Pre-Cruise: We stayed at The Harbor House the night before our cruise. I loved it! We were able to walk to eat and shop! Plus we got to see both ships come in on Sunday morning. The rooms were large and had both microwaves and small fridge. They offer a small breakfast consisting of pastries, oatmeal, fruit, juices, coffee and milk. They let you park your car for the week for $20 and we walked right to the cruise ship terminal!

Day of Embarkation: We got up early and left our hotel around 10 am. We walked a short 6 minutes and we were at the RCI terminal. Boy it was packed, too. We had a porter be very rude to us and tell us we were too early, however, that meant about 200 other people were too! We just kept going. There were no lines to speak of most people had already made it through and were in a "holding" area. NOTE: the area closet to the bathroom is the first section to be called. We waited about an hour and were onboard by 12:30 p.m.

Our Cabins: We booked two connecting promenade's (8305/8307). The cabins were different. The beds faced the front/back of boat and most we have stayed in were the opposite. You had to go around your bed to get to the sitting area so it always felt like the bed was in the way. The connecting door is at the foot of the bed and could barely be opened w/o bumping the bed. It made the rooms feel cramped. These rooms didn't have much storage space either because of the awkward set-up. The bathroom was fine. I didn't think having a window was anything special. Most kept the drapes closed for privacy reasons and I used clothes pins at night to keep the light out. They do dim the lights at night so it wasn't too bad. Being the 3rd floor from the Promenade, we never heard any noise, either. The TV in the room was pretty bad as far as stations, the worst we have had on a cruise ship. My kids TV got different channels than we did, strange. Read more