This was our first cruise and despite some tough weather I came home very relaxed and happy with our vacation...

3/17... We were flying in from Manchester, New Hampshire and decided to give ourselves an extra day in case bad weather delayed everything. (It has been a very snowy winter) This worked very well for us. We stayed at the Comfort Inn at Cocoa Beach and had a day to ourselves to just relax before starting the cruise.

3/18 We arrived at Port Canaveral about 11:30 am and were told that we could do an early boarding. My husband had a passport and I had my birth certificate. We had checked with our TA and showed her the certificate to make sure that it would be sufficient. She told us it was OK. However when we did the paper work for boarding the woman who was helping us told me it was not a certified copy because there was no raised seal (I think that at one point there was but because I have carried it around for the last 6 years the seal was barely extinguishable). I had to sign a release accepting responsibility for not providing proper documentation and was allowed to board the ship. It could have been worse and I WILL be getting a passport ASAP! I never had a problem after that with boarding and or leaving the ship at any of the ports. After that snafu the rest of the boarding went without a hitch. We got to our room. We were on the Riviera deck in an outside cabin with a window (6A). At first I was concerned that being on the lowest deck for passengers was not a good thing but by the end of the first day I actually enjoyed it because it was not busy in the hallways and was quiet at night. (A good thing for sleeping):-) The room was clean and spacious. The medicine cabinet in the bathroom was big enough for all our toiletries. We unpacked and had more than enough room for our stuff. DON'T OVER PACK! Read more