We chose this cruise both because it lined up perfectly with our school districts April vacation, and because we were able to sail with a group rate. Upon entering our stateroom we were VERY impressed. The panoramic staterooms may not have a balcony, but the floor to ceiling windows offered amazing views, particularly because our room, 1860, was port side, and all the panoramic rooms are on the twelfth deck (The highest deck with staterooms). Also, this floor is the only one, currently, with renovated rooms. Therefore, we had a new Samsung flat screen TV, an updated vanity, new furniture, new carpeting, and and a small but nicely finished bathroom. The only downside to the room was that there were only two plugs so bring a surge protector! When we visited other people's balcony staterooms, we realized how outdated the other rooms are. That is biggest reason why I recommend the panoramic staterooms.

The staff on the boat was acceptional. Our maid, Ann Marie, was excellent and greated us multiple times a day with a smile. Also, our wait staff, Ulrick and Alen, were funny and we found ourselves looking forward to dinner every night. The shows on these boats are pretty exceptional too. The only reason I am rating my cruise with 4/5 stars is because of the unreliable Internet and unexpected rocking of the boat. The ship has recently been outfitted with Voom, Royal Caribbeans fastest internet, which reached peak scores of about 8mbps on speed test; fairly fast for satellite. We paid 20 dollars/ day for 2 devices. The only problem was it's unreliability because it randomly logs you out of the Internet when you lock your device. Even though it was supposed to only log you out every two hours, it randomly would drop our devices after a few minutes. This made it hard to iMessage eachother on the ship. I wouldn't recommend the Internet package. Instead, remember your parties room numbers and simply call their room from a phone, which are located at every elevator on the ship.

Also, our first night and first day at sea saw moderately tall waves which made some of our party seasick, and having a room forward on the twelfth floor made it tricky to get ready. Taking a shower the first night was an unexpected challenge due to the extreme rocking. Furthermore, the waves caused us to miss our first port of call at Coco Kay. The captain, however, did try to make up for this inconvenience by arriving at our next port of call, St. Thomas, extra early. Although the boat remained rocky through the second day, once we were in the Caribbean it seemed to subside. Nobody in our party felt ill after this point, and I would even go as far as to argue that the rocking became fun at some points, such as when you are in the pool. Overall, our cruise to St. Thomas and St. Marteen was an experience of a lifetime, and Mother Nature and Voom were the only ones to ever put a damper on our days.