Background: 12 cruises total (7 RCCL, 3 HAL, 1 Carnival). Booked this via Royal Carib as an interior guarantee for a great deal somewhat last-minute; decided to book their CruiseCare insurance as well, which was a good thing indeed -- see below.

Embarkation -- we flew into FLL and hired SAS Transportation to take us to the pier on a shared van. Communications were not good -- we were, on more than one occaision, told that they were 'four minutes away', only to be kept waiting for over 45 minutes. At the port, check in took longer than we've ever experienced, and this is arriving at 1:30 pm. It seemed to take forever to get on the ship -- a good ninety minutes, at least, and this is with the SetSail Pass ready to go.

Cabin: 8401 -- an interior stateroom with a great location, tucked starboard aft beside a row of balcony cabins; perfectly situated to walk up/down to most of the ship. The room had the usual RCCL configuration, with a flat screen tv and a minifridge. I really wish they could figure out a way to design the cabin without leaving three inches between the fridge/sofa and the bed - I ended up with way too many bruises trying to get through at night when half-asleep. Read more