My family and I just returned from our first cruise. The kids are 7 and 9. I was both impressed and under impressed. First, the service by the staff is excellent. This we the first time in my life that I haven't had to clean up dishes as they clean up so leaving dishes anywhere is okay. The dining room staff was wonderful as was our room steward. We all truly had the best vacation so far.

Just a few things I wasn't impressed by. The smoking seemed to be everywhere. As a child that lost both parents from issues that arose from their smoking, I despise being around it, and certainly don't want my kids around smoking. The areas on the deck near the pool always had smokers. We couldn't breathe when walking by. I was shocked that they allowed smoking on the floor of the lounge and casino. We walked through there to the comedy shows and again, the smoky smell inside was terrible. I'd love to be on a cruise with no smoking around.

Another negative, the pool was very small. I didn't check out the ship we'd be on but after investigating a week before we were leaving, I hated to see that newer ships had waterparks which my kids would've loved. Read more