Just back from our cruise and the house is still rocking around me. This was our 20 year old son's first cruise and the fourth for DH and myself; only one other cruise in the last 20 years and that was on Carnival 4 years ago to Cozumel. That was good - this was BETTER. Much better.

Some general overall impressions: the ship was fantastic - it looked great and everything seemed clean and fresh. Our D1 cabin never seemed too small for the three of us - it was so cleverly planned that there was room to store almost everything. The food was almost all good to very good, the service everywhere was excellent, the entertainment was plentiful and, well, entertaining, the use of the Promenade for events really was unusual, it seldom seemed too crowded, and there were always private places to relax. Our only real disappointment was the lack of support for our son's age group; if you weren't already in a group it didn't seem easy to meet others, especially if you're under drinking age. Maybe RCI has determined that planned activities in that age group don't work but it would have been nice to have one or two organized events since there did seem to be a fair number of kids that age.

We flew into Orlando the day before the cruise and rented a car from Avis with no problems (I joined the Preferred Member program through work so didn't even have paperwork to fill out). We drove over to Cocoa Beach and stopped at Ron Jon's to shop for about an hour, then headed down to the Doubletree. As Hilton Honors members, we were upgraded to an executive room on the 6th floor facing south with a great view of the beach and ocean. The room was fine although the beds were doubles instead of queens and felt small. We did not notice any noise from air conditioners. Read more