We drove from Kentucky on the Saturday before sailing. My husband and I are both in our early 40's and have two teenaged daughters, ages 15 and 18. This was the second cruise for us; we cruised on Celebration to the Bahamas last summer.

Embarkation was easy. We were through the lines and onboard by 1:00. Our room was already ready, so we checked it out first, then hit the Lido deck for lunch. This ship is so much bigger than the Celebration. We were a little overwhelmed at first! After eating a lunch of burgers and fries, we explored the ship until time for the muster drill. Muster drill seemed to go much faster than the one last time. Afterwards we went up on the top deck for sail away.When we went under the bridge, oh my goodness! It seems that the ship barely clears it.

Dinner that night was good; we all had steak. Dinner continued to be good every night. My husband was surprised at how good the lobster was on formal night, as he usually doesn't care much for lobster. Our waiters were very nice, and had a good time joking with our daughters. The head waiter, Ionut, nicknamed our youngest "The Boss" because in his family the baby in the family is always the boss. Every night, he would pretend to spill something on her, and she would always fall for it. One night my husband asked for a small serving of ice cream. Ionut brought a dish with about half a teaspoon of ice cream in it! He said, "Well, you did say SMALL didn't you?" before laughing and presenting him with another bowl of ice cream. Read more