We chose this cruise because we wanted to create our first family cruise with folks coming from Kentucky and Virginia and we from Texas, totaling 8. And my wife cannot walk or fly because of an illness so leaving from Galveston filled the bill. Two grandchildren were 3 and 6, 4 adults in their mid-30s, and my wife and I in our mid-70s.
My wife and I had sailed on RCCL before: 1979, Dec – Sun Viking and in 2004, Feb on one of their ships. Those were traditional ships with traditional experiences.
But this experience was difference. Why? RCCL has changed – and become like Disney – marketed like Disney. Cartoon character breakfasts (that adults have to pay $10 to eat a cold breakfast). Walk outside to the pool area and you have to pass over the children’s/ youth plastic play toys of slides and pipes and all. It is fun for them, I am sure, but get’s old for some of us after a while.
We chose a Junior Suite so we could have our family in each day to be together. This would have been a large room, but RCCL took almost one quarter of it and made it into a small bed room for bunkbeds, we did not use. So the Junior Suite was not quite a Junior Suite. We did not know that in advance. I think RCCL should have dropped the price because we did not receive Junior Suite space. Oh, well. We did have a nice view.
Also, the space also gave more room for my wife with the wheelchair issues.