We scheduled our flight to arrive in Miami the day before our cruise - in general a good precaution in case of a flight delay that on a same day flight could cause you to miss the boat. In our case, it was a necessity since we were flying from the west coast. It was a $15 Uber ride to the Downtown Hilton ($95/night), and then a $7 ride to the ship the next morning. Embarkation was relatively quick and efficient. Just be sure to have all of your documents ready, and your luggage tags printed. As with most cruise ship lines, the porters have staplers at the ready to attach the tags to your bags. I found it a little sketchy that they asked for a tip before we could give them one. We scheduled a 10 am arrival at the dock and we were in the second group of passengers called to board the ship just after 11:15 am. We ate lunch in the buffet, and then explored the rest of the ship until our room was ready around 3 pm. It was nice being on board early so we could take pictures without the throngs of people everywhere that arrived later. The itinerary consisted of Miami, sea day, Roatán, Belize City, Costa Maya, Cozumel, sea day, and then back at Miami.

Stateroom: Deck 10, room 10704. Of the forward facing cabins with a porthole on the front of the ship below the bridge, it's on the bottom row, the furthest on the starboard side. Walking down the corridor from the forward elevator lobby, it's the only door you can see at the very end since it is perpendicular to the corridor. Note that the forward elevator lobby is about mid-ship, so it is a very, very long walk to the forward cabins from there. Of note, the forward cabin position makes for a very noisy and shaking room at certain times, especially in the morning while docking. On tender days, it is very noisy (you could hear every link of the anchor chain) and the entire room shakes when they drop the anchor. The forward propellers are below us, so the room jostles when they push the ship sideways to the dock, and it's also noisy when they winch out the forward mooring lines at the dock.

The porthole is nice for natural sunlight in the room, but due to its forward-facing position, visibility is limited, so not so good if you like watching the docking/departing process at ports. Also, they ask that you close your porthole shade at night due to the glare from the forward cabins hitting the bridge that is directly above. The cabin is of average (i.e., small) size. Our room did not have a single drawer, which means your socks and underwear need to find a shelf. There was a shelf at the top of the closet, a tiny shelf below the safe in a cabinet under the TV, and two deep, floor-level cabinets under the bench below the porthole. But half of one of those stored extra sheets and pillows. There are also two small nightstands with two shelves each, and the cushion on top of the desk stool comes off for more storage. If you prefer to not unpack, luggage fits under the bed. I traveled with my sister, but despite pre-requesting separated beds, they were in the king configuration, and we had to call our cabin steward to have it changed. Nevertheless, the pillows, sheets, and beds were quite comfortable. Temperature control was excellent as the max cooling was never needed to make the cabin just right, even after coming in from a hot day in port. Read more