GROUND TRANSFERS (2.5 stars): The cruise line booked bus to Port Canaveral from Orlando International Airport was a long wait. I arrived at the airport and had my luggage at about 11AM and did not get seated on the bus until around 12:30PM and the bus did not leave the airport until around 1PM. Had RCCL sat me on the bus and left the airport in a timely fashion, I would have been on the ship two hours earlier and eating at the buffet two hours earlier. The cruise line employee at the port was not very friendly. He talked to the mostly middle aged passengers in the bus like they were children and kept us on the bus longer than necessary. RCCL needs to put him through customer service training. He is not the first RCCL employee passengers should be seeing because he does not reflect well on the cruise line. Once on the ship I was disappointed that I did not receive a welcome cocktail as I had expected, since I was under the impression that crown and anchor members got a welcome cocktail upon boarding. Maybe this is another case of the cruise line going cheap, like them no longer having a chocolate buffet.

THE FOOD (3.5 stars): Good on the first night (they had prime rib and steak), but mediocre on the rest of the cruise. The offering in the buffet were very similar to what they had in the dinning room. From the second night on, the menu was not very creative, it did not change much, and there was not a lot of beef in the main dinning rooms or in the buffet. The main entrees were mostly fish and chicken. The Parmesan encrusted catfish in the main dinner room was very good, the Tender Chicken at Jade was very good, and there was plenty of seating, but I wish there had been more good cuts of steak and more tables for two.

THE SHIP (4 Stars): Beautiful and well laid out. It does not seem as large as it is, perhaps because of its design. The promenade in the middle makes it easy to navigate from one side of the ship to the other, there are plenty of elevators, some of them with glass (no long waiting), and there were plenty of activities (rock climbing, miniature golf, ice skating, dodgeball, etc.) I wish they had more dance lessons. The jacuzzis/hot tubs were very large and there were a lot of them. RCCL keeps the pools and the hot tubs open 24 hours, very cool. Read more