This was our 10th cruise, first time with RCL. We were looking forward to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten but were diverted to Labadee and Falmouth due to bad weather conditions, safe is a good thing. We've never been to those ports but they are both RCL owned ports so same stuff, different address. Anyway, we can pretty much mimic Pandastewart's comments, the ship is beyond big and an awesome feat of engineering. It does however fill up with thousands of people.

Things to expect when you board, have a very good idea where to eat and how to get there for day one lunch. Windjammers on deck 16 is the main eatery and it fills up and you can wait in line. Central Park Cafe moves along a little better Whipeout Cafe in the back top by Flowriders is available. Be prepared to walk and do stairs, the ship is not designed well for elevator traffic with them located in the central part of the ship no elevator areas in the Fore or Aft sections so you will wait and people will literally force their way on. Also be aware of the scooter folks they blow out of the elevators and will run you over... Did I mention walking? We use our health apps on or phone and we averaged around 5 miles a day just walking from our cabin to places on the ship. Mind you 2 laps on the Deck 5 track is a mile..

Planning is crucial, so much for going and relaxing. The Entertainment is awesome, Mamma Mia, Oceanaria, and Blue Plant are top notch and you do need to make reservations, not kidding. Keeping the planning in mind we would strongly recommend booking My Time Dining and do not commit to the early 6:00 or late 8:30 seating. Here's why..we booked Late 8:30 dining when we booked. We made reservations for Mamma Mia which is at 9:30, you can't get through dinner in an hour in the Silk dining room, in fact 2 hours is tough for them. So, we went to the My Time dining room at 7 to make the show. We were greeted by the main Maitrede, who proceeded to give us a hard time for not going to the 8:30 seating but he did let us in the My Time room. Next night we had the Oceanaria reservations at 9 and replayed the night before excepts now the Maitrede got a little nasty. But again we sat in the My Time dining and had an earlier dinner. So with the exception of the Maitrede Nazi and his attitude it worked out well for us. We even went to Guest Services to change to the My Time the rest of the way and they told us to talk to the Maitrede so that didn't play well . This brings us to the other dining choices, we made reservations for Chops Grill for Friday night. In another segment of planning, Friday night on the cruise is Lobster night in the main dining rooms. If you don't want to miss that, book the other dining on another date. Not sure how you find out the menu schedule ahead of time as there are gaps in RCL's communication..more details later.. Read more