We have made 46 cruises, and this cruise, by far, was the worst cruise we have ever taken.

1. The suite was very nice, plenty of closets and nice decoration. Balcony had RATTAN chairs. Every night water came all the way up to our suite, leaving nice pieces of salt between the rattan to be used for breakfast, I guess.

2. A lot of brass all over the ship, shining at all times.

3. To the contrast of the above, were the scoffed officers' shoes or sneakers.

4. No matter who you wanted to talk to -- housekeeping, room service, photo or any other shop etc., etc. -- you could only call 99, front desk, and they wanted to know at all times who you wanted and what you wanted to talk about. Every crew member was scared. During dinner, supervisors were making notes as to what the pax. wanted and what the waiter ordered, so that he could not order something more for himself. They were watching their supervisors at all times over their shoulder. VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. I did know what the waiters talked about to each other. Nearly all of them Indonesian, 350 of them from Bali and Jakarta alone. I have lived in Indonesia for 19 years, during that time having 6 servants and a factory with 600 employees. I speak their language fluently, could understand it, and all I picked up was that they only get 2 meals a day. No wonder they tried to get some extra. No wonder that one day a servant from Madagascar jumped overboard, that the next day a servant from India jumped overboard and then a servant from China wanted to jump, but they were able to get to him at the last minute and locked him up. The ship went in circles for over 5 hours, so we missed Cayo Levantado, Samana, Dominican Republic, and went to Nassau instead. There were no announcements regarding the 2 dead people, etc., etc., and no apologies either.

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5. I requested 99 during the night some orange juice (book says room service 24 hours round the clock). 99 got me a room service guy on the phone, who told me that he could not bring orange juice, but he could come to our cabin to explain it all to me, absurd. A CONFERENCE WITH A BELL BOY AT NIGHT RE: ORANGE JUICE?

6. One night I was very sick. The doctor visited me in my cabin, gave antibiotics and told me to eat something. I asked my wife to bring me some desert. NOT ALLOWED. She had to take the desert in her evening handbag so that nobody saw it, otherwise the waiter would get into trouble.

7. 30% or so of the pax. were deaf mutes. They all went as a pack to whatever public room they were headed, leaving no room for others. To make it worse, any announcement or speech or instruction was said in Italian, Spanish, French, German and last, but not least, even English for the 15% or so American and English-speaking guests.

8. In regards to point number 5, I did visit the Head of Hotel and his assistant. They told me that this would NEVER happen again. I told them that in my opinion they had no authority whatsoever. Needless to say that never DID get the orange juice. However, the next day I got a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. Ra Ra.

9. The food was terrible, hardly any choices. They did not know what a soufflee was, and thought a ceasar salad was iceberg salad with slices of cheese on top. I guess I'd better stop. One thing was funny, they report to US Customs all purchases made. So they called me and wanted to see my Custom declaration, because I bought more than the exempt $800 -- all of it was on my declaration.

10. Suggestion: MCR CRUISE COMP stay in Europe. You people have NO idea what brings Americans on board. I could not find ONE American couple who would sail with you again. Formal night 3, nearly all Americans in Tux, maybe 70% of the Europeans did not know what a Tux meant, I guess, but they all know slippers and shorts, and Italian woman all like movie stars. HOWEVER NOTHING STOPPED US AND THE OTHER PAX WE TRAVELLED TOGETHER WITH FROM HAVING A GOOD TIME. After all, there was at most times plenty of food and the shore excursions were very nice and well organized.