This was the fourteenth cruise for my wife and myself and our fourth on Royal Caribbean. We are in our early 70's. We chose this cruise because it traveled to a few places in the Caribbean that we had not been to yet. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale from Dallas a few days before the cruise departure, rented a car and drove to Key West, stayed there for a few nights. While in Key West we took the ferry to Fort Jefferson located in the Dry Tortugas, a bit pricey but well worth it. The day before the cruise we drove back to Lauderdale, turned the car in and stayed at the Hilton Gardens south of the airport, they have a free cruise shuttle. The Hilton is a very nice hotel with friendly service.

On the morning of the cruise we took the 11:00 hotel shuttle to the ship. The embarkation process took about an hour and 15 minutes, we were aboard by 12:30. The interior of the ship and the common areas are very clean and well appointed. We particularly liked the deck 5 promenade, this area is like a small city block with shopping, a coffee shop and bar. Our cabin was on deck six, an inside cabin with a bay window overlooking the promenade. The cabin was well appointed, of decent size with a flat screen TV, desk and chair another chair and a couch. The closet and storage areas were adequate for two people. The TV channel offerings were poor, no US based networks just repetitive drivel. I purchased the Wi-Fi package for $160.00, a waste of money, painfully slow and problematic.

Overall the food was adequate, nothing to wax poetic about but you won't starve to death. We had the your time dinner seating. On the first night we ate at the assigned restaurant but for the rest of the cruise we took meals at the Windjammer on deck 11, except for one night, we went to the Italian upcharge restaurant. In my opinion, we should saved our money, the Italian fare was not at all enjoyable, probably the worst upcharge experience out of all of the cruises that we have taken. Read more