Oh what a fantastic experience it was!!

I suppose it might help if you all knew something about me, just to see what I base my opinions upon. I'm in my mid 30's, this is my 7th cruise (first on RSSC), I'm married (almost 8 years), the proud mom of a 2 3/4 year old girl and a practicing pathologist. My husband is a stay-at-home-dad ("retired" as he prefers to say it; although he works harder than I do), formerly an engineer. We've cruised the Caribbean, eastern and western Mediterranean, and Alaska. We've been on Holland America, Princess (twice), Crystal, Celebrity and Windstar. My two favorite things (other than my husband and daughter) are food (both cooking and eating!!) and cruising (other travel is close behind). If I'm leaving anything out of my review, please ask me questions. I do have more to come, but don't want to leave anything out of interest to all of you who were so kind to give me very helpful information on Cruise Critic's message boards.

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale just before noon on 3/22/01 and were promptly met at the gate by a RSSC representative. After getting our luggage, we were transferred by bus for the 5 minute trip to the pier. My first view of the ship was from the air as we landed in Ft. Lauderdale and she is beautiful. All white with clean elegant lines. Boarding took no time at all, each woman was presented with a single long stem red rose. Once on board, our suites were not quite ready so we were escorted to the Mariner lounge for a welcome beverage then given a deck plan so that we could explore the ship at our leisure. I won't go into too much detail about the ship as there is an excellent ship tour with many fine photographs available at psp.club.tip.nl. A few comments: The observation lounge is beautiful but a bit out of the way and seemed underutilized during the cruise. Unfortunately, there is no outside front deck space. Deck 12 does not wrap all the way around the front of the ship. This was a real disappointment during the transit of the canal. The atrium is spectacular with it's soaring walls and glass roof. The glass elevators are a nice touch. It can be quite entertaining to just watch the atrium from above (especially when people in the elevators don't realize that you can see them!) The wire sculpture with the flashing colored lights is simply out of place, not at all like the understated, elegant art and furnishings throughout the rest of the ship. The alfresco dining area behind La Veranda seems a bit undersized but the teak furniture is lovely. The pool area can only be described as vast. No problem ever finding a deck chair in either the sun or shade. The library is truly a library, not just a small room with a few tired old books. This library is stocked with hundreds of titles; fiction, non-fiction, travel, reference, children's, art. Many video tapes can be borrowed in addition to the movies which are shown on the in cabin TV. I didn't make much use of the computer area but many passengers did and seemed very happy with it. There are a few funny things about traffic flow through the ship. The garden promenade is lovely but when it is being used for art auctions, it is awkward to pass through on the way to the rear of the ship. Also if you come down the aft elevators to deck 5 and the rear doors to the Compass Rose restaurant are closed (which they often are when the restaurant is closed) you're sort of trapped and must go up a deck where your may run into the garden promenade in use. Read more