We usually like Royal Caribbean the best however; we have a child going to college this fall and needed to scale it back this time. We made a good choice!!!!

Trip to Tampa: We flew into Tampa Friday night and stayed at The Renaissance Vinoy in St.Petersburg. Very nice hotel built in 1925 with lots of history. Ate at The Columbia on the pier (Cuban food). We learned our lesson last year to always fly in a day early because they lost one piece of my luggage and had we not flown a day early I would not have received it until the first port of call. We flew American with a direct flight and they still lost one bag last year.

Embarkation: We were at the terminal at 10:30a.m. with little to no line to check in. We stayed in a Category 11 Suite so we were VIP check-in. We were laughing because we were literally the first ones on board at 11:45a.m. We headed to the Lido deck to eat and were in our cabin by 1:00p.m. to unpack. We also take a big bottle of Crown (not hidden) with 2 wine bottles in the luggage and it always makes it to the room. Read more