First let me say this trip was great. This was my third cruise and everyone enjoyed it. I've read a lot of complaints on this board about this ship. All I have to say is that if you want to be miserable on your vacation, you will be if you nit pick everything thing that does not go your way or is not exactly the way you think it should be.

Embarkation - Unfortunately this was a disaster. The ship was late coming in from Bermuda and instead of boarding around 1:00 pm on Friday that we typically would have been able to do, we did not board until around 9PM. This terminal at Bayonne is simply not able to hold 3000 people at one time and it was mass chaos. Numbers were given to each person as they entered and you were boarded according to those group numbers. They could have arranged the seating by number which would have made it easier to get people out of the terminal as the numbers were being called. Food was served (sandwiches and hot dogs) but the lines were about an hour long. Ditto for the bathrooms. I read a post on the message board from some guy who was so happy to be given some extra time on the ship on the cruise returning but I'm sure it caused much inconvenience for the passengers returning as it did for those of us trying to get on.

Food - We ate in the dining room every night and the food was good. Not spectacular but very good. I guess some people don't realize that if you don't like what you order, you can ask for something else. You can also order multiple appetizers if you want. For lunch we ate in the dining room all but one day. The menus had a good selection and again the food was good. One day of lunch in the Windjammer was good. Breakfast every day was had in the Windjammer/Island Grill. Food was fine. I don't expect breakfasts to be spectacular. We did not go to Portofino or Johnny Rockets. I really can't see spending extra when the food in the places we ate was fine. The pizza and snacks in the Cafe Promenade was good. The one item I though was lame is that they had two midnight buffets and they were both on days when we were scheduled to be in port. With early morning excursions, this seemed to be a way for RCCL to save money. Even my waiter commented on that. These should be held when the next day is a day at sea. Read more