In full disclosure this was my first cruise so I have no basis of comparison. On the other hand, I went into the experience prepared not to like it. I had certain fears that were put to rest by this cruise.

1. I would feel trapped. This was not true at all. There were tons of places to go on the ship for privacy and for fun. Our family of four did book two rooms, adjoining balcony rooms, to address this concern. This was an extra expense but proved worth it if only for the extra bathroom. We did not use the balcony as much as I thought simply because it was more fun in other parts of the ship. But it was nice to have a private and convenient place to go for a nice view and fresh air. If I had it to do over, I might have booked an interior room for the kids (across the hall) to save money. The adjoining room feature was nice. My daughter, 11, slept with the 3yo and kept him quiet until 8am so we could sleep a little later.

2. I would get seasick. Again, not true. The motion did take some getting used to. We packed motion sickness pills as well as prescription nausea pills as a precaution. I also packed anxiety pills because, as you can tell, I had some trepidation going into this. There was one night when the seas were a little rougher than others. I awoke with some queasiness which set off a panic attack. So I did actually get sick one night, but it was psychological. Once the anxiety pill kicked in I was fine. Read more