After reading all the reviews before I went on my cruise in May and basically being scared to death by everyone’s comments I decided to write my thoughts about the cruise, hopefully helping to ease some of your worries like I had for nothing.

First of all, we ported out of New York, do yourself a favor and give yourself plenty of time if you are driving in…we had a major traffic jam and were moving like snails for 2 hours which really stinks when you are driving with a 2 year old. Also, buy the Faster to Fun pass (LOVED IT) for $50 extra your entire room can board at 11:00 instead of the 1:30 like everyone else. We got on shortly after 11:00 and our rooms were ready instantly, so while everyone else had to hold their luggage while trying to get some lunch, not us! We had already changed, relaxed slightly and went right in for the fun. Plus, you get all these extra little perks, like boarding off the ship first when you are at an island, getting to use the priority line for guest services which means you never wait and getting the option to disembark first (wonderful when you’re ready to leave).

Food…buffet kind of got old after a while (we normally ate that for lunch) so I suggest changing it up and trying to eat at all the different places on board. We ate at the dining hall every night and loved it. Menu changes every night so we never ate anything the same unless we wanted to. Our waiter was Shon John and he was AWESOME, if you have the option get him, you will never have water half empty and his team is great! Kind of got sad to leave him actually. Read more