This was my 35 wedding anniversary cruise to Alaska for my wife and I. We did the land portion first for 7 days, and then the Southward bound 7 day cruise. I have gone on at least 5 other cruises in my life, several of them 21+ days, but that was 32 years ago. My wife had never gone a cruise so she had nothing to compare this experience to other than the level of service and food she was accustomed to when we traveled. My wife tells me that I set my expectations to high; I judge the level of service by how we are treated at the Fairmont Hotels, or for that matter, one of the better hotels on the strip in Las Vegas like Bellagio or Caesar's. This was nothing like that, the accountants are running the hospitality aspects of the ship and it reflects poorly on the company.

Here are two very small, annoying processes that have been put in place on board ship. Number one, you cannot run a tab. Every time you order a drink you must close out the tab. This is very annoying especially during dinner. Number two, when I ordered the mixed drinks they tasted quite a bit off and I struck up a conversation with the bartender. As it turned out, no matter what the drink called for only an ounce and a half of liquor could be placed in any one drink. Whatever you do don’t ask for an Irish Coffee since the only place that can server/mix both coffee and alcohol is the Starbuck like coffee stand on the 5 level, and your wait for the beverage will be substantial as the wait staff runs between resources obtaining and the ingredients and then doing the booking to charge you. As you can imagine, if the process has gotten down two the beverage level it has become pervasive in all aspects of ship life.

The food at it’s best is mediocre and you always felt rushed. This also applies to the two other premium restaurants alternatives on board. We were fortunate in that on our stateroom level we had access to a concierge, so we worked all our fixes through him. He was a God-send since when you were forced to work with the rest of he crew they did not see to understand the concept of “accommodating” the guests requests. The front desk would typically say no to requests that were a little off the norm without offering you any other alternatives or possibilities even with the proper handshake. My wife enjoyed herself but I strongly feel that I did not receive fair value for my money.