This was our fifth cruise with Royal Caribbean. This was a big celebration for me and my wife, both of us recently retiring. We invited our three adult children, son-in-law and granddaughter. We flew into Seattle arriving at 8:00am. I thought we would be so early we would have a lot of waiting around time. I was so wrong and thankful we booked an early flight. We purchased the shuttle transfer to the ship. This was a mistake on so many levels. It was expensive for just a bus ride. They took our luggage and we didn't see it again till nearly 4:00pm. The bus ride to the ship was miserable, bus seats dirty, smell of exhaust and no air conditioning so it was warm and stuffy. When we arrived at the port it was unorganized, cars and buses backed up out of the port. It took forever just to get into the lot and off the bus.

The ship is dated but in decent shape. This is a very large ship and at times felt crowded. Our cabin was on deck 8 stateroom 8634, Deluxe balcony. The room was clean and service was very good. The balcony is small but worth it in my opinion. We enjoyed spectacular views from our balcony and avoided the crowds. A word of warning about this particular room. It was right across from the stewards linen and utility room. They start working early and we could hear them loading their carts, woke us up a couple of times.

The food in main dining room was good and the service was excellent. The windjammer was just OK, crowded and noisy with cafeteria food. Entrainment was good but not great. The elevators were slow and took forever, I have trouble walking, so very inconvenient. Read more