Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 12:10:37 -0400
From: "Catherine Hester" <chester@co.ho.md.us> 
Subject: Review

Having cruised on Norwegian's Windward to Alaska in 1994, the Sun Princess to the Mexican Riviera, and more recently on Carnival's Imagination to the Western Caribbean, we were really looking forward to the deep Southern Caribbean itinerary this time.  We've always heard how fabulous Aruba, St. Maarten, and Curacao were.  We had been to Puerto Rico and St. Thomas before on land trips.  This ship not only exceeded our expectations in every way, but the ports above provided a real European flavor in the midst of colorful Caribbean ambience.

Compared to the other cruiselines, RCCL is top notch.  The service was impeccable, the staff well trained, the amenaties outstanding, and the feeling on the ship was warm, friendly, happy, diverse, and just plain wonderful.  If I had to make one negative comment, it would be the quality of the nightly shows.  While it is nice to have a regular cast of singers and dancers, seeing the same group of people every night with little variation in the presentation of the shows became monotonous.  The guest entertainers (while my teenage daughter and husband loved them- the Nelson Brothers), I thought were kind of cheesy for this class of ship and passengers.  While I liked nothing about Carnival cruiseline, its nightly entertainment was superb, comparable to any little show in Las Vegas.  But this is the only disappointing feature of the RCCL cruise.

My only other comment is that the cruise director was too polished- too flashy/commercialized, and too business-like.  But I guess that's why RCCL is so successful because they run the ships like big business, which it is!

We all loved the executive chef, Henri.  He appeared on the promenade one day and did a live cooking demonstration.  He was smart, funny, and very personable, in addition to being a great chef.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching him.  Our cabin steward couldn't have been nicer, as well as our waiter and head waiter.  My daughter still misses Erdal telling her to eat, lots and lots (since she's so picky at home, but did what Erdal told her to do- one night she ordered 3 desserts and he told her she'd better finish it or he'd feed her!) We were surprised though that there was no midnight buffet every night, only one gala buffet.  The 24-hour Windjammer/Island Grill was also not open 24 hours.  On one of the nights we went hunting for food; there was no midnight buffet and the Windjammer was "closed for cleaning."  The only thing available was the coffee shop.

Overall, we would not hesitate to book another RCCL cruise, to another destination.  It is the best way for a multi-generational family like ours (my parents in their 70's, my husband and I in our mid-40's, and our two teenage children (16 and 18) to spend some real quality time together onboard.  It is the only vacation where everyone is content and happy because there's something for everyone to do (or not do).

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