My wife and I are in our 50's, I am 53 and my wife is 56. My wife is a teacher assistant and I have a Master's Degree in Education but work in customer service for an air conditioning company. This is our 13th cruise since the summer of 2001. It was a nine nighter from Tampa to the Western Caribbean from Dec. 24 to Jan 2, 2005.
We left the night before the cruise on Southwest Airlines from Phila to Tampa. Our plane arrived at Tampa at 1 AM about 2 1/2 Hours late. Luckily our luggage arrived with us. Many people did not receive their luggage during the entire cruise. We stayed overnight in the LaQuinta Tampa Airport Motel - before leaving for the ship at Noon time on Christmas Eve for the cruise. We were able to board the ship very quickly being Platinum Members in the Crown and Anchor Club of Royal Caribbean. This was our 9th cruise on Royal Caribbean, 1 on Princess, 1 on Celebrity, 1 on Carnival and 1 on Norwegian.
Our balcony room was Room 7000 as far front as you can get on the ship. It had a couch and a queen bed and adequate room for storage. The hair drier was on the storage cabinet above the safe in the room. Our stateroom attendant Dan from the Philippines was excellent. He was a real pro and had 6 years experience all on the Splendour.