This was my first cruise, which brings me to my first lesson learned; cruising is about the cruise, not so much the destination... which is fine but it is a good thing to know.

Embarkation was a breeze more or less, we spent maybe 30-45 minutes or so in the process, got our Sign and Sail (some call 'em Drink and Drown) cards and were onboard and then up to our cabin far, far aft on E (Empress) deck. Good sized room with a view, nice TV and good sized bathroom. All clean and tidy. Met our room steward Anthony who gave us a quick lesson on using the air conditioning system. Affable fellow who we saw very few times afterwards but that was OK. Our room was always in good shape and we had everything we needed.

Put our stuff away in the ample storage and off to Lido deck for a bite to eat. Lido deck, ahhh Lido deck; home of all things good and tasty. We sampled the buffet. I liked the port side one with the daily international selection. All evenings afterwards and breakfasts we took in the Sensation dining room with our group. The food on the Lido buffet was for the most part pretty good, about as good as buffet food can get I guess. However the best thing I found was the deli at the rear of the room. I ordered a salmon bagel (lox) one afternoon and I am not exaggerating when I say he put a half pound or more of smoked salmon slices on the sandwich. The dining room fare consisted of everything from escargot, chateaubriand, lobster, grouper, pasta... well, you get the point. Read more