My expectations were realistic, thanks to the other reviews listed here, and I am happy to say that they were exceeded from the moment we boarded. On this cruise we had 3 generations, including 2 girls, a teenager and a preteen. Half of us had cruised once before. We used LightHouse parking--convenient and cheaper than the city parking. We arrived at 11:30am and embarkation was a breeze. As we boarded, the weather was terrible, but it did not matter--the ship looked great.

We went straight to the lunch buffet. The food is good, not great, and there are many choices. The salad bar seemed very fresh, though there was not a wide variety of veggies. The burgers and deli were very good, and I loved the self-service frozen yogurt machines. Asian, Italian and other options were also available.

We had a stateroom with a window that connected to our daughters' stateroom. It was very well-designed, clean and bigger than I had expected. Yes, it was a bit dated, but that did not matter, and the bed was so comfortable. It was perfect for 2 people, but if we had to share the room with our daughters, it would have been too small. Read more