This cruise came highly recommended to us by my parents, who had been on this ship and cruise twice before and loved it. We invited them to join us, and they were so excited to do so again. By the time the week was over, they were mortified at all the changes and at our experience.

Upon embarking on the ship, we entered into QVC on the Water hell, we felt like we were trapped in a time share sales nightmare, where every time we turned around, someone was hocking more fees and things to buy, nonstop. It started with the gourmet restaurant packages where every 5 steps someone was trying to sell these to us, which went on for about 4 hours or so, until we could get to our cabin and hide. After that it was the drink packages, then the nonstop merchandise sales.. and it goes on and on.

The dining room staff - OMG. We ate the first night in the Silk dining room, which was a nightmare, where our table literally bordered the aisle, so every time someone came in, walked around, left.. they were walking right by my shoulders, because the tables were right on the aisle. There was no room to move the table in. I spoke to the Maitre D Lucien for a table change, whose repeated answer was he would try but could not guarantee a change. The idea of eating another meal so stressed (the atmosphere was circus-like) was just unacceptable. I shared that with him, and got the same answer. Upon not getting a change message by the next day, we changed to the call ahead room instead. While they gave us a little big of grief over the change, with the manager sending us back and forth between rooms, once this was done, this dining room was a joy, waiters were amazing, the guy who was in charge of the dinner service there was so personable - it was such a relief. And the food was delicious. Read more