Never having cruised, I had a few reservations. Would I be bored on the ship? Will I be overwhelmed by the crowds? Will I be waiting in line everywhere? The answers: no, no, and no. We flew to Fort Lauderdale the night before and taken an airport shuttle to our hotel in Miami, Courtyard in Downtown Miami. It was a great pre-cruise hotel. The rooms were clean and well-appointed and the staff were all friendly and helpful. We got up in the morning and could see the port from our balcony. It increased our anticipation seeing the cruise ships lined up at port. We went downstairs and had a great breakfast before stopping by the concierge desk to inquire about transportation to the port. The hotel has an agreement with a shuttle service that will take you from the hotel to the port for $5 per person. We signed up and went up to our room to relax a little before it was time to leave. At the appointed time, we took the shuttle to the port and were onboard in short order. Because I had purchased Faster to the Fun, we were able to go to our room right away and get settled in before heading up to Lido deck to grab some lunch. We were impressed with the ship and after grabbing some lunch from the buffet and Guy's burgers, we went to explore and learn our way around. We deck by deck, starting at the top and found our way around making sure we knew where everything was. We even went on a tour of the spa/fitness center. We grabbed a frozen drink just before sail-away and watch as we headed out to sea. We went back to watch some of the events on the Lido deck for the sail-away party and experience the first pangs of OMG, there were so many people on this ship. Soon, however, we found lots of deck areas which were quiet and accommodating and I never felt overwhelmed by the crowd for the rest of the trip. We had chosen Your Time Dining and headed to the dining room for our meal dinner. We were very impressed with the variety of the menu and great service we received. We enjoyed our dinner so much that we made a point to eat in the dining room for dinner every day and brunch on both the sea days. We quickly developed a routine that we followed the remainder of the journey. We would enjoy dinner in the dining room, take a stroll on deck, then enjoy a show in either the Amber Palace or the Comedy Club before retiring for the evening. Our favorite show was the hypnotist they had for one night only. That is not to be missed. We had some great entrees during the week in the dining room and really enjoyed the deserts each night. As far as the remainder of the dining options, we also really enjoyed the burritos at the Blue Iguana Cantina. The Fish and Chips were just so-so but the boullaibase was very good. The only time we really ate the buffet was for breakfast on port days because we could grab a quick breakfast and then head off to enjoy our day.

We enjoyed the water slide a couple of times and the enjoyed the salt water pool on the aft deck better than the main pool on the Lido deck. We also enjoyed the whirlpool in the fitness center and the aft deck. We did play miniature golf once and visited the casino but a short-while. We browsed the shops and bought a few gifts for family at home. As far as entertainment, there were often musical groups entertaining on both Lido deck and in the Lobby.

We did a private excursion on Grand Cayman which was great. We chose to do a private excursion here because we wanted to go to Stingray City and knew that the ship excursion to Stingray City had large groups at once and we were looking for a more personal experience. We did ship excursions to snorkel at Chaankanab which we enjoyed immensely. We also did the ship excursion to see the Mayan ruins at Xunantanich. It was a long ride, but comfortable and ruins were worth the trip. The authentic lunch they served us as part of this excursion was also very good. Finally, we also did the ship excursion at Roatan to French Key. This I will give a mixed review. French Key is a fabulous place, but the excursion you purchase through the ship does not have all the privileges advertised on the French Key website which we were expecting but was not really spelled out in the information for the excursion. Roatan is a port where you could forgo an excursion and just enjoy the beach at Mahogany Bay whereas Belize is a place that you would want to participate in an excursion as the port is not large and there is no beach. Cozumel probably had the prettiest and largest port of all the ports of call. Read more