Wife and I, and two sons (15, 17) made the February 22 southern Caribbean sailing. Our previous cruising as a family has been two Disney sailings. Wife and I sailed RCL about 15 years ago. Overall had a great time but was unimpressed with the concept of Freestyle dinning.

Embarkation - Due to a snafu in our flight reservations (if you book airline via Yahoo Travel hope your flight doesn't get cancelled the night before) from Reagan National to Miami we ultimately arrived in Miami from Wash-Dulles around 8:30 AM. We read an earlier review that there was a NCL kiosk at the baggage claim where you could get decent NCL luggage tags to replace the useless ones you print online. Bummer for us our luggage arrived at a different baggage claim area so we hoofed it to baggage claim 12 where the NCL desk was. Took a taxi to the cruise terminal for the flat rate of $24. Got to the terminal around 10:00, handed off luggage to a porter, and waited for the terminal building to open at 10:30. There were about 20 people waiting to get in at the time. Check-in at opening was quick and easy. We were onboard by 11:15 and on our way to the buffet. Rooms were available at 1:00 PM and our luggage arrived at 4:00.

Lifeboat drill - I don't know if this is a new idea in cruising but our lifeboat station was in the Mambo restaurant on deck 8 and not at the lifeboats on deck 7. It was the first time I didn't have to stand huddled together outside waiting for the all-clear. Definitely easier, kind of disturbing. Read more