My family (fourteen total) decided to partake in HAL's Reunion Package and decided on this particular cruise because of the time of year and unique itinerary. We are fortunate to have cruised numerous times before, on several different cruise lines, on various itineraries throughout the world. However, this was the first time that we would be cruising with small children so we were a bit anxious/nervous. As expected most of our fellow cruisers were older. However, there were quite a few children on board. Basically everyone was under five or over thirty, since everyone in-between was in school. That said, let's jump right in.

EMBARKATION: We flew direct from Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale and utilized HAL transfers from the airport to the cruise terminal. I was surprised to find out that we had to gather our own luggage (why then do we put LARGE MS Westerdam tags on our bags) and deliver it to HAL porters. Still, as a young thirty-something I had no troubles transporting the bags the short distance, unlike some of the more - shall we say - experienced cruisers. At this point the process bogged down. We followed our HAL representative to our appointed waiting area and waited...and waited...and waited some more. He/They - as more representatives arrived - apologized for the delay as, "there are a lot of ships in port today." OK, I understand that, but am I to believe this is the first time more than one ship was departing Port Everglades on a Sunday? After standing outside for ~30 minutes our bus showed up. We boarded and were within the confines of Port Everglades within ten minutes. At that point traffic came to a halt and we waited to get into the HAL terminal another ~30 minutes. Fortunately, once inside we whisked through (definitely pre-register on-line) and were in our cabin within 15 minutes.

STATEROOM: Our stateroom was well appointed and had ample storage. We expected to be cramped - traveling with two little men aged 3 and 1 - but it was doable for a week. The balcony was larger than most ships we'd traveled on even though we were in a cheaper booking class. The bathroom was also larger than most with a full-size tub/shower that was excellent for bathing the boys. The room had an LG flat-screen TV and separate DVD player that was always playing our favorite Nickelodeon/Disney shows. Sleeping was not private by any means; the half-curtain separating the king-bed and fold-out couch needs to be expanded to cover the room's width, and be leery of the pull-out - murphy - bed. My 3-year-old thought it was great, but as it rested right over the king-size, bed my wife and I hit our head more than once in the middle of the night. Read more