Having cruised Carnival once (two thumbs down) and Disney four time (two thumbs up), I expected RCL to fall between the two. I was pleasantly surprised at the classic decor, good mix of guests from all age groups, friendly staff, and cleanliness of the ship. This was a girls' get away trip and the price with gratuities was only $338 each. We booked a "cheap" room, i.e. inside stateroom choosing deck 7. I opted to book through Costco to get the $25 room credit after checking out sail dates, staterooms, and prices on the RCL website. We booked about 6 weeks prior to sailing. Flying into FLL and getting to Port Everglades is easy!

Embarkation was easy. We arrived early since we had an early flight to FLL from Detroit. We were told we may board as early as 11 am, but some passengers didn't disembark leaving thousands of us waiting until after 1245 pm before boarding. The terminal is dreary- some airport style seating and folding chairs. No patios or areas to stroll around. You are told to sit in an area and are "roped in" since that area determines your boarding time. We were among the first group on. We were told we could go to our staterooms at 1:00 and they held to that time. At 12:55pm, we were not permitted to drop off our carry on bags. We headed to the Windjammer for lunch instead with our stuff.

Food at the Windjammer was meh! Typical buffet stuff. Some stuff was pretty good; other stuff didn't even look worth a try. The salad bar was very basic. Fruit was okay. Beverages were watered down (iced tea and lemonade), warm and with just a few ice cubes. You had to ask for coffee and often the half and half bucket was empty. Coffee was very good though- once I got my half and half. I'm surprised no soft drinks were offered. We chose the Windjammer daily for breakfast also since my friends didn't want to spend an hour eating breakfast in on of the dining rooms. Again- meh. The usual stuff. Not hard to find something you wanted. I will say though that the croissants were yummy. We had them and coffee delivered every morning to our stateroom. They call just before arriving so you are up to answer the door. Read more