We departed from Galveston, Texas. We used the indoor pier parking, which was very disorganized. I would probably use Lighthouse parking if I travel out of Galveston again. Embarkation through terminal 2 was equally disorganized and took a great deal of time to get through security. This may have been worse than usual because it was spring break and the ship was very full. Once we were through security, the process was very easy and we were on board quickly. We initially went to Sorrento's Pizza which was not crowded and gave us a place to sit and get a bite to eat. I left my family to make sure our dinner reservations were in order for the My Time Dining and Chops. The staff members were very helpful and were able to get our times set up with no problem. We went to our cabins about 1:30pm and found them ready and very nice. Our bags arrived by 3:30 pm. My son had a private lesson on the FlowRider the first evening. It was very cool and cloudy, but the lesson still went forward. The staff was again wonderful and he had fun, even though he was freezing. During the cruise, we used the FlowRider, all the slides, the rock climbing wall, miniature golf, and the ice rink. My son's favorites were the rock climbing and skating. The ice is small and not great, but how often can you say you skated at sea? He skated three different days and we found it worth it for him to bring his own skates. It gave him a little extra skating time. We also attended the ice skating show, In the Air, and the comedian one evening. All the shows were great. The comedian (I wish I could remember his name) was very funny and appropriate for the whole family.
We ate at Chops the first evening with the "First Night Done Right" promotion (it made the cost half price). The food and service were excellent. The remainder of our meals, breakfast, lunch on sea days, and dinners were all in the Main Dining Room. The food was wonderful and the service impeccable. I heard that the buffet, Windjammers, was very crowded, but we never went there to eat. For my next RC cruise, I will likely only visit the MDR.
For a very crowded ship on spring break, it didn't feel crowded. The staff was wonderful and made you feel special. The children on the boat were all well behaved. We still found areas on the ship all to ourselves. We were able to always eat when we wanted and never had trouble getting into shows and activities. It was even easy to get an elevator without people pushing. I have to admit i was a little worried about a spring break cruise, but that was unnecessary.
This was a forward facing cabin. The view out front of the helipad was nice, but it was a slightly oddly shaped room. It appeared from the deck map that the room was larger than most other Oceanview rooms. The far wall with the window slanted at an angle (it is the front of the ship after all) and it made some of the space a little unusable. However, my son's bed was by that wall and he loved it! For the two of us, there was plenty of space.I was surprised by how well the storage worked. The bathroom was tight, but I think that is to be expected. Our cabin attendant did a wonderful job and the room was always clean and in good working order.