coconut123
February 23rd, 2010, 12:38 PM
:)I recently got back from a 3 night celebration cruise from ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas. My overall review is good. We are a family of 5 so we had to have 2 rooms. We had the best rooms available on the 8th deck, number 8148 and 8150, with an adjoining door inside. We paid around $1,500 for all 5 of us in the 2 rooms. This does not include gratuities. These are the main things I would like to point out:
1. Even though this is an older ship, it is very clean and well kept. The crew was all over maintaining things all around. The rooms we were in were spacious and the bed was comfortable and the sheets were clean. Again, the rooms were very clean and the housekeeping staff was friendly and accommodating. This is important to me so I was pleased with this aspect of the cruise. For example on the first night, there was no hot water in either one of our rooms. I called the front desk and they immediately sent a plumber and he fixed the problem within 10 minutes and it was fine the rest of the weekend.
2. Most of the areas of the ship look a little out dated, but there were some areas that have been redone and were nice and modern. They have a beautiful spa and gym area. I did not have any spa services done, but they do offer quite a bit of services if you are interested.
3. For breakfast, they have 2 areas to eat, either in Rios or outside on the pool deck. They served a traditional breakfast buffet and it was good. Lunch was also a buffet outside and it was good too. The only downside is that it is crowded, the lines are long and it takes a while to get your food and drinks. And, it seems like they do not have enough tables for all the people on board. There is only one self serve drink station set up near the food. It’s kind of awkward managing your food, drinks and then trying to find a spot to eat.
4. I did not think they had a lot of good choices for dinner, but whatever I tried was good. The service at dinner was ok, and the staff was friendly.
5. The kid’s area has a fun slide that my kids loved. The slide ends in a shallow area, so they don’t need to know how to swim to enjoy the slide. The kid’s area is more like a splash/play area, not a pool.
6. The adult’s pool is ok and there were kids in it, my kids loved it. However, after a while this area became crowded with adults who were drinking a lot and dancing. But, everything was peaceful; they were just having a good time. There is a DJ set up above the pool and he was funny and entertaining. I did not go in this pool, but I did enjoy the hot tub. Kids were in the hot tub also. There was a sign by the adult pool and hot tub that said 12 years and older, however, the kids were going in and nobody said anything. I was happy about that. My only complaint is that there was not really a good area set up for families to enjoy pool together. We were doing a lot of walking back and forth from the slide to the pool to the hot tub and were not able to find any place to keep our things because the ship was full and they don’t have enough lounge chairs for everyone to relax.
7. They have complimentary ice cream, which was always open when we wanted it. If you choose to have a fancy cone, you had to pay extra for the cone.
8. A 15% gratuity charge is added to everything you buy. For example if you buy a bottle of water, they add 15% to it. I was ok with that. Soda is not included in your price, so if you want to drink soda, you can buy an unlimited soda package for $26 per person. If not it would be $2.00 a glass plus the tip every time. We bought this for the kids and they added 15% to that too. I found that a little annoying. However, a few times they did not charge us for our sodas since the kids had the package.
9. We went to the entertainment show on the last night. It was good and even my kids were interested in the first part of it. It starts with a few acts from cirque de sole and then with a very funny comedian.
10. Getting on and off the ship was fine, but there is always a lot of waiting. I believe it is the same with all cruise ships. There were not any dogs sniffing people at customs when we got off the ship. I read on another review that there were dogs and it made people feel like criminals, but that did not happen on this cruise.
11. They have a lot of good choices for excursions in the Bahamas. We choose Cable Beach with lunch package and were very happy with it. The weather was perfect and the beach was beautiful. We also had access to the pool, slide and hot tub of the Cable Beach resorts. You can rent a jet ski, go parasailing or snorkeling at this beach (for an extra cost.) I can’t wait to go back there. Next time, I will fly straight to the Bahamas and skip this cruise though.
12. Overall, this cruise was ok, but I would not recommend it to any of my friends or family and I personally would not go on it again. If you already booked it, don’t worry, go and have a good time. It was fine. The best part was our day in the Bahamas. That saved the whole weekend. If you are considering this cruise, and have not booked it, I would recommend choosing a more upscale cruise line if you can. Otherwise it is fine.
13. The guests on the cruise ranged from elderly people who just wanted to relax to young single people to couples to families. However, it did seem like there were a lot of drinkers and smokers and people who just wanted to party. So this cruise is fine for that. But if you are used to a more upscale/classy type of crowd and dining experience, you might be disappointed.
14. If you have any questions that I can answer, I would be happy to help!;)
1. Even though this is an older ship, it is very clean and well kept. The crew was all over maintaining things all around. The rooms we were in were spacious and the bed was comfortable and the sheets were clean. Again, the rooms were very clean and the housekeeping staff was friendly and accommodating. This is important to me so I was pleased with this aspect of the cruise. For example on the first night, there was no hot water in either one of our rooms. I called the front desk and they immediately sent a plumber and he fixed the problem within 10 minutes and it was fine the rest of the weekend.
2. Most of the areas of the ship look a little out dated, but there were some areas that have been redone and were nice and modern. They have a beautiful spa and gym area. I did not have any spa services done, but they do offer quite a bit of services if you are interested.
3. For breakfast, they have 2 areas to eat, either in Rios or outside on the pool deck. They served a traditional breakfast buffet and it was good. Lunch was also a buffet outside and it was good too. The only downside is that it is crowded, the lines are long and it takes a while to get your food and drinks. And, it seems like they do not have enough tables for all the people on board. There is only one self serve drink station set up near the food. It’s kind of awkward managing your food, drinks and then trying to find a spot to eat.
4. I did not think they had a lot of good choices for dinner, but whatever I tried was good. The service at dinner was ok, and the staff was friendly.
5. The kid’s area has a fun slide that my kids loved. The slide ends in a shallow area, so they don’t need to know how to swim to enjoy the slide. The kid’s area is more like a splash/play area, not a pool.
6. The adult’s pool is ok and there were kids in it, my kids loved it. However, after a while this area became crowded with adults who were drinking a lot and dancing. But, everything was peaceful; they were just having a good time. There is a DJ set up above the pool and he was funny and entertaining. I did not go in this pool, but I did enjoy the hot tub. Kids were in the hot tub also. There was a sign by the adult pool and hot tub that said 12 years and older, however, the kids were going in and nobody said anything. I was happy about that. My only complaint is that there was not really a good area set up for families to enjoy pool together. We were doing a lot of walking back and forth from the slide to the pool to the hot tub and were not able to find any place to keep our things because the ship was full and they don’t have enough lounge chairs for everyone to relax.
7. They have complimentary ice cream, which was always open when we wanted it. If you choose to have a fancy cone, you had to pay extra for the cone.
8. A 15% gratuity charge is added to everything you buy. For example if you buy a bottle of water, they add 15% to it. I was ok with that. Soda is not included in your price, so if you want to drink soda, you can buy an unlimited soda package for $26 per person. If not it would be $2.00 a glass plus the tip every time. We bought this for the kids and they added 15% to that too. I found that a little annoying. However, a few times they did not charge us for our sodas since the kids had the package.
9. We went to the entertainment show on the last night. It was good and even my kids were interested in the first part of it. It starts with a few acts from cirque de sole and then with a very funny comedian.
10. Getting on and off the ship was fine, but there is always a lot of waiting. I believe it is the same with all cruise ships. There were not any dogs sniffing people at customs when we got off the ship. I read on another review that there were dogs and it made people feel like criminals, but that did not happen on this cruise.
11. They have a lot of good choices for excursions in the Bahamas. We choose Cable Beach with lunch package and were very happy with it. The weather was perfect and the beach was beautiful. We also had access to the pool, slide and hot tub of the Cable Beach resorts. You can rent a jet ski, go parasailing or snorkeling at this beach (for an extra cost.) I can’t wait to go back there. Next time, I will fly straight to the Bahamas and skip this cruise though.
12. Overall, this cruise was ok, but I would not recommend it to any of my friends or family and I personally would not go on it again. If you already booked it, don’t worry, go and have a good time. It was fine. The best part was our day in the Bahamas. That saved the whole weekend. If you are considering this cruise, and have not booked it, I would recommend choosing a more upscale cruise line if you can. Otherwise it is fine.
13. The guests on the cruise ranged from elderly people who just wanted to relax to young single people to couples to families. However, it did seem like there were a lot of drinkers and smokers and people who just wanted to party. So this cruise is fine for that. But if you are used to a more upscale/classy type of crowd and dining experience, you might be disappointed.
14. If you have any questions that I can answer, I would be happy to help!;)