WARNING- very thorough review. Lots of comparisons to Carnival.

This was my first cruise with Royal Caribbean after cruising 7 other times on Carnival and NCL. I decided to try Royal Caribbean because several people told us it was SO much better. Plus after the disaster of a ship that they made the Carnival Sunshine into, I really felt I needed a change. What I mean by that is they crammed extra cabins into the Sunshine at the expense of not having enough seats in the theater or comedy club and that always made for a stressful situation when wanting to see a show. I don't want stress, I want fun! I cruised with my husband and 7 other family members. As I told them all from the beginning, my mottos for this cruise would be- you are never going to see these people again, who cares, and do you have somewhere to be?

As we arrived to board the ship at around 3:00 PM, we were shocked that there was absolutely no line. This is the first time this ever happened to me when boarding a cruise. We had heard that a bunch of people were going to miss the sailaway due to a nasty east coast storm but this was something else! Either way, during the whole cruise I NEVER saw a single line. Not for debarking, not for food, and no problems getting a table to eat at ever. If this is Royal Caribbean I'm loving it! We also heard post cruise that there was a large drug bust on the ship (hidden in luggage) pre-sailaway. How stupid can you be? There are drug sniffing dogs all over everything, like pastels on The Golden Girls. Read more