I have taken many cruises in the past and this was the maiden voyage for my travel partner, so we have a varied perspective on this cruise. We embarked on December 19th for a four day cruise going to Nassau, CocoCay (private RCL beach) and Key West. Embarkation was smooth and effortless, which I was a bit concerned about because my travel partner is not a U.S. citizen, and I wasn't sure if things were going to be more problematic because of that. But they just made a copy of his green card and off we went to the welcome lunch buffet on the Lido deck. This is pretty typical of most cruises, to have this lunch buffet to keep people occupied whilst their rooms are being tidied up. The buffet food was fairly mediocre that first day, which is also pretty typical of most cruise ships.

Our cabin was quite small compared to other outside cabins I have had in the past. But heck, we spend so little time there, it doesn't really matter. Amenities in the cabin have all but disappeared -- no pen or paper or lotion or sewing kit or ship postcards. Shampoo comes out of a dispenser and you do get small generic soap. Don't expect hot water on the first or last day. (Sad, but true.) Our cabin steward was quite friendly, and the stewards on this ship still practice the old art of towel animals!

Our cabin was on the Promenade Deck (Deck 7), which is not the ideal spot for an Oceanview Cabin because you can't really see the sea all that well. However, it was not noisy with traffic as I feared, although there was a bit of concern a few times about privacy! Read more