My husband, Pat, and I are seasoned cruisers, travelers and plain seasoned. Period. We consider ourselves pretty much middle America, our views, our location and our income level. Normally we book standard outside cabins, but this time we did upgrade to a balcony as the price and OBC made it worthwhile.

For this review, I think I will simply address some of the topics that seem to pop up over and over, from alcohol to food quality, and a few other subjects. I will give my opinions as they relate to the Spirit. I do want to remind everyone that much of what I will be writing is based on fact - but some are my opinions and may differ from others.

1- Embarkation, debarkation and the ever-present subject of alcohol: We arrived at the port about 11 am on Nov. 30 and were able to register immediately, after going through the X-ray machine, where our wine was spotted. I had planned on paying corkage, so was not upset. We were directed to a very nice young crew member who tagged our 2 bottles to show we had paid the corkage fee, which would be (and was) added to our cabin account. The charge for both the .750 bottle and the 1.5 liter was identical. From there we proceeded to the registration desk, where registration took all of about 3 minutes. Now we were ready to board, but the ship was slow to clear everyone off, so instead of starting the boarding process at 11:30 it became closer to 12:15. As soon as the process started it moved very fast, and we were soon on the beautiful Spirit with a glass of bubbly in our hand. Though our cabin wasn't ready, we were allowed to drop off our carry-on luggage. From there we headed to Deck 12 and the Raffles buffet. Not expecting the food to be particularly tasty, we were pleasantly surprised. The selection was more diverse than I have seen on any ship in a long time, and was quite good. After taking a little time to survey the ship, we returned to our clean cabin to unpack our carry-on. To our amazement, one of our suitcases had already been delivered. To our shock, the other didn't arrive. Yep, we got busted!!! Boy, do I feel like a hypocrite; we had purchased a half pint of Jim Beam to take to a cocktail (BYOB) party to which we had been invited later in the day. It just made more sense than to take a huge bottle; wrong, to the naughty room was our next trip after the mandatory muster drill. Actually, we were among perhaps a few hundred or more people whose luggage was opened for inspection. That is the last time we will try smuggling booze; next time we will chug-a-lug it! Debarkation did not run as smoothly as embarkation. We had VIP debarkation, thank goodness, so we did make our 12:40 flight, but customs was unbelievably slow that day. I would advise everyone to plan the air flight back home for after 1 pm. Read more