All Aboard

There were four restaurants, two of them huge with identical menus that changed daily: Four Seasons and Seven Seas, as well as the smaller Pasta Café that required reservations, and Le Bistro French Restaurant that cost an extra $15 per person per meal. In addition to these there was a buffet area up on the pool deck, a burger and fries type of stand also on the pool deck, plus a coffee shop that looked more like a bar, and several real bars and lounges. We attended the mandatory safety drill and then headed to the SailAway buffet party. It was mobbed. Poor crowd flow jammed everyone up at the ice cream station, blocking the way to a room of virtually untouched buffet food. Fortunately, this first day was the worst as far as overcrowding and long lines.

We checked out the various lounge areas and gift shops to familiarize ourselves. We saw the 24 hour casino (cha-ching $$), the fine art auction ($$), the spa ($$) with a wide variety of services including teeth whitening(?!), the photo gallery where you could view and purchase ($) your group’s newest set of photos daily, the display of Columbian emeralds we’d be hearing about all week ($$$); the ship even offered classes on shopping for the particular items each of the destinations were known for.

That’s Entertainment

A great Calypso band played by the pool and in the evening a kick-off show was held in one of the large theaters. It included a bit of something for everyone: dancing, singing, (crew members in uniform—who knew they were performers?!), a rousing monologue/icebreaker by our cruise director Soozy (clearly a finalist in names with spellings gone really wrong) who told us emphatically that it was OUR cruise and it was up to US whether or not we had fun. Yikes! They were already threatening us on our first night.

Next came an Italian lounge singer who did a version of an Elton John tune. He had a nice voice, but my husband cringed. And the finale was a big band singer—a New Yorker named Tony B who did some Sinatra and Tony Bennet numbers. He did a good job (if you like that sort of thing) and had us all singing along to “That’s Life,” but the act went south when he tried to do the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” which, unfortunately, happened to be our song. Now, two songs forever ruined.