We chose this cruise to celebrate my birthday. We live an hour from Galveston, so it was an easy drive down on the morning of the cruise. We parked at EZ Cruise, as usual, and arrived at the pier at 11:00 am. Our check in window was 10:30 to 11:00am. I did see a woman being turned away from the door of the terminal with a 12:30 check in time. She was very unhappy and very loud about it. We gave our luggage to a porter, went through security and were checked in and in the Priority Lounge by 11:15. They boarded the wedding parties at 11:30 and at 11:40 began boarding the Diamonds, followed by Platinum guests and those with FTTF.
We were in JS 9206. The cabin was ready when we boarded. We put away our carryon bags, put the passports and valuables in the safe and headed out for lunch. My DH was one of the first in line at Guys Burgers. I had a naked burrito at the Blue Iguana Cantina. We were both enjoyed our lunches. After lunch, we wandered around the ship for a while.
About 1:30 we went back to the cabin and the luggage was already there, so I unpacked. Shortly thereafter, the cabin steward came to introduce himself. Jose, from Goa, India, was excellent. We told him we wanted ice twice a day and he said that as soon as the pantry opened he would get it for us. In a short amount of time he returned with the ice. Then, we had a visit from Isidore a housekeeping supervisor. He introduced himself and said if we had any needs or problems to please let him know. Then an officer stopped by and asked if everything was OK and said she would be available if we needed her services. It was an impressive display of interest in our well being.
As for the cabin - we loved the cabin and the location. 9206 is a junior suite and is nearly all the way forward on the port side. The balcony for the JS on this ship is larger than on other ships because they have removed a partition and given the balcony an extra 4 feet in length. We had 3 chairs and a table. We looked down on the Captain's Suite balcony. If we were at the rail, they could see us, but if we sat back in the chairs, it was quite private. It was the perfect size cabin for 2 of us and the location was fantastic. The cabin had the same storage as the OS category with the dressing area and double sinks in the bathroom. We had a super smooth ride. We had no issues with wind making the balcony unusable while sailing and spent lot of time on the sea days enjoying the balcony, contrary to what I read online before booking this cabin. We would book this cabin again in a heartbeat, but alas it is not available on our next 2 cruises. I checked as soon as we got home.