Let me begin by telling you about us and our trip. We are 40 and 38. My wife has been on 5 cruises before but none in the last 10 years. This was my first cruise. We won this cruise through a food service agency and the travel arrangements were all made by a travel agency they use. I realize this may sway some of my views due to not paying for some of the services but I'll try to tell you how we felt.

We received our itinerary about a week before the trip so we had a little time to review these boards and get ready for the trip. We found a babysitter for the week and started our planning. I began by reading reviews and getting my expectation level set by the reviews. I read about taking a swimsuit and sandals in your carryon because your luggage takes a while, it worked great!

Our flights were out of Cincinnati, Ohio and chartered to Miami, from there we were bussed to the ship and to the check-in lines. I've read some horror stories about this and since it was 11:30am i thought this could be a hurry and wait process. Instead we found the check-in quick, easy, and painless and the check-in girl actually thanked me for filling out our profiles online. It took about 20 minutes total to check in and get in line to board the ship. Since we had a free drink pass attached to our card we did not have to buy the drink cards etc. I will say if you haven't cruised or read reviews you would be lost at the entering of the boat. There are immediate lines at the drink card area and we stood in line as we didn't want to miss something but realized we didn't need this. There was no one to tell you where to go so we aimlessly walked around for a while. Read more