My Cruise Adventures

Service

I shared a suite with one of the conference speakers. Unfortunately, this has forever spoiled me and I will no longer be content with a cheap inside cabin. The suite comes with various amenities, such as free champagne upon arrival and free dry cleaning. The balcony was large, containing two lounge chairs as well as a table and four chairs. We also had a sofabed and two chairs inside, as well as a nice dressing room and a very large bathroom with shower and spa tub.

Our cabin steward, Diding, was truly excellent. Our suite was always spotless. When we decided to hold a rum and coke party, he was able to scare up several limes on short notice. One of his traits was to behave as the elves did in the story about the shoemaker - we seldom saw him in action but the results were unmistakable.

Joko, our dining steward, was also top notch. Unfortunately, I think they gave him too many tables as we seemed to have a longer delay between ordering and receiving food than did other tables.

The piano bar had two waiters that not only provided excellent fast service but also did card and magic tricks and help lead the singalongs. As a result, we tended to hang out at the piano bar more than the others. One of the other bars had truly terrible service - we ordered drinks, then fifteen minutes later the waiter came back to verify our order. Another fifteen minutes passed before we got our three drinks, and one of them was wrong.