Second time on this ship/itinerary, same week in 2014; husband and myself in mid-50's. First, highly recommend parking in the lot directly across the street from the ship; $15/day and easy to walk to ship even with luggage. Embarkation very fast, no waiting at 12:45pm; went directly to stateroom to drop our luggage (5-night cruise, so we just carried on small suitcases). As always, staff/crew were extremely, over-the-top friendly and accommodating in every venue at all times of day. This is one of the best things about RCCL and the most consistent... super friendly! Had a balcony cabin, 7668 all the way aft. Loved it; never felt ship movement until very last day sailing across the Gulf, but never too much. Ate only in specialty restaurants for dinner as we keep hearing that main dining room food is declining... we don't use MDR enough to really judge. We go to Diamond Lounge for breakfast and coffee every morning, eat light at the café in Solarium or Windjammer for lunch, and then go to one of the restaurants for dinner: Giovanni's twice, Chops once, skipped dinner one night and just had hors d'oeuvres in Diamond Lounge.

On one evening, we did the Chef's Table... highly recommend! I think it was about $85 per person, but included wine pairings throughout dinner. Very intimate dining with no more than 16 total guests at one long table; one personal waiter and personal chef who presented and described each course... food source, preparation, and the wine selected for each course. Started with a rose from Spain, Cakebread chardonnay for second course, a Pinot Noir, a Cab and finally a key lime martini to pair with a fabulous quartet of chocolate desserts... really fantastic! We will probably now do this on every cruise; wish we had tried it before! Since we usually go to the specialty restaurants as a couple, we sometimes miss the way dinners used to be, where you would meet and get to know people from having dinner together every night, so this was a really nice evening for us; met several people that we continued to see around the ship at other events.

Key West is one of our favorite places to go (honeymooned there) and so we always go back to the same two places: Turtle Kraals for dozens of oysters, and then a GREAT clothing store around the corner called Local Color. HUGE selection for men and women; Jamz World shirts and dresses, and a lot of other local brands... the cutest stuff and very unique... not the junk along Duval Street. Mona is the shop owner and she is wonderful! Highly recommend a stop; probably 20% of my play-wardrobe is from this store over the years :) The only other port was Cozumel; have been here several times and our favorite place is a restaurant/set of stores at the far end of the shopping/downtown district called Pancho's Backyard. The store are several very nice, clean, well-kept shops sort of connected together in an L-shape... many beautiful hand-crafted items, plenty of silver souvenirs at very reasonable prices, huge selection of nice jewelry, and... bonus... staff is absolutely zero-pressure (very unlike the stores you have to pass along the way to get there!) As you go through the stores, behind them in the middle of the "L" is a beautiful courtyard area with outdoor dining, almost completely in the shade though, so it's very comfortable; plenty of ceiling fans. The same two family members were there from our last visit, playing local music... really great :) Had a very filling lunch with 6 margaritas and 2 tequila shots (this is why we didn't have dinner one night - ha! ) for only $77 -- totally worth it! Walked halfway back to ship, and due to our indulgence at lunch, we were vulnerable to a tequila shop where they were offering ice cold samples (which we did not need)... bought a bottle for the probably ridiculous price of $120, down from initial offer of $160. I refuse to look it up and see how much it costs elsewhere... it was fun and worth the splurge! Finally took a cab back to ship for $15. Read more