We’re home from our first ever cruise experience and I’m not sure what to write. I took basically no photos and I guess the best (or worse) I can say is that I’m ambivalent. Disappointing, I know. I had many friends anxiously awaiting my thoughts because they too had yet to venture to the world of cruising.
The cabin? Small, but certainly serviceable and they provide turn down service each evening with mints and towels shaped into different animals. It’s also nice to have unlimited free room service available!
The boat? Ours was a bit dated (although a fellow passenger mentioned it had been recently updated) and smaller than some I’ve seen on TV. If we ever go again I’ll spend a lot more time looking at the boat, it’s size, and offerings.
The not-that-grand atrium did take me back to Vegas a bit
The food? Plentiful. Some good, some not so good, lots of in between. Lee was pleased to find a 24-hour ice cream machine.
The ceiling of the peacock themed casual restaurant (did I mention I took no photos?)
The weather? Not hot enough to lay out on deck chairs and while not a product of cruising, a real bummer for me. The hallways inside were really cool so pack some longer sleeves for indoors.
The shows? Community-theater level performances with cheesy sets. Most of the live musicians playing in bars and around the boat were okay though.
The activities? The pool is much smaller than it looks in the photos, the mini-golf had no windmill, the workout facilities were nice enough, and we never did gamble at the casino (can you believe it??).
The excursions? We didn’t plan on doing any, but Lee did end up going golfing in Catalina. He found out it would be just him and one other guy with the golf pro the entire round so in essence it was a 5-hour playing lesson at a bargain price. Most of the excursions sounded a bit too formulaic and I heard people talking about ’surprise’ costs or add-on fees / gratuities.
In general it’s clear that the cruiseline is not making any money on the cost you pay for the cruise itself. They’re constantly selling . . . a photographer taking everyone’s photos and displaying them the next day for sale. A fine jewelery sale. An ‘art’ auction. A golf seminar that really is a sales pitch for rounds of golf excursions and a clearance sale on merchandise. Bingo cards. Shore excursions. Booze specials. ‘Tours’ of the spa, shopping seminars for the places you must go to buy when you head ashore (I’m guessing the cruise line gets a commission), and so much more. It’s a shame really since the activities not designed to sell anything don’t get nearly as much enthusiasm from the staff.
We did win a free foot massage at the ’spa tour.’ Technically Lee won, but since he wasn’t present to win and they weren’t checking ID, I raised my hand when they called his name 
.
We also spent some quality time watching really bad karaoke. I know this is a horrible stereotype, but each time an African-American person got up to sing I had a small flutter of hope for a show stopping performance. Unfortunately, all of the non-musical, non-rhythmic, tone-deaf African-Americans in the US were on our cruise. They were joined by many of the same Hispanic, Caucasian and Asians as well. Wow. Train wrecking singing is hard to walk away from.
I will say that in general the service was really great and it was nice not to have to plan things to do – if only the weather had been hotter! It also helped our experience that I read in advance about things like how to get off and on quickly, being able to bring on a bottle of wine, only one outlet in the room, etc… I also loved not having to walk around with a purse or bag of any kind although it could be dangerous to just “sign here” for everything. So would we do it again? Maybe. I can see how great it would be if you’re going with kids or with a group – reunion, client event, big birthday type of thing – and didn’t want to have to try to coordinate all the small stuff and try to make everyone happy. You’ll probably only find me back on for one of those reason or if it comes up super cheap and super sunny!
