This was probable the prettiest and nicest cruise ships out of 14 that we have been on. The embarkation was very easy(though everyone has fun passes) and we were in the cafe for lunch by 12:30. Our cabins were not ready until,as they state, 1:30. On this ship they have large doors that block the entrance to the decks the cabins are on and mostly do not open them until 1:30. I thought the food was very good both in the dining room and the Lido Cafe.

Our cabin (inside on the 8th deck) was very nice and the bathroom even nicer. Both were good size for cruise ships. Our room steward, Angel, was excellent. We gave him an extra $20 as we did not spend any money( the cruise line will not want us to come back) so we decided just to tip him a little more as we did the dining room stewards.

The service in the dining room--we had Igor and Rudi--was superb and we certainly did not find the lack of service mentioned by some.

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One question--why do they use so many dishes? It just seems such a waste. There would be a sufficent amount of food in these giant plates sitting on another giant plate.

The service people were always cleaning and we never observed them standing around talking but were always busy with some chore. They always spoke in a cheerful manner, never failed.

The return guests social was O.K. but not great. The Phanton Lounge was full and the social consisted of free drinks and snacks and a couple of games played with the audience.

We were sorta unlucky as we hit a rainy week which caused us not to get off the ship at Belize and Cozemel. It rained every morning and quite hard. some one said this was the rainy season in this area so that might be a reason to avoid this time of the year and that is probably why it is cheaper also.

We thought the ports left a lot to be desired. All the tours are very expensive and this is the first time out of 14 cruises that we did not take a tour in every port that we visited. Unless you are in to snorkling, beaches and shopping, there isn't much else to choose from.The Grand Cayman stop is nice and if you just want to tour the island, these tours can be gotten at dockside for $15 to $20. There is not much to see there except the Turtle Farm and the post office called Hell. They have completely cut out all the visits to to see the sting rays on any of the stops and this used to be a very interesting thing to do in Grand Cayman. Because of the rain we were unable to get off at Belize but those who did said there were only flea market shops and nothing much there. Neither did we get off at Cozumel It was long walk over and pouring down the rain.

Do not fail to get off the ship at Costa Maya. This is a very long walk over but once you get on dockside, it is amazing what they have done to the port. They have put in a large swimming pool, picnic tables with thatched unbrellas over them and just made an interesting stop for cruise ships. If you missed the post office called Hell on Grand Cayman, you can see the formation that is behind the post office here at this port. But beware of the flea market shops. They are very pushy here. We stopped to look at a stone that I had had in costume jewelry and immediately, the merchant came up and said you can have that for $150 and when he saw we were not interested he brought it down $50. This was just plain costume jewelry so beware.

On each of the stair landings at the elevators were some of the worst art work, I have ever seen. A 6 year old could have done as well. Most of them were just bright colors dabbed on and made no sense. The enclosed glass things on these landings were beautiful though.

We both got colds after we got home. I wonder how many more get colds. We have done so on our last 2 cruises. I thought the grapes and pink lights in the dining room were sorta pretty and elegant. The shows each night were good but not great. the ship entertainers were very good and the night they put on "The Blues Brothers" show was very good.

This was not one of our best cruises but it was O.K.