, their is noting of historical facts or locations, local sites, just jewelry stores.
It has been a while since my last cruise prior to this one, but on my previous cruises once on the ship all you paid for was gambling and alcohol, everything else was no charge. Now I bought a soda card to get sodas at no cost, but a limit of 1 at a time. I requested to have 2 or 3 so I could keep them in my room should I get thirsty during the night, and the reaction I got when I asked for them was shocking. You would have thought I asked for the Crown Jewels, like a diet pepsi was crack cocaine.
It seemed like half the onboard activities were centered around selling something, like the art shows selling paintings, occurred several times, art auction, glass blowing show to sell their items. In my previous cruises we had activities for entertainment, I did skeet shooting from the aft of the ship no charge, pool side games no charge, it seemed there was always something to do without being charged to your room card.