Long before breakfast starting to be served I was back on deck to enjoy that amazing sunshine and very warm temperature, also most importantly to have the ship for myself for some time, "CRUISE ROMA" is a really smooth ship even travelling at 27.5 knots, I thought she would recover from the late departure but she needs twelve hours at least to get to Porto Torres, and this is travelling at an average speed of 26 knots, so there is no margin to spare, she always travels very fast using 85% of her power to get to 27 knots, really good and no vibration at all on any part of the ship, an early start and close inspection to her deck number 11, revealed her first low, the deck was filthy, the night before I've noticed a lot and I mean a lot of smokers, I understand and accept that smokers need to have designated areas, but the main problem is not much smokers everywhere but, worryingly you can tell where they've been, there was cigarette ends literally everywhere, this is not acceptable and of course quite dangerous, her mainly philippine crew dealt with the cleaning of the deck and she was spotless a couple of hours later before the incoming crowds start to emerge to soak up the sun, for a dip in the pool and for some drinks, I was pleasantly surprised to note that some dog owners slept on decks with their dogs, it is not compulsory on this ship to book a reclining seat, you can occupy what is known as a "deck space", a kind word for dog owners that behaved a lot lot better than smokers, soon before midday I enjoyed my first half a pint of lager and that costed, 3.50 euros which is of course very expensive, everything apart from espresso coffee which comes at just one euro is terribly expensive, just a brief line to advise any future passengers reading this report, that you need to take a reasonable amount of euros, don't rely on your credit cards, first because on some areas of the voyage there is no signal, so transactions cannot be finalized and you are requested to leave an ID document for later and they are not accepted for amounts lower than 10 euros, which it is something I cannot understand, this by the way brings me to another low point, really low point of this ship, food, it is the worst food I have tried anywhere on board a ship, self-service and "A La Carte", bars, it's just terrible, I feel really sorry to write this, but the quality of food provided on board is really poor and there was some people disappointed because after all passengers were travelling on an Italian ship, so not what they were expecting. The crew on this ship is very friendly, officers and hotel managers are Italian but they all speak very good Spanish, someone really needs to take a note on the irritating repetitive announcements that are made on board this ship, dozens, yes dozens of the very same announcement, if for instance the bar on deck number 11 is now open for food, I don't normally take much notice of this, so for me to write these comments it's because they can be irritating and they come in three languages, Italian, Spanish and English, really good English by the way, still talking about lows on this ship, another low point is the cleanliness on the toilets, some of them also look 15 years old at least, "CRUISE ROMA" is not six years old yet, so a new ship, but some areas really need some attention, before becomes to costly for the company. Photos 14.7.2013
