We are from Canton, GA, in our late 30's and we recently embarked on our first ever cruise. We Loved It!!! We stayed at the Holiday Inn across from Bayside the night before which we definitely recommend, the hotel was nice enough, we had a suite thanks to our TA, but it's the location which really makes it. You have a full view of the port and the Bayside Market is directly across the street with plenty of shopping and dining. We met another couple from CC for dinner at Bubba Gumps, the food was tasty and the atmosphere fun. In the AM, we left the hotel at 11:15 and we're on the ship by 11:45. We did fill out our credit card info,etc online ahead of time which saved us lots of time. We thought the ship appeared to be in great shape. The crew was constantly cleaning and polishing. The ship was a good size for us to start off with, easy to navigate with enough room to not feel crowded. We wandered around a bit getting used to the space and checking out our "to do list" firsts. We elected to invest in the "cyber-cabin" and went to collect our cable from the Pursers desk, we had heard these go fast so we wanted to get it right away. The internet service is extremely slow and we will probably invest in a pre-paid card to use at the ship's computers and WIFI area next time.

We ckd out Portofinos and made our reservation for the 4th night(I think this was the British menu) and then went to the WindJammer for lunch. We were in our cabin by 1PM and our luggage arrived before dinner. Our cabin was the first cabin before the hump with a balcony. It was a great location in the middle of the ship so getting around was easy. It was plenty of room for the two of us AND all our luggage!! We met for an informal Meet and Mingle at the back of the WindJammer for the "Sail Away" and then were off to dinner. We had an 11 top at the early seating and lucked out with fantastic tablemates. Our waitstaff were superb. Coming from a professional food background(15 yrs),I was a little leery of the "cruise food". and was pleasantly surprised. There were plenty of choices(vegetarian, healy choices, etc) and I'd say that most of the food was actually excellent...great presentation, plenty of vegetables, and very well seasoned. The Windjammer was the same bfast everyday, but the Cook to order eggs, and wide variety of choices made it easy to choose differently everyday. The lunch consisted of a big saladbar, lots of hot choices, etc. The Seaview was a great alternative with pizza and pastas made to order as well as panini sand and salads. Portofinos was absolutely fantastic, very hard to choose so we shared a few extra apps and salads to try a little of everything. Service was phenomenal.

We loved this itinerary. Labadee was fun with some kayaking and snorkeling. In Aruba, we took the local bus,$2.00 round trip and very clean, to Malmok Beach to snorkel. We had our own equipment. Beach was great and we shopped around town after and ate at Iguana Joes, good beer and food. Curacao was next and the architecture was beautiful with the dutch influence being very evident. We hired Curacao-Actief for a snorkel trip and had a great guide(Anita)and good snorkeling. Another great lunch at The Gouverneur overlooking the floating bridge just across from Handelskade. Both places felt very safe to us. The Panama Canal is truly a manmade wonder. Just to see the ship make it through the locks is amazing. We did the walk and canal trip here and had a marvelous time. The bus ride was short, AC, and the temp outside wasn't too hot as we had expected. We would have loved a longer walk but our guide made it well worth it and we were able to see the Brilliance make it's way back through the canal from the canal's observation deck...really cool!! Costa Rica was our favorite port. Though Limon is a poorer area, the locals we encountered were friendly and helpful. We hired Oscar Brown for a zipline, canal trip, and banana plantation tour. Our guide, Lorenzo made this trip shine for us, he was knowledgeable, accommodating, and our time with him was a highlight of our cruise. The ziplines were a blast, banana tour informative and our best local lunch yet! We loved this cruise, the five sea days were a great time to sleep in, relax, and nap. The ship has so much to do...great disco, gym, and we loved the Solarium. We would recommend this trip to any age group.