This was my 5th cruise, 2nd with Royal Caribbean, which was much better than the last on on Majesty (I wrote an extremely critical and bad review for it on this site). Embarkation out of Port Everglades needs to be improved, never-ending lines all over the place, no a/c, Miami's is much nicer and set up better. This was a family cruise for my dad's 60th, so I finally had a balcony (deck 8, 8606) to share with my brother. Having a balcony room was definitely one of the top things about his cruise, having been inside for the last cruises, I finally saw daylight. The room was a nice size with plenty of room for two people.
This was the largest ship I've been on, and it didn't even seem really large, many places were easy to get to. Having the Royal Promenade down the middle of the ship was really cool, and an amazing engineering feat to behold. The cruise was also a "holiday" cruise, but the decorations were not gaudy, they were done just right and looked nice. The parade on the first day was a little cheesy, but was a good use of the promenade, and was very engaging.
I have never been on a ship with so much to do, never got to do ice skating (saw the show), but did the rock wall, FlowRider and mini-golf. Had a good time with all three. The FlowRider needs help with traffic flow, I waited 30 minutes for one minute on the board, was still fun, but line could have gone quicker. The cruise director Leigh was the best I've had on a cruise, he was funny, goofy and nice to all, and Royal Caribbean should be thankful to have such a great guy as director. The activities manager, Frank was also great. Their best activities were the late night games, The Quest and Battle of the Sexes, those were really fun.
I finally had a balcony (deck 8, 8606) to share with my brother. Having a balcony room was definitely one of the top things about his cruise, having been inside for the last cruises, I finally saw daylight. The room was a nice size with plenty of room for two people. We actually had an adjoining room with our parents, so at times it felt like a suite.
No excursion here, family just wanted a nice relaxing day, so got a cab to take us to Ocho Rios and various stops in between, including the Fern Gully was impressive to see.
The coaster was nice, maybe a little too much money, it was fun, but wish it started up higher in the mountain.