A little background: I am 39, having celebrated a birthday on the ship. My DH is 38. He has always wanted to cruise, being a boat person. I prefer Disney. We went to Disney last year, this year I finally relented and booked a cruise. Now, I can't decide what I want to do next year for my 40th! I LOVE CRUISING!!!

We loved this cruise. We had an aft balcony, and loved it! It gets a bit hot on the balcony in the sun, but it is very quiet and had little to no wind. It was wonderful seeing the wake of the ship, and the sounds were very relaxing. It was also awesome to see the ports dwindle in the distance as we left them. About the only negative thing I can say is that we missed a lot of sunrises, since we were heading east. Had some absolutely gorgeous sunsets tho! The cabin was nice, plenty of room to store our stuff. The DH and I each had our own closet and drawer, then we put the laundry bag in the closet where the safe is. Luckily, I learned the trick about storing all the luggage under the bed, so that really gave us plenty of space. We had a small couch, which usually just had stuff thrown on it with a small table. We took the table out on the balcony a few times when we got room service, since it is adjustable up and down. The bed was soooo comfortable, and the crack between the beds was hardly noticeable. Laying in bed at night with the rocking of the ship was wonderfully relaxing, and we both slept like babies! If I could get the house to stop rocking now, I'd be very happy! Our TV did have the interactive menu. It was nice to find our s&s account, but I really wish they would put the menus for the day on there. Our port days we went to dinner not knowing what was coming. Made the decisions a bit harder at the table. And the food! OMG, nearly everything was awesome! We had a few things that left us going "ehhh." but the rest was awesome! Awesome enough that we each gained about 5 pounds! We had steaks, Prime Rib, Chateaubriand and Filet Mignon on a few occasions. The Dh said it was very good, and cooked to his liking. I prefer my steaks mooing for mercy, so found them a bit overcooked. I stuck with the chicken and stuff and found it very tasty! The chicken a la grecque and the chicken with mushroom pasta were yum-o. I didn't like the beef stroganoff, it was extremely salty, and the spinach and mushroom lasagna was gritty and cold. I was kind of bummed, since it sounded really good, but just didn't cut it. I had a few soups, including the strawberry bisque, cream of mushroom, french onion and cream of broccoli that were fantastic. My tablemates had the lobster bisque and said it was terrible. I'm not a fan of lobster, so I didn't try it. Tablemates said the lobster tail and shrimp was very good, but again, I passed. The WCMC was everything it was reputed to be, so yummy and delicious! The tiramisu and bitter and blanc were also very good. The only thing I was kind of bummed by was the creme brulee. Not very tasty, and a bit too soupy. For appetizers, we tried duck, which we both said was icky, and escargots, which we both loved. The fried mozzarella was delish, as were the ceasar salads and the chicken quesadilla. The dh had a tomato and mozzarella salad that reminded me of a capprese salad, but he said the tomatoes weren't really ripe. He did like the mozzarella tho, said it tasted a bit different than what he was used to. It does say buffalo mozzarella, so I'm assuming they use the real stuff, hence the taste difference. Some of the sides that come out with the entrees were unexpected, but ended up tasting very yummy. My favorite was the sesame eggplant, and the peas with cranberries, raisins and onions. The DH loved the sweet potato hash. I had one dish that was corn and peppers, but then they had olives in it too, so I ended up not eating that. The DH said it was OK, but he expected a bit more spice. I think he was looking for mexi-corn.

We ate breakfast in the DR most mornings. Loved the eggs benedict! We tried to be good, and ordered omelets made with egg-substitute one morning. The eggs were so greasy that we decided the regular eggs were probably better for us anyway! I didn't like the chicken sausage, but found the corned beef has was yum-o! Order more than one set of hash-browns! They come out as two little round potato cakes, and they just weren't enough. I ordered 2 every day after the first! The stewed bananas were possibly the best thing on the menu, I ordered them just as they were. They offered them with pancakes and waffles, but I asked for them separate and they came with no problem. If they had offered these for dessert, I would have eaten them then too, they were that good! Read more