DH's and my first cruise. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale a day before and stayed at the Gallery One. Very nice hotel... poor customer service. I am writing a detailed review through Trip advisor if anyone is interested. We woke the next morning about 8 am and got ready to leave. We were at the port by 10:45 am and on the ship by 11:15 am. This was a very easy process. We didn't have to wait in line since we were in a suite.

Our first impression was good. The staff was very nice and explained how the rooms weren't ready until 1 pm (already knew) and that we could walk around the ship and have lunch if we wanted. We first did a quick walk through to get our directions head out, then I went and made Chops reservations for the formal night. We were in the Windjammer by 11:45 am sitting and eating. The food was good, but not a lot of choices the first lunch. I am very picky when it comes to food, so I am probably just nit-picking here. My husband loved the food and the service. Thanks to you guys we knew not to take the drinks assuming they were free. A lot of people did than complained the next day that their bill showed the "free" drink really was $7.15.

After lunch (approx 1 pm) we headed to our stateroom GS 8034. We met Syliva, our stateroom attendant, and she told us she wasn't quite ready yet. No worries, we headed down stairs and people watched for a ½ hour. When we finally got settled in we crashed. We were very tired already! Our room was wonderful. Huge, clean, and comfortable. It could use a little updating, but it was very nice. We had a bottle of champagne (I ordered) and chocolate covered strawberries waiting. We also had a big bottle of Evan. We unpacked and stayed in our room until the Muster. It went by fine... maybe 20 mins tops? After that we went back to the stateroom for our personal bon voyage party. It was nice sitting on the balcony watching the ship leave port. It was VERY windy that day and we felt every inch of that ship move. Read more