This was my first cruise and I was pleasantly surprised. Embarkation was simple and there were plenty of staff to guide us in the right direction. It was me and my mom and we are both very afraid of water. Once we were on the boat, however, it was easy to forget we were not on land. The staff was very friendly and always making sure we were enjoying ourselves. The rooms were small but had everything you could ever need and had plenty of storage. The shows were entertaining but I wish they had more shows available during the daytime/afternoon on the "at sea" days. My favorite shows were the comedians and the "love and marriage" show was hilarious. The boat was a bit rocky the last two days of the cruise and I did have to take Dramamine one day but was surprised I did not need it more since I tend to get motion sick easily. The food in the dining room was very good and the service was excellent. I was not a huge fan of the food at the buffet (Windjammer) but I am not typically a fan of buffet style food to begin with. There was a snack bar that was open 24/7 that provided pizza, fruit, small sandwiches, and desserts. This was my favorite area and I enjoyed trying the different options they provided each day. My mom is gluten intolerant and there was a gluten free section at the buffet and gluten free options at the dinning room. The ship had several lounging areas where you could sunbathe or look out over the water and/or pool areas. These areas were a bit overwhelming since people would save their lounge chairs with bags and towels. Very few people were actually lounging around but it was almost impossible to find seats due to the "saving seats" problem (even though signs said you could not do that, no one was enforcing it). That was probably my least favorite part. There was a rock climbing wall that was a lot of fun and a surfing simulator that was fun to watch (I did not participate). The ports were interesting and a lot of fun. The Bahamas was a bit overwhelming with the locals yelling at you to take a taxi or buy their products. Way too much "salesman pressure". I could not just look and enjoy like some other places I have been too. Because of this, I ended up avoiding those areas and not buying much. The tour was ok in the Bahamas. We did a city tour that advertised itself as visiting a rum cake factory, the queens staircase, the governors house, a rum distillery and ending with a fish fry on the beach. The rum cake factory was a store with free samples (delicious but crowded), the queens staircase was the best part with lots of history told to us by a local, the distillery was interesting but a bit chaotic (normally a self guided tour with a sample of pina colada by the door, we actually got a tour guide for ours), and the fish fry on the beach was actually the name of a bar/restaurant that was near a beach and if we wanted food we had to order it off the menu and pay extra. The tour guide on the bus was great but the tour itself was misleading. The excursion we did in Cozumel was amazing. The tour guide was excellent and spent over an hour giving us a tour of the ruins on the island. We then went to a chocolate factory and saw a demonstration on making Mayan chocolate. This tour was the best part of the trip. We also did an excursion in Miami on a Hop-on-Hop-off Big Bus tour. We did not get off the bus but we had plenty of time to do two different routes through the city and got very lucky with another excellent tour guide. The transfer to the airport was not very well done. The bus was late getting to the airport and I believe many with earlier departures missed their flights. They dropped everyone off in a back area and left us all to fend for ourselves. Luckily, I fly 4-6 times a year and know my way around an airport so we did not miss our flight, but we were close. If you do a post-cruise excursion I would recommend taking a later flight (4pm or later, with the boat getting to shore before 8am). Overall, I enjoyed the cruise and I would definitely recommend Royal Caribbean to others. While I will not be going on a cruise every six months like some of the people we met, I would definitely consider doing one again in the future.