After 25 years of marriage, I finally convinced my wife to take a cruise. We purposely chose the largest ship since she was very worried about seasickness. She took every precaution including wrist bands and the patch behind the ear, but she still had to resort to Gravol a couple of times. I had no problem with motion sickness, but I was disappointed that such a large vessel was still vibrating from the waves crashing against the bow. I wouldn't say the dishes were sliding off the table, but there were times when everyone in the Windjammer was staggering to get to their table.

Pre-departure: We flew from Syracuse to Newark to Miami on Saturday and stayed at the Airport Regency Hotel. We got an excellent rate online but I can't recommend this hotel for the faint of heart. The neighborhood is a little run-down and the planes flying overhead are quite noisy. Fortunately, the air-conditioner managed to drown out most of the noise outside. On the up-side, the nearest restaurant was quite good and reasonable. It was called "Catch of the Day".

Embarkation: was delayed because of extra cleaning required based on the threat of a norovirus. We had arrived at the port early in the hopes of touring the ship and having a relaxing lunch before departure, but we had to wait until 2pm to get onboard. We were given a tag to indicate the order in which we boarded the ship, but the crowd was getting pretty antsy and no one in authority seemed to be enforcing the order. We eventually merged with the crowd and made our way to the Windjammer for a late lunch. This was by far the busiest we ever saw the Windjammer. Fortunately, it was just the 2 of us and we finally found 2 barstools together. From there, we took turns visiting the buffet and watching the beehive of people doing the same. We soon made our way to the deck where my wife opened a book and I roamed around exploring. We made our way to our cabin around 3:30pm to unpack and prepare for muster at 4:00pm before departure at 4:30pm. Read more