Some friends finally persuaded my husband and me to go on a cruise with them. They take a cruise every year so we trusted them to pick the ship and destination. I figured a 5 day was good for a first time in case my husband was bored out of his mind. There were 8 of us in all so we sat together in the main dining room and had rooms in the same corridor. We chose inside rooms to save money and figured we wouldn't be in the room that much anyway.

We drove from Ohio and spent the week before the cruise visiting friends and family in Florida. The morning of the cruise, we pulled up to the ship and were met by a couple of men who asked if we wanted to use valet parking. My husband was thrilled he could just hand over our luggage and car at once. It cost $95 for the week (Monday to Saturday) which I thought was a little pricey, but my husband thought it was worth it.

I have nothing to compare this to, but getting on the ship was relatively quick and easy. Apparently, there was a problem with our dinner seating, but our friends had dealt with it before we got on board, so we didn't worry about it. Our paperwork said boarding time was 1:30, I believe, but we listened to our friends who said we could get on much earlier and they were right. We were on board well before noon and made our way to the Windjammer for lunch. Read more