We were on this ship for the 8-night 2018 Christmas Cruise departing Ft. Lauderdale with stops in Nassau, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and St. Kitts. This was the second Christmas cruise for us on this ship, the last one 4 years ago out of San Juan, PR. Overall, this was our 5th cruise on RCL and our 8th cruise overall. We are an active couple in our early 50’s and were traveling with our 2 daughters and son in-law, all in their early 20’s.

We checked in early (11am) and were allowed to board the ship immediately. This was very nice compared to our previous cruise on Norwegian where we had to wait in a waiting area for more than 1 hour. Luggage drop and check-in was painless, but I had also completed all the cruise documents including pictures online ahead of time. We had lunch at the Windjammer Café and then relaxed in the Blue Moon (Deck 14) until the rooms opened at 1pm.

We had 2 Balcony Staterooms (8246 and 8250). One was a bit larger than the other and had a sofa bed vs. the Pullman (overhead bed) in the other. Overall the cabin was clean, the beds comfortable and plenty of space to store all our stuff, including scuba gear. The balconies on this ship are a lot more “closed in” than on newer ships, but we knew this from our previous cruise. Read more