To begin with, this was my first pleasure cruise, so I'm a newbie to cruising. I've been out to sea numerous times before courtesy of Uncle Sam's submarine fleet, trust me, this was considerably more enjoyable.

Baltimore is very convenient to where I live, so it was easy to choose as the embarkation port. The process of getting up to the pier by taxi was rather extreme, I had to get out of the taxi and ask someone to put us in a line for drop offs. It cost me $10 extra just sitting and waiting. Once we dropped off the luggage and got in line, the check in process went fairly quickly with one notable snafu (situation normal, all "messed" up, for non-Navy types). We chose a 7th deck balcony cabin, received our boarding book with #7092, and luggage tags marked #7092. No one mentioned during the check in process that we'd been upgraded to 8074. After multiple tries to get in 7092, and two trips to the purser's desk, we found out we were trying to get into someone else's room. Of course, this meant they tried to deliver our luggage there as well. Fortunately, we worked it out pretty quick and were thrilled with the Junior Suite. The cabin was very nice, spacious and comfortable. Couple the extremely comfortable bed with the gentle rocking of the ship and I slept quite well, 11 hours the first night. The steward was great, kept the cabin in great shape. The bathroom was well equipped, full tub and shower, instant hot water, and the save the waves program was a nice touch. The private balcony was roomy, and comfortable, it was great to sit out there and read while listening to the ocean as we passed through it. I think you can tell I was quite happy with the cabin, but my favorite part of the whole trip was the food.

The food was fabulous. I'm a very picky eater and never had a problem with getting what I wanted or enough to eat. Our wait staff, especially Atilla, was a joy to deal with. He and our assistant waiter went out of their way to make sure we were happy, and genuinely seemed to enjoy our being there. They made dinner in the Gatsby a pleasure, besides the fact that the food was great. We ate first sitting, next to the Captain's table, although he ate second sitting, so we weren't able to see him or his guests. I enjoyed the decor and the entertainment in the Gatsby very much. We usually ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer, which had a very nice assortment of food, and pleasant staff. The gym was nice, I spent most of my gym time on the treadmills, and some of them were in need of repair. If I went to the gym around 3:30 or 4:00 pm there was no wait for equipment and no line behind me, so I could use the treadmill longer than the requested 20 minute time limit. Running outside on the track was hit and miss, due to the wind conditions, if we headed into the wind you could have a 40 knot wind in your face, which isn't easy to walk in, much less run. Read more