Background - We are a married couple in our early forties. We wanted to try a cruise of one night to see if we both could handle a small cabin and the confines of even a large ship and the motion. Husband expected to hate it, wife expected to have a great time.

Starting with embarkation... long long lines at the terminal. Parking is easy, although $30 per night is steep. Try public transport or a friend if leaving for a long trip. We got into the terminal at 11:45, told we could board at 12. Boat was late in arriving from prior cruise, so people still on ship well after 12 noon. We finally boarded at 1:30. We were told to eat first, rooms would not be ready until 2 or even 2:30. Actually, ours was ready when we boarded, so we got lucky there. We had an oceanview on the 8th Deck. We ate lunch at the Magenta (?), the buffet was a stampede, pushing and shoving and cursing. Total chaos. So we grabbed a buzzer from the restaurant and went to the bar for drinks until the buzzer went off.

Hint - the pager can receive the signal all over the ship so if you have a long wait you can go to your room or wherever. So we had drinks at the martini bar. Strong drinks. We were a little hungry but I will say the drinks were strong. $10.75 for a martini and $6.75 for a screwdriver. Plus Autogratuity. Read more