Embarkation was great. We drove down from Atlanta and arrived early, around 11:00 AM, and were greeted with smiles. We were eating lunch in the Windjammer by 11:30. At 1:00 sharp we went to our room. Our luggage arrived shortly after. We decided to participate in the "My Time Dining" program. You can choose to dine anytime between 6:00 and 9:30 pm each evening. We really liked out waiter (Putu) and assistant waiter (Jose), so we opted to have dinner at the same two person table each night. Dinner in the formal dining room was great--the difficult part was narrowing down exactly which appetizer, etc, that we wanted! I can't say I ate anything that wasn't good...most was delicious! My favorite main course was the lobster and shrimp...and the prime rib...and the list goes on! I loved every appetizer I ate...and the desserts were fantastic! I skip salad, no need in filling up on something I can eat every day at home! By the way, we took the stairs to keep from gaining weight :-). It worked, I lost a pound. RCL has revamped their menus since we sailed last year, there are several new options.
This ship is beautiful. It's very tastefully decorated and it looks almost new. There is very, very little evidence that she hasn't been refurbished since 2005. It's the smallest ship we've sailed on out of nine (9) cruises. We loved this boat! With the exception of limited shopping as on the larger ships--I really missed Sorrento's too(Freedom and Liberty of the Seas). This was our first 5-day cruise also, we normally sail 7 days. We were pleasantly surprised--five days felt sufficient. We also expected this "smaller" ship to be tossed about a little more by the motion of the ocean--it was at least as calm feeling of the larger ships!
Day 2 was spent lying on the pool deck taking in the gorgeous Caribbean sunshine. The pool deck chairs really didn't fill up early, though we took a book and got there around 9:00 AM. It does fill up around 11 though.
Tiny TVs in the room. we were in the center of the ship on the 3rd floor and it was very quiet!