We cruised with my family of three and two friends. Being from the Midwest, we flew into Melbourne, FL the night before. MLB is relatively small and very easy to navigate. The five of us spent the night at the Hilton Rialto, Melbourne, sharing a junior suite with two double beds and a fold out sofa. The room had plenty of space to accommodate the five of us. The hotel is conveniently located near a Walmart just in case you forget some essentials or need to pick up soda/wine before embarkation. We picked up our last minute items, made the short drive to port, dropped off our rental car (10:45 am) at Budget and then we waited and waited and waited for the shuttle to arrive. After more than an hour waiting in the chaos, we finally hired an Uber ($18) for the short ride to the terminal.

Embarkation was very busy but moved quickly and efficiently. We were onboard within 30 minutes from the time we were dropped off (maybe 1:00 pm?) Our stateroom was ready by 1:30. We loved our spacious deluxe ocean view room (1248). Having two bathrooms was a bonus.

Overall, we loved the ship. It is big yet easy to navigate. There is plenty to do. We used the HUB app and really found it handy. For $5 per device we were able to chat with each other throughout the cruise, which came in really handy. We tried the Mongolian Wok, Tandoor, Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana for lunch. All were really tasty! Breakfast burritos from Blue Iguana were my favorite. Lido breakfast was the typical buffet food. Nothing special but definitely found plenty to eat. Drink stations were always crowded and especially the coffee was empty frequently but the staff was always working hard to keep up. We ate dinner in the MDR every night. Service was good yet somewhat unorganized. I'm not a huge complainer but for me the MDR food was just average. I understand they serve a lot of people but we never had hot food. It was always luke-warm at best. The crab cake was my favorite appetizer. Most of the main dishes were mediocre but with that said, we never left hungry. The chocolate melting cake was delish. Shout out to IWayan and Abdi - they always had a smile and asked about our day. We thought the entertainment in the Starlight Theater was good. We saw Flick and really enjoyed it. The pools were crowded but not unreasonable. Lido pool was LOUD but the Aft pool was much more subdued. We spent most of our time there. Drinks were good, especially the frozen ones! Try the Mango swirl margarita, it's delish! Overall, we really enjoyed our time on the ship. Read more