Introduction This was my and teen sons first cruise, my wife and daughters 3rd. Theyre previous ones had been with Carnival. My only other shipboard experience was aboard a Navy vessel many years ago which wasnt as pleasant as this one. Overall I would give this ship and staff a good to excellent rating.

Pre-cruise The RC internet site worked fine for registering/confirming, but didnt work for 2 weeks prior to cruise for selecting excursions. We finally called up RC and they acknowledged the site was experiencing problems, and registered us for the excursions. So, if you run into problems, dont waste time on the website, just call them to reserve the excursions.

Boarding and deboarding: Registering/confirming over the internet saves about 15 minutes of processing at the port of Miami. Boarding took about 30 min at 12:30 pm. The first thing I recommend you do on-board is purchase a soda package for EACH person in your party. They only sell the package on the first day, and I believe only at the Windjammer Restaurant on Deck 11. This can easily save a family of four at least $100 because buying the drinks ala carte is $1.65 (including 15% tip) each and the package is only $24 /pp. When you buy the package, they issue you a sticker that goes on your Seapass (ID Card) and a RC travel bottle. Upon boarding, you should go up to Windjammer which is a beautiful windowed restaurant at aft end of the ship, with something for everyone. Deboarding is not so organised. It took over 2 hours to get off the ship due to congestion on deck 4 with a line wrapping around itself getting backed up due to some wise guys/veterans trying to merge in line at the stairways rather than walking to end of it, and crew mates sending us into the port where Customs/Immigration computers were going real slow. Stateroom -- We were all in balconied staterooms on deck 8 forward, starboard side. The room was ample sized with a queen bed, sofa (not a sleep sofa), decent sized closet with extra blankets and pillows, shelves and enough hangars for all we brought plus built in chest of drawers. The head was small, with a round shower stall that was so small it was difficult to retrieve a bar of soap falling to the floor (there was just not enough room there, and Im not a heavy weight by any means). Read more