Stayed at Comfort Suites on 89th street the night before. We drove so we chose a hotel at the ocean across from a beautiful pier. Hotel looked nice but the rooms weren't clean. Price was really good. Husband dropped me and the kids (ages 6, 8, 11 and 14) and all the bags off at the port and then parked at our prepaid EZCruise parking. Paid under $48 online for 7 nights parking and it was only 2 blocks walk for him. I thought embarkation was going quickly until we went upstiars into another line. Seemed to take forever, but was well organized.

Went right to eat once aboard. There is tons of food but the Lido food isn't that great, imo. The Fish and Chips was where we headed only to find out it was changed to BBQ, but it still showed up on the app the whole cruise. The app was so awesome!! We used the maps a lot, checked open restaurants and texted ($5 per phone) the whole cruise. So worth it!! We enjoyed the dining room and the staff every night. Thought the food was better there. There's just so much food all the time!! We went to brunch on two seadays and with that and dinner was just so much! The crew was always very kind.

Our room steward Laxmi was also amazing and he and our wait staff were one of the most talked about things from the cruise for our kids. They loved how fun and kind they all were. Waterslide wasn't much of a slide. Liked the outdoor movies but wish more were family friendly. Kids enjoyed the playground up by the kids camp. No one was ever there. Found the pool area on the Lido deck to be too loud (from cranking up the music.) I'm talking painfully loud. Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and seeing the kids experience for the first time. Read more