My parents organized this trip to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. My husband and I brought our two children, ages 9 and 12, and my brother and his wife brought their two children, ages 3 and 5. Some aunts and uncles came, and my 21-year-old cousin, for a group of 15 people.

This cruise turned out to be a great way to entertain all those people of different generations. We had opportunities to do things together, but it was also easy to split up and do things in small groups or individually. Our kids did not use the children's program a lot, but when they did go they enjoyed it. The staff seemed to do a good job of making the kids feel comfortable and have fun. My 12-year-old could have joined the teen club, which concerned me a bit because the 12- to 17-year-olds were all combined for this trip. She preferred to be with her family or read on a deck chair, so she never joined the teen club.

Our room, a balcony room on deck seven, was bigger than I expected, clean, and fairly quiet (we were about halfway down the hall from the Centrum.) One relative on deck eight was annoyed by noises from the pool deck above late at night. I loved having a balcony and spent a lot of time sitting out there, reading or enjoying the view. We also brought a travel clothesline and used the balcony to dry laundry and swimsuits. We splurged and put our kids in a separate room across the hall. If all four of us had been in the same room, it would have been very crowded. The interior room seemed to be a mirror image of the balcony room, only a tiny bit smaller. Read more