My husband and I just returned from our 1st cruise and I will say that it was nothing but fantastic. Embarkation when we arrive there was a small line outside the terminal of course we picked the one with the people who didn't have their passports or paperwork out so that was annoying but oh well. Once inside we were taken to a small room to do our registration. I had gotten an upsell to a penthouse 2 weeks prior and was extremely happy I took it. We were then escorted through security and waited approximately 10 mins upstairs and where then escorted onto the boat and to our suite. The entire process took about 50 mins Our Suite 9170 was beautiful plenty of room a separate eating area and sitting area full soaking tub and plenty of storage space. An amazing view from the balcony that had a chair and lounger After a few minutes our butler Maurice came by and introduced himself and then our steward and stewardess Anna and Albert came by as well. These were the 1st people we met on the boat and they were without a doubt the friendliest people we have ever met. I told Albert my DH's birthday was Tuesday and he just laughed and said don't worry he would take care of everything and as I will tell you later he did. The Ship and the crew Very nice and clean everyone was always polishing and cleaning. Everyone was very friendly always saying hello and asking how you were doing. After dropping our bags we decided to explore and ended up in the cafe I noticed right away they were serving and decided I would find out later why. Ended up having lunch at Cagney's that day and then returned to our room to prepare for the muster drill. That was no big deal our station was in Tsars sat at a chair for about 15 mins listened to what they had to say and went back to the cabin. That afternoon we did the sailaway bbq by the pool and I started speaking with one of the bartenders who I questioned about the serving he told me that on the prior cruise they had a small outbreak our noro toward the end and decided to start without self service for a few days. Now to me it was no big deal, there were not any huge lines to get food and it wasn't that much of an interference. For god sakes your on a ship where are u in such a hurry to go!!!! The Restaurants we had both lunch and dinner at Cagney's lunch was good dinner was ok. I ordered prime rib not sure why I'm not a big prime rib person but my dh also had it and he loved it. We had breakfast every morning in the Garden cafe which was very good lots of choices plenty of fresh fruit. My husband hated the eggs way to runny even for him. One morning we had room service I only had fruit but my husband had eggs and bacon and he said those eggs were fine, not runny at all. I found the temperature of the food in the Cafe fine, the hots were hot the colds cold, no problems. We also had dinner at Teppanyaki which was great and Mama which was ok. I must say however our best meal and best service we had for dinner was in Tsars, one of the main dining rooms. I didn't know what I wanted so had our waiter pick he ordered me Turkey scallepini that was wonderful, my husband had prime rib, again, he liked it so much he asked for another piece and they had no problem getting it for him. In fact the waiter had noticed he only ate the carrots out of his vegetables and brought him back a whole plate of just carrots. We also had one dinner in the cafe, just didn't feel like getting dressed and that was also good. I decided that even though we could have our dinner reservations made for the whole trip for us that I would see if the system was as bad as everyone was saying. So in the morning I would get up and go the the garden cafe at around 9-9:30 am and there was never a line and I did not have one problem getting a reservation for the time I wanted in any restaurant. Tours in Cozumel we did the catamaran snorkel and beach party. It was ok the snorkeling was good, lots of fish. Probably because they were feed them, we did get to see a sting ray which was cool. I've done better snorkeling in Hawaii but other then that it was fine. The beach was nice, free beer and margaritas, volleyball, kayaking, water floats, but no food. If you wanted a hamburger it was $8. We decided to wait and went to Carlos and Charlies which was really fun but quite expensive. I did have my yard of beer though. In Grand Caymans we did the sting rays with Moby Dick's and it was excellent. I highly recommend them to anyone who is going. We have wonderful pictures and the staff was very friendly and helpful. Snorkeling was really good, got to see some eels and lots of fish.

Like I said earlier about my dh's birthday which was on Tuesday when we were in Cozumel. When we got back on the boat and back to the cabin we found it totally decorated with balloons streamers, a birthday banner, towel animals and even a cake, all done by our steward and stewardess on their own. He was so happy it was a really nice treat for them to do. That is just one example of how my of the staff went out of their way to be helpful. Alex the concierge arranged for the staff in Cagney's to sing that night for him, which he was embarrassed about but enjoyed. Entertainment We saw a couple of shows, Second City and Cirque Bijou and the Jewel Crew show. All 3 were great but we love comedy so we felt Second city was the best. I will say that Cirque Bijou had some amazing parts but that is not our type of show, again everyone has personal preference. I did not find liquor prices that bad. My husband and I both drink beer he also likes 7&7's and I like wine and martini's. We would have a bucket of beer in the afternoon by the pool, for approx $21 it's not that bad in fact they would mix my import with his domestic but would charge you the import rate of $24, to me no big deal. Didn't do the soda card, I don't drink that much soda so we brought on 2 12paks, 1 pepsi and 1 diet pepsi and that lasted us the entire trip. Disembarkation went very smooth, we chose to carry off our own bags since we had a late flight and didn't really want to leave the ship anyway. We met Alex at Chin Chin's he escorted us off at around 9:45 we were in the bus and at the airport by 10:30.

I just want to say the we really enjoyed this trip, so much so we did the cruise rewards program and I have already started pricing for the 9 day on the Jewel. This was our 1st cruise and I know everyone has their own personal preferences on food and entertainment. I would be more then happy to answer any questions you might have. Hope I covered everything if not ask away