Let me start off by saying I love to cruise........I am not very good at writing but I want to share my experience with you.......and a big part of my experience and fun of cruising is the pre Cruise Critic roll call which has helped make this cruise one of the best experiences in my cruising history.

Background- Myself 46, Husband 49, Son 18, Daughter 14.....4th cruise for me and dh (honeymoon 20 years ago on SS Norway and then Voyager and Adventure and now Explorer) and 3rd cruise for children Voyager, Adventure and Explorer.........So we can mostly compare this to it's sister ships. I booked this cruise in May of 06 because it was such a great value for being a Holiday Cruise. I hate being home for the Holidays and love to go away this time of year but it is normally to expensive to travel over the holiday. For some reason this cruise opened up at the lowest prices you could imagine to we booked a GS for the 4 of us rather then 2 rooms like we did on the Adventure in February. I was not sure this would work out, 4 in one room, but it was not terrible but I am not sure I would do it again. It was not the showering that was an issue, which was really never a problem. It was area. The room was a great size for 2 people maybe even 3 (I still think that is tight) but for 4 people it is a little difficult. When the couch is open and then you have to bring in a cot it really leaves little room. They put the cot in the bar area the first night but then you can't get into the closets. So we had to put the cot in the main room and that left little space. Would I do it again? Maybe if the price were right, the full size tub is a whole lot nicer than the tubular showers and that is a big bonus as is the free drinks every night. We were in GS 1568 and Manuel was a very good attendant. A big smile and sincerely seemed happy to see us and be of service to us every day. Balcony is double size and nice to have. Loved to watch sail-a-way every night from there. Room had no smell and carpet seemed new as did the sofa and chairs. Very pleased with the new bedding.

Before I really begin let me tell you that Cruise Critic played a huge roll in the success of my cruise. I opened up the first of the thread for the Holiday cruise Dec 23rd in May of 06.....it was slow going at first being it was about 1 ½ years away from departing. In that time many things happened, some good some bad...but the friendships had started to meld. Imagine that I physically knew nobody going on this cruise but already felt like I had made friends. It turned out I had made friends and our pre sail away was fun. More on that later. I learned how to get onboard credit from the message boards and was able to get $550.00 of onboard credit before I left. That meant my tips were covered. Since I had already sailed on 2 of the sister ships I thought I knew a lot but there was still more to learn. I became obsessed with the boards. But in the end that obsession really paid off. Read more