This was our 6th cruise overall and 2nd with Carnival. Both of our cruises with Carnival have come since the economic melt down so I don't know if is due to cuts that Carnival has made and perhaps RCCL has done the same thing, but it felt to us as if there were a lot more planned activities on our RCCL cruises than either of our Carnival cruises.
Day One - Embarkation
We arrived at the port via the Alamo shuttle bus around 11am. I would estimate that our wait time in line was about 10 minutes to get through the first security check point. We had attempted to get some rum and tequila through in some water bottles, but that failed. Just because the bottles are sealed isn't enough to get them through. Tip to people thinking of trying to get alcohol through, if the fluid bubbles they will confiscate it. At the same time as I was being told our bottles were a no go, another gentlemen was having to take each of his bottles out of a sealed water package and having the 2 our of 24 that were alcohol confiscated. Oh well.
Our room 8189 was a balcony room on the Verandah level. The room was midship and 7 doors down from the rotunda elevator lobby. I would recommend this location to anyone who is considering this ship. The lido deck is where many of the activities take place so being just below it is very convenient, but the room was far enough forward that there were other rooms above us so we didn't have to hear everything above us. The size of the room was nothing spectacular but we had more than enough room for the two of us to not be tripping over each other. The shower was big enough that my 6' 360 pound frame could fit with room to spare so that was good. It would have been nice if the room had one of the nice flat screen TVs that we saw in a few other rooms as we walked through the halls. The color scheme of the room was definitely dated and the pink sink could use a change but overall the bed was comfy and I would not mind to be in the room on a future cruise.