I have to admit, even this being my 35th cruise, I was a little nervous. This time of year, the coastal storms, and the countless bad reviews. Here is the thing though, I never let other people's bad reviews sway me, but instead use them as a heads up! I had heard horror stories about embarkation.. We were from car, to check in within 5 minutes, and twenty minutes later they opened boarding, which took maybe 10 minutes. The cabins were ready at 1pm.. We had lunch in the Solarium Bistro, which we frequented for both breakfast and lunch several times..

Our cabin was a Superior Balcony on the 10th deck, midship, perfect location and quiet.. After speaking to a bunch of people I moved my original cabin from the 13th deck, because there were a lot of issues with noise. The cabin had great storage, but physical space not so much.. We normally have suites, but the prices were too steep this time around. The bed was extremely hard, so our cabin steward put layers of blankets on top of the mattress which helped.. Most of the people we talked to felt the same way about the beds!

We had early classic dining. We liked it.. The time was wrong though on my calendar and it was 5:30 each night instead of 6 pm.. If you came after that there was no guarantee that you would have your waiter etc.. Given that I have food allergies, I needed the same staff. We never had a bad meal, not anywhere on the ship.. Probably my least favorite was Silk.. I was even pleasantly surprised in the Wind Jammer.. Read more