11/6/04

By ellenbliz

• February 18, 2007

We had a wonderful time. All the staff were very attentive.

Let's start with our stateroom, an oceanview with an actual window. Our room was more than adequate with a king-sized bed, a small couch and chair and small table(plenty big enough for room service breakfast), a dresser with one side for storage and had a hairdryer to use, the other side was a mini bar which we did not use but was only cool not cold, a TV on the wall, 3 closets and safe in one of them(plenty of room for clothes). 2 american plugs by dresser and one in bathroom. Bathroom had tub and shower with shower massage and plenty of hot water, medicine cabinet and storage under sink. They provided you with fruit basket that was replenished each day if you ate any, along with a plate, knife and linen napkin. We had complimentary terry cloth robes for our use. Of course every night our bed was turned down with chocolates on the bed, the first night they left us a complimentary Holland America tote bag. Every day a small version of the New York Times was delivered with the other paper work.

What can we say about the dining room. Our steward and his assistant worked very hard but took good care of us. After teh first night he even had the drinks we ordered at our place when we arrived. The food was fabulous with four different choices each night for appetizers, soup, entree and one for salad. With alternate choices of ceasar salad, chicken or steak and baked potato if you did not like the gourmet fare. The dessert menu was at least 6-8 items with a no sugar added choice. We were seated with very nice and compatible dinner companions, two other couples.

Other food offerings-the Lido Restaurant(a cafeteria style) offered breakfast of just about anything, lunch with many types of choices and dinner if you chose instead of regular dining room. Also by the pool there was a grill open unitl 5PM with burgers, hotdogs, chicken and french fries as well as a taco and salad bar.

Every night was a different theme for a late night buffet but we never went to it. Also around the pool at 4PM they had different themes of buffets or happy hour type fair.

Coffee, tea, lemondade and water are free. Sodas and alcohol are not free. Bars are all over the ship if you drink. For smokers you have your room, on the deck, near the bar at the inside pool, anywhere near the outside pool. My husband had no trouble finding somewhere to smoke.

There were plenty of activities you could be involved in:bingo, crafts, shows, movies,tours on ship, etc, as well as the casino. The excursions we went on were fine just that we did not get to snorkel as we expected. We brought our own mask and tube, but need fins and vest. On the private island, Half Moon Cay, there was nothing to rent. On another trip we could rent fins but no vest. Our other trip which was a snorkeling trip was cancelled due to hurricane damage. This may have been different if we had been on a snorkeling trip. We had one complaint:on our first excursion they had everyone meet in a small bar and this was for several different excursions and it was hard to hear what was being said so you did not miss your tour. But by the second one we met in the large lounge where the performances occurred and things went much better.

They have a cashless system where you register your credit card and your room key card is your onboard account so you do not need money for drinks or purchases. Also they credit $10 per person per day so you don't have to worry about tipping. You can change the if you like but that seemed reasonable to us. Also you can tip a certain person more if you wish. The breakdown of the $10 is $3 to stateroom steward, $3 to dinner steward and the rest between the other staff.

I was impressed that I saw no paper or paper products throughout the ship. Even in the public restrooms were cloth towels for hands. The cafeteria had regular plates and linen napkins.

I am hooked and would indeed go again. My husband would like to try out another line but I am not sure how this could be improved upon. As far as passengers the average seemed to be 40-60 with a few older and a few young couples some with kids. We only ran across 2 people who were drunk.