A bit about the boat.

The ship was large, to say the least. 12 stories high, or at least there were 12 we could go on, there were probably more at the bottom, engine rooms and that sort of thing.

There were 14 restaurants, 4 of which you had to pay a cover charge to get in, between $10 and $25, dependng on the fancy-ness of it. We didn't bother with those, they were sort of dressy, and the fact that we had 11 others to choose from that were free...well, it was a no-brainer.

There was a duty free liquor store (mmmm...free samples from 6:30-10:30 nightly), a duty free perfume/make-up place (too expensive for me), a large gift shop, a $10 store (like our dollar stores, but everything was $10. Pashminas, sunglasses, lots of jewellery and purses, I didn't buy anything there, although it was really popular and crowded all the time)

There was a gym, and some very fancy spa's where you could get sea-weed wraps (on your body, not to eat) mud treatments, massages, manicures and pedicures, hair cuts and styles and so on. I didn't use any of those either, I'm just not a girly-girl. Also, to my surprise, an art gallery which actually had a Renoir, a Monet, a few Picasso's and Chagals, and a Rembrandt, amongst others. I saw a fellow buy something, not sure what, for $16,500.00...and that was in US funds! Good God. There were also a plethora of jewellery stores, selling a lot of emeralds, opals, silver and gold, rubies and sapphires. Not a lot of diamonds, I don't know why that would be.

And a casino, with poker, craps, roulette and those type of table games, plus slots. We actually had a lot of fun in there, more on that later.

A cigar place, a photo studio, internet cafe, a library, 'quiet rooms', a chapel, a kids place and a teen arcade were also all available.

There were all sorts of observation places, with chairs and little coffee bars scattered around, both inside and out, so there was always a place to curl up and read or just sightsee. Outside there were hot tubs, a large pool, a kiddies pool, basketball courts and a golf area. There was a lot to occupy youself with.

Every evening a little ships newspaper was delivered to the room with all the info of what was going on the following day, bingo, shuffleboard, all sorts of seminars from how to get a flatter tummy (yeah, I should have gone to that one, but what the hell...) to how to use an Ulu knife (and I bought Shane an ulu knife, so I did go to that one).

There was a theatre with live entertainment each night, from magicians to blues singers to broadway type shows and even a Cirque de Soleil type thing on the final night, and it was as good as any Vegas show. Plus all free, and of course things are always better when they are free!

I was pleased at the lack of lines and crowds. Nothing was ever full capacity and wait times were minimal.

The staff were fantastic, so friendly and happy to chat. They all wore nametags with their homeland on it, mostly they seemed to be from Mexico, Indonesia, the Philipines, Thailand, and oddly enough, Romania.

The ship itself was spotless, there was constant cleaning and painting going on all the time.