My wife and I have cruised only 5 times, which given many of the reviews I have read is really a minimal amount of experience. The 5 cruises have all been on Carnival or Princess. We gravitated towards Princess due to the any time feature, and of course the fact that we wanted to cruise the Western Caribbean which Princess offers. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale a day early, and ended up in a hotel that was about 35 minutes by Taxi from the airport and the Port. This was due to my waiting until the last minute to book, a mistake that I have corrected for this years cruise (yes it is once again on Princess). On the recommendation of our travel agent (who we have known for 25 years), we arrive a day early to avoid any problems with what has become a national problem (flight delays). A last minute addition to our vacation, was our daughter (then 29 years young), and her girlfriend. Embarking was a snap, the four of us were aboard ship within 15 minutes. When we arrived at out mini suite (no upgrades were available, there were big signs all over the terminal informing us that our ship was 100% booked), our room steward met us at the door with glasses of Champagne for us, and noticing that our daughter and her friend were with us, managed to immediately produce an additional two glasses of bubbly. In comparison, when my daughter and her friend arrived at the balcony stateroom that they had, the room steward was not to be found. While our experience for the rest of the cruise was almost identical, the difference between room stewards and service provided by each remained the same. Our steward seemed to have radar, and was always available any time we walked out of the door, after ordering it the first day, there was always fresh fruit in our suite daily. My daughter and her friend after seeing the room steward the first day did not see him again until the last day of the cruise, at which time they discovered he had hidden a broken suitcase that he was supposed to have sent to the shop for repair under a bed. Our room steward made towel animals and used the evening chocolates as eyes, our daughters steward threw a couple of pieces of chocolate on the pillows.

Since our views of life differed our daughter and her friend booked different shore excursions than we did, and when we arrived back aboard ship, we would compare our days. The only time we were all together, was in Jamaica, where we had not booked any tours, and we wandered through the area shopping. It turned out to be an overcast day with periods of rain, so we didn't miss much. In Cozumel we happened to run into our daughter and her friend in a restaurant for lunch, and that was the only time we saw them until we ate dinner together aboard ship. My wife and I are early risers, and would generally arrive at the sun deck above the midship pool before the crew had a chance to put the cushions out. By the time we were ready to go and eat breakfast and get out of the sun, our daughter and her friend would be there to occupy our lounges. Given the size of the ship, and the fact that she was fully booked, there was surprisingly little in the way of lines at any of the buffets, although there was a bit of a hassle finding seating at times. My wife and I do not drink soda, so we passed on the purchase of the soda cards. My daughter and her friend purchased them and found them quite useful.

We found the entertainment to be entertaining, while not up to level of Las Vegas Lounges, and about on par with the reviews we have seen on Carnival. The comedian we saw was only moderately funny, and given the fact that there were children present, I was happy to see that his material was "G" rated. We enjoy the motion of the sea at night while going to sleep, and I was gratified to find out that being on a Mega Ship did not remove that experience completely. The one objection, although not objectionable enough to sour me, was the fact that we tendered into more ports than on smaller ships. In Cozumel, we were herded aboard local boats rather than the ships tenders, and our trip back to the ship included about 100 cases of liquor that the ship had ordered (unhappily, none of it found its way into my stateroom). Read more