Background: I am late 40's and my partner is mid 50's and my mom late 60's. We have cruised over 15 times on Cunard, Celebrity, Disney, NCL, RCCL, Princess and this was our second cruise on HAL.

This cruise was chosen solely on the fact the ship was going to Aruba. It was my mother's dream to see Aruba and since she doesn't fly, the only way to get her there was by ship. My mom travels by Amtrak; for this trip she traveled from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale. I live in So. Ca. and flew into Ft. Lauderdale a day early. We stayed at the Renaissance on 17th. which was fine for 1 night pre-cruise considering I was using reward points; I don't feel the hotel is worth the rack rate of $299.00 which was posted on their web site.

Cabin: My partner and I were in a category B on deck nine and my mom was in a category J on deck 5. Both cabins were in very good shape, plenty of storage except in the bathroom. There is only one shelf in the bathroom; this was not a big issue for us, we just placed our cosmetic cases on the desk. I did find it odd that the only time we were replenished on soap or shampoo was when we specifically requested refills from our cabin steward. This was a 10 day cruise and on day 5 we were completely out of these items. Read more