This was our first cruise and we were traveling with my elderly, but active parents. My wife and I are in our mid 40s and our son is 11. My wife was very nervous and does not like water, but everyone told her not to worry, that you dont even feel that youre on a boat. I had always wanted to go on a cruise and was really looking forward to it, as was my son.
My parents live in Fort Myers so we flew there from the Midwest and stayed with them for a few days prior to driving to Miami. The drive did not start out well. It was very cloudy and windy, and by the time we got to Miami, it was raining cats and dogs to the point we couldnt even see the freeway signs. But it let up enough that we found our way to the dock with no problem. We got there around 1:00 PM and embarkation was not too bad. Because our family had a junior suite and my parents were elderly, we all had priority boarding. However, it wasnt really an advantage because you had to walk all the way to the end, and then, after going up a level, all the way back to board the ship. So, in actuality, it was a lot longer walk than if we didnt have priority boarding. But I can see that if there were long lines, then it was probably quicker, but at 1:00 PM there were not any lines.
Upon boarding the ship, we immediately bought a soda mug they sold for unlimited soda for $6 a day. We also bought one for our son for $4 a day since were all soda drinkers. However, just buying one would have been sufficient, as you could fill it up as many times as you want and they NEVER checked your sticker on your card, they just filled em up. The ship was very clean and did not show much of the age as Ive read in some reviews. Better than what I expected. We went to our room, which was already ready, and our luggage was already there. For the price I highly recommend the junior suite as it was very spacious, had lots of drawer and closet space and the balcony and view were great. Plus, being on deck 10 it was close to the pool deck and Windjammer Cafe, which was on Deck 11. The room showed a little age, but was clean and we used the refrigerator. It had a nice queen bed, a couch, which pulled out into a double bed our son used, a chair and a table and a desk. So, we were very happy with our room.