I traveled with my husband, our five children (2 yr, 6 yr old twins b/g, 9 yr girl, 10 yr girl) and our 20 year old babysitter. This was our first RCCL cruise. We've cruised Disney 2x with the kids, Princess 3x with no kids, and Celebrity 2x with no kids. We drove to Orlando and spent two days in the parks prior to our cruise. We enjoyed a great rate of $129/night for a 2bdrm suite at Staybridge Suites in Lake Buena Vista. We drove to the cruise terminal Sunday morning and arrived about 10:45 a.m. and had no issues unloading or parking the car.

Check in was a bit frustrating - although not the fault of RCCL. We used an online agency who sent us e-docs and they didn't include the immigration info and a couple other forms. I had also gone thru the effort and completed the Set Sail Passes, however, I couldn't print them out upon completion as I was too far out from the sail date. So, guess who forgot to print them at the proper time? That was frustrating as we had to complete the info for 8 people! We were then directed to a Set Sail line - by the person who had handed us all the forms, etc. Then, we got a "newbie" who was trying to do the simple Set Sail stuff and she's got our mess of 8 people, 2 adjoining cabins/accounts, etc. She was very, very slow. It was about a 40 minute process with the agent. So, my fault for not remembering to try and print the passes again, and theirs for sending me in the wrong line and having someone without experience dealing with it. nevertheless, we were headed to the Windjammer before noon! Our room was ready after we ate and off we went!

We found our two D1's to be cozy, but adequate. Our fabulous stateroom attendant, Bernadette, had the balcony partition opened by dinner so that was easy to go between the two rooms. We left the balcony doors unlocked during the day so that all of us could access both rooms without doing a room key juggle. We liked the balcony partitions better than those on Princess (those are smaller and you have to step thru a door, it doesn't make just one big balcony on the Grand or the Sea Princess.) Bernadette also accommodated us by allowing a rollaway in the cabin - both room had sofa beds, but the kids don't do well sharing a bed. So, we made up the couch (not pulled out) and had a rollaway next to it. No problem. Same scenario in our room with the pack and play. We really appreciated the rounded shower door - not the nasty curtains of other cruiselines we've sailed! Storage was fine for all of us- 4 adults in a room would be VERY tight. I packed all the kids' things in varying sizes of ziplock bags - it made unpacking and repacking a breeze and it kept everything neatly organized throughout the trip. Read more