My wife and I are both retirees and have been on nine previous cruises on Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, Cunard, and Norwegian. This was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean and our first cruise on a “mega-ship” with six thousand plus passengers. While we had reservations about the size and style of the ship, we wanted to join a Greek social group that was sailing on this cruise. We were very pleasantly surprised to have really enjoyed the ship. It is so well designed and laid out that you never felt crowded, except – as expected – at the pool on sea days. The idea of dividing the ship’s venues into zones, each with each own character as truly enjoyable. Especially the Central Park area with actually live trees, flowers and meandering walks was an oasis of calm. The fact it existed over the Royal Promenade which was the focal point for music and activities was a triumph of engineering. Looking at the deck diagrams you see only two banks of elevators fore and aft. However, those two banks have 32 elevators. Few long waits and most venues were between those two groups of elevators. There literally always something going on. We loved the various themed bars and lounges. The ice show was truly spectacular. The “One Sky” original production also very good. The Cats production was very well staged, though I never enjoyed the original story. We never got to see the open-air Aqua show with the high divers due to high winds canceling several performances. Reservations in advance before you sail are absolutely essential for these shows. We stuck to the complimentary dining options and did not try the specialty extra cost dining options. My wife thought the food in the main dining room was good, I thought it was average as compared to other cruise lines. What was an extreme turn off for me was the hard sell for the specialty dining while I’m eating. First there were monitors all over the main dining room showing constant video loops advertising the extra cost options, unavoidable and annoying. Second, they interrupted your meal with “Dancers” from the specialty restaurants putting on a show. Yes, we saw the “Portside Barbecue Restaurant” dancers. Not conducive to a fine dining experience. On all other cruise with have been on, the complimentary main buffet has the majority of food stations manned and you selected what you want, it was plated by a server and handed to you. The minority of food stations were self-serve. In the Windjammer complementary buffet on this ship, it is the opposite, most food stations were self-serve. It is also the only area on the ship were there was a distant lack of staff. So, we saw children with their hands in the salad, people using one pair of tongs for multiple foods, and people picking through mounds of food. In addition to enter the Windajmmer you must enter through a hand wash station which unfortunately looks just like a bathroom. I understand the reason for it, but someone should have made more effort to make look less like a bus station restroom. Also, due to the lack of staff to enforce sanitation, most people were just going right through without washing. I spotted that in other areas of the ship, few people to politely ask you sanitize your hands. Also, the hand sanitizer stations were of a poor design and most did not work properly. On the plus side of the complimentary dining options, the hot dog stand and pizza parlor were great. Throughout the ship we found the most staff we have had than any other ship we have been on, never had to hunt for a server. Everyone very polite and professional. We found the alcohol drink and coffee packages to be over priced and not worth it. The soda package only makes sense if you have children. Our ports were Labadie, Falmouth Jamaica, and Cozumel Mexico. Labadie was fun, but some beaches were crowded, and the tram service needs improvement. Falmouth port was created to serve these mega ships, and reflects it. Not much to see. We had been to Cozumel before and did not get off the ship this time. I would actually recommend you skip a port, just to stay onboard and use the pools and other facilities. Got a great massage at the spa for half price. Disembarkation was a breeze