Background - We booked this cruise about 2 months ago and got a pretty good rate. It was the week after Spring Break, so we had to take DS out of school. Since he has never missed a day of school yet, I didn't think twice about taking him out. My family included me, DH, DS 6 1/2 and DD almost 3. My mom and almost 21 year old brother and girlfriend came with us, too. I have been on 3 cruises in my life, when I was younger (with a friend's family). I have cruised on the Celebrity Horizon two times to Bermuda which I absolutely LOVED! I also cruised on Carnival Celebration to the Caribbean and I absolutely HATED that one. My last cruise was about 14 years ago.

Embarkation at Manhattan Cruise Terminal - We got to the terminal a little before 11am. We were dropped off by my brother in law. Once we got out of the car, a porter was there immediately and made sure we had tags on our luggage. Then he took them and we were on our way inside. I was surprised that there were no crowds yet! We were waiting for my mom, brother and his girlfriend to arrive, so we didn't check in yet. We waited for them at the area right when you enter the terminal. They finally got there at about noon...and so did everyone else! Our bags went through the X-Ray machines, and we went through the metal detectors. We were carrying a case of wine with us and we were waiting for them to tell us where to go with the box, so we could pay the corking fee. Well, no one ever said a word! They let us carry this big box with us onboard. We brought a bottle of wine to dinner every night and never did have to pay any corking fees. We opened the wine in our cabin before we got to the restaurant each night. We were finally able to board at about 1:30 or so. Once onboard, they directed everyone to the buffet (Raffles) or the Garden Room. We walked right past the Garden Room and there was a HUGE line. I went right to Windows and it was EMPTY. I think there were only 4 tables occupied in the whole place. Of course, we got a table RIGHT by the windows. While we were eating, there was an announcement at 2pm that stated our cabins were ready.

Cabin - We were in cabin #9077 and my mom, brother and his girlfriend were in cabin #9075 right next to us. They were inside cabins and they were SMALL!!!!! When we got into our room, they had it set up so that the two beds were pushed together to form a queen bed that was pushed towards the right hand side of the cabin. On one side (where the pull down bed was) we had a stroller open and left it there at all times. There was plenty of room to leave the stroller up - never had to fold it and put it away. There is one 110 volt plug by the vanity/desk area. There was a note on it that said NO HAIRDRYERS! It was sufficient for my straightening iron and for charging our cell phones and such. I took a power strip just in case, but never needed it. I did buy a converter and a dual voltage 1875 hairdryer and used it in the 220 outlet. It worked out PERFECTLY. There were some shelves by the TV with drawers below. The closet was roomy with about 10-15 hangers already in there, and it also had shelves off to one side. The safe was also in the closet. Even with this storage, I don't know what I would have done if I had forgotten to bring my hanging shelf closet organizer. This added 4 (or was it 5?) more shelves to the closet, and we used it for all the kids clothes. There were 2 corner shelves on each side of the mirror. This was fine for toothbrushes and such. There was a bottle of lotion, a shower cap and a shoe mit when we checked in. They never did replenish the lotion as we used it. We never did ask, though. You are given beach towels and if you don't have them in your cabin at the end of the cruise, they charge your account $25 ea. for them. They change them for you each day. Our room stewards were pretty good...we had only 2 towel animals all week, which I thought was a bit strange considering they knew we had two small children in our cabin. Oh well, they work their butts off...so we only got 2 towel animals. Not a deal breaker for us. We handed them extra tips every couple of days. DINING - I can't say enough about the dining on this ship! We loved every meal...well, almost every meal. When we got onboard, we went to Windows. I have to say, this was by far the WORST meal of the week. Well, maybe I shouldn't have ordered a cheeseburger as the first meal on the ship...what was I thinking?!? The service was REALLY bad. I hoped this was not setting the stage as for what was to come during the week. Read more