This cruise was organized by my husband for his 70th birthday. He booked 3 staterooms for ourselves, our 2 children, their spouses and 4 grandchildren. The embarcation was going very well, taking about 45 minutes from leaving the luggage to getting on board. We had filled out the Cuba affidavit beforehand and kept a copy as indicated. We had just gotten our visas and seapasses when our daughter ran up to us in tears and said that her husband was not going to be able to sail because he truthfully told them he had experienced a stomach bug 36 hours earlier. The doctor has the last word as to who could board. We had not purchased trip insurance and the person in charge was pretty cold about the whole thing. Here was our daughter and her two children crying because Daddy couldn't go with them and there was no indication that there would be any refund at all. Our son-in-law told his family to just go without him and he would drive back to South Carolina from Tampa and return to get them the following Monday. It certainly cast a pall on the start of the trip.

That said, we were on board at 12:00 and went to have lunch in the Windjammer. It was pretty crowded since so many had boarded at the same time. By the time we finished eating the staterooms were available. Our luggage was outside our room in the corridor.

We had an interior cabin on the third deck. There was a closet with 14 hangars and I brought another 6. There was a safe, a desk with chair and 4 drawers. We had the two twin beds pushed together to make a queen, and our daughters had other configurations with berths for the kids and the bottom beds put together for the couple. The bathroom had two shelves to put toiletries as well as some space near the sink. Our suitcases fit under the bed out of the way. It was about 8x12 and since we were only there to shower and sleep, it was not a problem. Read more