Background: This was our first RCCL cruise. We have been on one Celebrity cruise and eight Princess cruises. We had a party of seven, 3 generations.

We flew in the night before and stayed at the Homewood Suites Airport West. This was an excellent hotel. The front desk personnel were very helpful. They had a free shuttle service to and from the airport. Some in our party had a car and were allowed to leave it in their parking lot during the cruise at no charge. And they also arranged a shuttle for us to the port for $12.00 each.

Embarkation: We arrived about 1:15 pm. The lines were very long. It was the longest wait we have ever had. They did have a lot of booths open to check people in, but it did seem to take longer to check in, possibly because they took our pictures at that time instead of when we board the ship. But then we liked entering the ship on Deck 4 as it was an impressive start to the cruise (but not worth the long wait). It was also very nice not to have to take our life jacket to the muster. Read more