It was our first cruise out of Baltimore, second cruise overall (both with Royal). We were very impressed with getting on and off ship -- very efficient and orderly. It was only an hour drive for us, so I'm definitely looking to do another cruise out of Baltimore in the future. We drove up the morning of the cruise and we were home and unpacked by 10:30am the last day.

The ship is showing its age, between dents and dings in many of the cabin doors, the mangled metal (repaired) up in the Pullman bunk beds, subtle cracks and patch jobs around the ship. But, having said that, it certainly did not detract from my experience at all. And I may not have even noticed had I not read about how it is an older ship and wanted to see for myself just how bad it was. In the end, it had no effect on my experience.

Our family unit of 4 (spouse + 2 tweens) shared a large interior room on deck 8. The quarters were tight, and the room was smaller than the same type room on Radiance. Unlike on Radiance when we went with both lower beds separated, we left the lower beds together and the Pullman beds down. It was different, but worked out well, as it gave more room for my wife and I plus we weren't sleeping directly under a bunk all the time. Read more