This was my first cruise. As such, I had no real expectations on what to expect. Embarkation was quick and painless, although once we boarded we had no idea what we were supposed to do. We found our mini-suite, which was close to the middle of the ship, slightly toward the aft. After entering our room the first time, the key card wouldn't open my door and my steward, Tomas, ran to get a supervisor. Apparently the battery on the card reader died, and it's a somewhat common occurrence (I saw them replacing another battery 8 days later on the cruise).

Tomas, our steward, was pretty good, although I have no reference point other than hotels that I've stayed at. Our room was always efficiently cleaned and all special requests were handled quickly and with a smile. I'm not sure if it's because we were in a mini-suite but thankfully our steward was great. My fiancee did want more than one towel animal (we had only one the whole trip) but after reading other reviews I'm glad I got to see one. We brought a bottle of wine onboard and Tomas provided a bottle opener complimentary for us. Our balcony chairs seemed a little dirty though.

If you're reading this review, you'll probably read the review below it by 'oleej'. My fiancee and I were two of the 20 other people on the ship that were in their 20's. Yes, there were lots of older people aged 65-80. We even dined and chatted with several that were 80-90. Some were very nice and others weren't quite sure how to interact with us. Overall, passengers were much friendlier and talkative than on land vacations. Read more