INTRO:

Just got off the BGC yesterday morning. This was my 23rd cruise overall but first on this ship. I had previously sailed the Bahamas Celebration. We were a group of 11 friends that wanted to try it out for a quick fun getaway departing close to home. Most of us were able to take advantage of a Groupon offer but a few booked too late and after the ship is more than 80% full, no more Groupons accepted apparently.

BOARDING: We read you could board at 1:00pm. Decided to arrive 12:45pm. The line to turn into the port area was backed up more than a mile...partially may have been due to the fact that it was pouring rain. This was the first of several lines before we boarded the ship. The whole arrival experience is just tedious. Line after line.....valet, check-in, check your luggage, pictures, dinner reservations, drink packages....I really wish they would/could streamline this...it is not a pleasant start. For anyone interested, they were busting people sporadically for trying to smuggle booze onboard. Some stuff go through; I can vouch for that. We bought the discounted drink coupons ($65 for10). Ended up buying too many packages & wasted some. Drink prices were not that bad anyways & at times, we just wanted a beer or wine & it was not worth using a coupon so buy the discounted drink books wisely. They told us you couldn't buy them onboard but I saw them listed on the drink menu....I'm not sure if you can or not. We ended up walking aboard the ship just before 2pm..so it took about an hour to get through the boarding chaos. Read more