We are past cruisers, C and A Platinum, two adults, two kids 11-13. We live in SoFla so just a short drive to port. Parking is expensive so beware. Embark was very smooth, filled out all paperwork on-line before arrival. Cabin 3556 good location, next to theatre, club and casino. I will be short and sweet. Cruise was good! The concerns mentioned by recent other posters really didn't bother us at all. We came to chill as a fam and that is exactly what we did.

Dinner: We had a nice isolated table for 4 on deck three, #241. The headwaiter was superb (Memish)as was our waiter (Gede). Asst waiter was all smiles and on the spot all the time too. We chose to forgo any specialty restaurants and ate every night in the main dinning room-our kids ate with us every night (they wanted to.) Again, as a past cruiser the main dining room met and exceeded our expectations-the staff we had and of course your personality and demeanor to them make a big difference too. You know I take the "no worries" approach....I could have been working, but instead I had a cocktail in my hand am enjoying a good quality vacation with the fam.

Ports: Water temp everywhere was just barely 80 degrees. That is cold for us so we limited water activities. I did not have any problems finding our tour spot or a RCCL person to ask question to. We did not do any real shopping on the islands. I did by liquor, but did not find that big a price difference and bought on board the ship. One port does stand out and that was Labadee. It is beautiful. I was recently in Haiti after the earthquake with a search and rescue team, so perhaps I am slightly biased. IMHO, RCCL is doing the right thing by continuing to stop there and putting money in the pockets of local Haitians. I also saw the cruise line dropping off supplies as well. On activities-zip line is expensive for a 60 second thrill.....other wise my tip is to venture out a bit and do not follow the masses, you will be pleasantly surprised! Read more