We chose this cruise due to both the itinerary and the ship. We enjoy the large ships and had sailed on the Regal Princess previously so were especially happy to reserve space on this voyage. We flew to Fort Lauderdale on the day the ship was to sail. This was the first time we had flown on the day of departure. All went well with this and we were on board the ship a little before 2 PM. The lines to enter the terminal were extremely long. We had "priority" boarding but the line to reach the door was so long it was not especially useful. Once on board, we stopped at the international cafe for sandwiches before heading to our cabin. The ship is lovely looking with good flow between areas. The piazza is very attractive. We noticed lots of colorful flags throughout the atrium. These flags changed according to the ports we were in. The ship is large with lots of smaller sitting areas scattered about. The only area where improvement is needed is the library. The library is too small for the size of the clientele. On the second day of the cruise there were only 4 books in the library all in Russian.

I had polio as a child and require an accessible cabin. We selected an inside, Dolphin 319, for this journey. This room had a wide entry door and an excellent bathroom with raised toilet, hand rails, and an integrated shower seat. The wash basin allowed for a wheelchair to be pulled underneath. The shower head could be adjusted in height as well as hand held. The room itself was very poor. There was insufficient turning space in the cabin. Primarily this was because the double bedside table was fixed in place. With no space between the beds (about 12 or so inches with the beds separated) it became very difficult to turn my scooter around. We reported this to guest services but there were unable to make any changes and for forty-nine days we struggled with attempting to turn my scooter. In my opinion, this room should NOT be sold as an accessible cabin. Another problem with this cabin was the placement of the flat screen TV. The TV is not across from the beds but on a side wall. This made viewing and changing the channels difficult. We spent much more time in our cabin on this cruise than we had ever done before. I fell twice in the room and ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia. Although the medical care I received was excellent I basically stayed in the room except for forays to the medical center for intravenous fluids and antibiotics. I had three days of twice a day IV's and another seven days of oral antibiotics. During this time I watched a lot of TV. The news channels of CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, BBC, and two ESPN stations were less than enthralling. Soccer and politics with the occasional stock market news were all that was shown. Thank goodness for on-demand programming of relative new movies and very old TV shows.

We had anytime dining for this cruise. We never waited for a table. We always shared with others. The dining room food was very good with excellent service. We did find a few evening menus to be less than inspiring. On those evening we went to the expansive buffet where we also found the food to be very good. The buffet stewards always offered to bring us drinks, whether coffee and juice at breakfast or water at dinner. We found the service here to be excellent. I wish there were a few tables that had seating with arms. I prefer to transfer to a seat for meals but find rising difficult when the chair does not have arms. All chairs in the buffet are armless. Read more