Let me start of by telling you this was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean. This was my husband and my eighth cruise, but only the second with our children. We took a 10 year break in cruising to have our kids, currently ages 8 and 4. Our first cruise with the kids was on HAL, to the Norwegian Fjords, in Jul.
Overall, we had a great time. We had great ports; great weather and the kids loved the kids club. That said, we did encounter a few problems along the way, mostly with our cabin.
Transport: While we are Americans, we are currently living in Germany and chose to drive to Venice. We drove out the afternoon before the cruise and spend the night at a small hotel just outside of Venice. Saturday morning, we left the hotel about 1000 and had an easy 45 min drive to the cruise terminal. RCCL had a drive up luggage drop and then directed us to parking. Venice Port Authority has four parking lots around the terminal and offers parking for 95 Euro’s for the week. We parked the car and had a very short walk to in process the cruise. There was almost no line, so we had our pictures taken and were on board within minutes. A quick stop to get wrist bands for the kids and we were off to the Park Café for lunch. After lunch, we had a short wait until our cabin was ready.
We loved the aft balcony. It was at least 3 times the size of the other balcony's, we had a table, chairs and two loungers. Unfortunately, the cabin smelled strongly of mildew/smoke. My husband found burn holes in in the extra blankets and the balcony table. Despite deep cleaning and keeping the balcony door open, it was Day 5 of the cruise, before the cabin smelled normal, making it difficult to spend time in the room.