My wife and I are getting close to retirement and had never been on a cruise so we thought we should add a cruise to our bucket list and away we went. When we travel by land, we prefer a clean, modestly priced motel room because we like to spend most of our time pursuing the usual vacation activities: learning about new regions and cultures; walking around with no purpose in mind; spending money; etc. We only use the room to clean up, sleep, etc. So, when I booked our room, we got an interior cabin on the Lido deck.

Most of our vacation activities usually revolve around exploring and people watching and making new friends. I also like to star gaze and brought along a pair of binoculars and planned to go out on the forward deck to view stars at night. We didn't realize that there were so many planned activities on the boat. We liked the trivia contests, casino gaming, putt putt and "Dive In" movies. The casino staff was very nice to us - we had no idea how to play craps and they took the time to help us out - of course we lost all of our money that was allotted for this endeavor in about an hour, but we had fun rolling the dice, so what the heck.

Star gazing conditions were pretty good on the forward facing deck off the lido deck. I wanted to see the Catalina comet but was foiled by clouds and oversleeping. On the clear nights, I could easily see the brighter Messier objects. Read more