Cruise virgin no more, here are my thoughts from the one day cruise to Seattle I went on last weekend.
The good:
A suite with my very own private verandah.
Watching TV from my queen sized bed.
Turn down service.
In-room dining: bay shrimp cocktail with cocktail sauce, smoked atlantic salmon with pickled red onion, capers and cream cheese, caesar salad and seared salmon steak with broccoli florets, carrots and country mashed potatoes.
The bad:
* Missing bathrobe from my stateroom. I had to hunt down a steward in the hall to get me one.
* No access for the passengers to any of the books in the library cuz we were overnight passengers.
* 8pm cut-off time for their complimentary ship flicks (1000+ dvd rentals) cuz we were overnight passengers. No notice of the restriction whatsoever. I only found out about that “rule” when I called at around 830pm.
* Missing a blanket from my stateroom. I had to call guest services twice to get a blanket. The first time to put in the RQ and the second time cuz half an hour later, I still did not receive it. (they had lost my RQ in the queue)
* A mess-up of on my midnight snack order of apple tart with whipped cream, an apple and crackers. Not only did they not bring me an apple tart, but it took 45 mins to arrive. When I called back to advise them of their mistake, I was on hold for nearly an hour because their lines were jammed beyond belief and they were completely overwhelmed with midnight orders.
* Massive delay in getting me the in-room breakfast which I had pre-booked the night before. I was suppose to be served breakfast before disembarkation between 8am-830am, but it did not arrive until 8:50. I was in the group which was scheduled to disembark between 9am-930am.
Although the cruise staff were all congenial, they were completely unprepared and halpless for the 1000 or so people that boarded in Vancouver for this one day re-positioning cruise.
A big huge fail.
I’m not a cruise expert, but I would hope that this is not the usual cruise experience. As a first time cruise passenger, I have to say that this definitely fell short of my expectations. I’m not saying that i would never cruise again, but it may be a while before I try it again.
The ship and my room were definitely swank though.
View more photos of my overnight cruise on my Flickr album.
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