This was our first cruise and we picked a superb ship to start on. The balcony cabin was better than we expected with good furnishings and no noise from either side, above or below. Food options were many and of very good quality. Excursions were all excellent although the Monte Carlo trip was a little boring (unless you like sports cars and rich people looking down their noses at you). There was a good choice of Entertainment on board, most of which was very good. The 'Legends' show may ned some rebranding, whilst (lookalikes of) Rod Stewart and Gloria Estefan gave it everything, Sting looked like he would rather be somewhere else, probably the bar! The idea of an adult only pool area is excellent and meant we could relax away from the slides etc. Our only real complaint is the tips and service charge policy. $13.50 each per day is charged to each passenger as a service charge, in addition an 18% service charge charge is added to every purchase (ie drinks, which are not cheap to begin with). This means you are paying for service regardless of whether you feel it is good or not, and in fact it put us off giving extra tips to the members of staff who really deserved it by showing outstanding service. Not sure if this is standard across all cruise lines but it is not something we agreed with.
Very good port experience and simple embarkation for first time cruisers