Although our 9-day Caribbean cruise from Baltimore started off with some rough seas due to Hurricane Irene barreling north toward the U.S. East Coast as we sailed southeast, we had a great time on a great ship.

The Cruise: My wife and I took this cruise as a belated 30th anniversary and beginning of empty-nesthood trip. This cruise featured a total of four days at sea, and four Caribbean ports of call. We left Baltimore as Hurricane Irene was making its way up the East Coast and it affected much of our first two days at sea, as the ship rocked through waves approaching 15-20 feet at their peak on the second night of the cruise. We also had some windy conditions on the pool deck during the sea days. Otherwise, we had fine, sunny weather for much of the cruise and were able to take advantage of all of the ship's facilities at some point during the cruise. Unfortunately, this particular itinerary appears to be ending as RCI seems to have eliminated Caribbean cruises out of Baltimore for the upcoming summer seasons - that's a real loss.

Our previous (and only ) cruise experience was on the Carnival Victory in 2007, sailing from New York to Atlantic Canada. Two particular areas were markedly better on this cruise: Read more