We chose this cruise for our Anniversary celebration because we live in Texas and can easily board in Galveston. We are avid cruisers, but had never sailed on RC-so we gave it a try. This was also, our first cruise without additional family along. We drove to Galveston from DFW and spent the night at Moody Gardens. It is an easy 10 minute drive to the port .

Pros :Embarkation was a breeze, practically flew through all checkpoints. Once onboard, it was party time! We headed straight to the bar (we had purchased the deluxe drink package).Next, we grabbed a quick lunch from the Windjammer buffet-more than adequate choices. Then we were allowed into our cabin to unpack and dress for dinner at Chops. This was one of the best Steak dinners I have ever had! A great start to our vacation. We spent several hours walking around the ship getting the lay of the land and had a few more cocktails. The next few days were spent relaxing by the adult pool, attending the shows and losing money in the casino. We enjoyed our time just being lazy. All of the staff were amazing--everyone of them were kind and smiling. We ate dinner in the Main dining room 4 nights. Wow, what an impressive operation! The waiters were like dancers-so light and quick in their movements. I enjoyed the choreography of the dinner service. We certainly would recommend this ship to our friends. The ice show is first rate--get a seat early as it fills up fast. We skipped other shows-just because we were lazy!! The various entertainers at the bars were all good. People everywhere appeared to be having a great time. I did not witness even one unhappy event the entire trip. We went on one excursion in Costa Maya---We booked it from Native Choice---a great choice-We had only 5 people in our group going to Dzibanche Mayan ruins. We saw the buses rolling in loaded with tourists, but our tour guide lead us away from them so we had the place to ourselves.

Cons: I have 2 Cons. #1 The coffee was the worst -undrinkable IMHO---Thankfully, we were able to get a good cup of Americano coffee at the promenade café where those two servers worked amazingly all day and night to serve coffees. #2-Disembarkation was a nightmare. This process was so awful, that I think it may deter us from doing this cruise in the future. We have cruised out of Galveston many times, however, this was by far the worst possible experience. The lines were extremely long and twisted and disorganized. We witnessed an elderly woman having difficulty, when a Representative asked her if she was ok. The lady replied "No, my arm was going numb" She appeared to be in distress. The rep told her to sit down and rest and left. We thought she went to get help, but no!!! She just left that poor woman sitting there in the middle of thousands of people-It felt like a cattle call. The people around us in line offered assistance to the woman-some took her luggage and others offered to walk holding her up- I don't know how they can do such a great job at Embarkation and then turn around and fail miserably at disembarkation.