Let me start out by saying my husband and I are seasoned cruisers. We have taken a total of 36 cruises on many lines including: Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Disney and Carnival. Our favorite line is Celebrity and our number two (thus far) is Royal Caribbean. We were truly looking foward to sailing from NJ as we live in NY. My nephew and his family also joined us. We arrived at the terminal and dropped our luggage off easily. We then proceeded into the terminal it wasn't very organized, many people with ipads checking people in. The problem was that they each were standing around with people just circling them, no order-just a swarm. Would have been easier to just line up and a check in station. We then took our boarding picture and proceeded on board. It was about 11:30 AM. No wait at all. We all headed up to the Windjammer Cafe-It was so crowded no seats were available.

After circling the windjammer a few times- we asked a staff member if any other options were available for lunch. She told us to go to the 270 cafe on deck 5. We went to this venue. It wasn't nearly as nice as the restaurants located in Central Park on the Oasis and the Allure. The person who was making salads had no concept that lettuce is the base salad ingredient. He made very skimpy salads I had to ask him for more lettuce as he added it as it was a garnish. After a very unimpressive lunch, we then sat in another public space to wait until the cabins were ready. About 1:15 , we heard the announcement that the cabins were ready. We proceeded to our Grand Suite on Deck 12. It was a beautiful spacious cabin. So much light! It had a very large balcony, with sliding glass doors in the living room and in the bedroom another set of glass windows as large as the sliding glass doors, but didn't open to the balcony. The attendant Joel was great, the room was alway clean and comfortable. The cabin had had wonderful storage and closet space. The bathroom had two sinks, a tub/shower combo and of course a toilet. Another reviewer shared some helpful information regarding the bathtub. Unfortunately it is very slippery so be careful when in the tub. For some reason, only in the drain area is a slip free area which is small and doesn't extend the lenght of the bathtub. Since we were in a suite we had access to the concierge lounge. It was really a nice treat. Nice food and drink and the hosts were very helpful in making sure we had dinner and show reservations. However if you are in a suite- you really didn't need show reservations. They also helped facilitate any special requests you have. Mama Mia was excellent. The other shows not good IMO. We loved the entertainment on both the Oasis and Freedom class ships.

Prior to boarding we did have speciality and regular restaurant reservations. However due to excessive crowding, for example, we had a beeper and had to wait over 25 minutes to dine in the Grande. Another problem we encountered is that the "great" soda machines weren't all over the ship and when we went to use them, they were empty 70% of the time. We decided one afternoon to have lunch in Johnny Rockets- big mistake- While you pay for you food- and tables were available, it is a self service venue with no table services. We waited 30 minutes to get our order, fries, onion rings and hot dogs. This is despite it was lunch time and a handful of guests were waiting for their food. Never had a problem on the Allure and Oasis and had table services. The staff members seemed clueless- no managers around monitoring the service. North Star was supposed to be a treat- however you must wait about 1 1/2 hours, even if you line up at 8:30 in the morning on a port day. The same for bumper cars. The ship only has one flow-rider and rock climbing wall, so it also has back ups. The oasis and allure have two. On a positive note, access to the internet was great and worth paying for. We also prepaid for dinner in speciality restaurants, yet our neice who is 4 is was supposed to be free. We had difficulty getting back our overpayment, but eventually did. Read more