Both my wife and I are retired and experienced cruisers in our early sixties, having cruised on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines 9 times, Norwegian Cruise Lines 3 times, and Carnival Cruise Lines 2 times. That being said we love to cruise and still consider Royal Caribbean our favorite. This cruise has two at sea days and visits 4 ports.
Embarkation was very smooth. We parked in the cruise terminal parking lot directly adjacent to the cruise terminal. It is well protected and a short walk to the terminal, $15.00 a day (well worth it). There are other cheaper parking lots further away but you have to rely on their van service to drop off and pick you up, and are less secure. Once we parked it took us about 10 minutes to go through the paperwork process. We proceeded to the buffet at 11:30 AM and were very surprised that there was not a seat available. I would suggest you try the solarium pool on the same deck aft ( deck 9) for a light lunch.
Our stateroom was number 8554, a Junior Suite, located on deck 8 mid-ship. This was an outstanding location, very centrally located and not alot of noise from the pool deck, (9). Plenty of storage space which we did not even use all of it. (imagine that)
Centrally located. One deck up and forward is the buffet, and pool. Three/four decks down and aft are the main dining rooms.Two/three decks down and forward is the theater. We did not need to use the elevators that much because of the great location.
Even though the pool deck is right above you, the noise that you will hear is from the people playing ping pong. It was hardly noticeable. The elevator bank is also near the room and you could not hear it at all.
Lots of storage space. Bathroom is good size with a tub shower.
Fun place to visit for shopping. Lots of sales attempts by the vendors.