Writing this on the last day of our Christmas cruise. Good time to remember everything while it is fresh. To set it up front we have not been on a "big boat" cruise for nearly 10 years having switched to Windstar and river cruising. We left the big boats because we didn't like the cattle call crowds and our opinion hasn't changed. Just wanted to be upfront about that from the start. We took this one to try something different for Christmas. My wife and I are in our 50s and our two sons, in their 20s are with us.

This was our first cruise out of Tampa. The port is small and fairly easy to manage. Stayed the night before in the Marriott Waterside which is about 5 blocks away. Convenient and a good spot to use for this port. We did a one way rental with Hertz. They have a drop off at the hotel and gave us a free shuttle to the port in the morning. Booked our return car with them and they have a pick up right at the port.

Crowds were large checking in. A bit too small for the task but not horrible. We were on the ship by noon but could not get to our room until 1. Bags were slow in coming. We spotted them by the elevators so we asked the lone attendant if we could just grab our own bags and she said fine. Didn't seem to be enough people for the task. Read more