This was my 4th cruise, but the first with Royal Caribbean. The embarkation was by far the best ever. It maybe took 5 minutes from cab to ship. The bags also arrived in a timely fashion. The ship itself is very nice. Yes its not new, but saw very little in the way of deterioration. Our room attendant, Keith was more or less stealth. He got his job done and we seldom saw him. Maybe 4 or 5 times during the cruise. He seems pleasant but never had a long interaction with him. The cabin itself was fine. It was a balcony room, much like most. Bathroom seemed a bit smaller than on previous ships that I've been on. (If that's possible). The balcony was good size. I have to admit, I missed the flat panel TV from my last cruise. No real complaints about the room itself. The complaint that I have with this particular room was that it was located directly above the casino. We didn't hear any normal casino sounds, but the PA system in the casino carried right into our room for some reason. It didn't appear too loud when we were in the casino, but in our cabin it sure was. Therefore, sleeping before 1 o'clock AM was a challenge. Lesson learned.

The food was generally fine. The buffet was slightly above average as was the food in the dining room. We never had to wait for a table in the dining room, when we ate there. We had the anytime dining and made reservations in advance. We ended up with the same waiter each time and he was very good. We ate at Chops one night and found that it was excellent food with large portions. It was a bit pricey compared to specialty restaurants we had eaten in before, but very good.

The cruise stopped at 5 ports and had only one sea day, that is the reason that I selected this cruise. We had stops in St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia and Grenada. St Lucia was by far my favorite, St. Croix, by far, my least favorite. We took an excursion in each port, most were good, the one in St. Lucia was again the best. We took a trip to the volcano and the tour guide was the best as was the beauty of the island. Thanks Jay for a fun day. My only problem with the excursions in general was that the ship tended to schedule events late in the evening and almost all of the excursions were very early in the day. Most had only one choice of time, so nights got a bit short at times. Then add the casino noise and sleep was, at times, not adequate. Read more