This was our 10th cruise and our 8th with RCCL. This was a Christmas presents from my parents who were taking their very first cruise. I want to start out by saying that overall we really loved the cruise and all of us would be back onboard in a heartbeat. I think most of the things I'm going to nitpick about are only because we've cruised before and know what to expect. If it was our first cruise, I think most would have gone un-noticed.

We had booked balcony rooms, and a promenade view for my two teenage daughters. A week before the cruise we had "the call" and were able to upgrade both balcony rooms to junior suites for $300 per room.

We had a our first little hickup here and our cabin bag tags (the ones you print at home) still had the old room numbers on them, which meant another 10 mins or so at the dock while we had knew ones completed. We were immediately struck by just how many kids were onboard (we've never cruised at holiday times before). I had to help an elderly lady push her husband in a wheelchair - she couldn't manage the wheelchair and her bag and was being told to move along by security. Apparently they had to let go through quicker than her family due to the wheelchair - but it really left her stuck. Anyway, other than that and it a bit of wait (even having priority check-in) and having hubby's power boards confiscated (never had that happen before) we finally got onboard. Second annoyance coming up. I love to buy our coming aboard photos but they would not let all of us be in the same photo. Only reason I can think of is they wanted to sell two photos. Very poor I thought, even when I specifically said I wanted to get one of all us together. Read more