We drove to Miami from Orlando on July 23rd, giving ourselves plenty of time to get to the ship on the 24th. I actually arranged for my husband to go skydiving at Miami Skydive Center at 7 AM on embarkation day. The skydive was terrific and we ended up at the port very early. We parked in the parking garage and checked our luggage at the curb. There was no check in line for latitudes members so we walked right up to the desk. We had 2 inside staterooms and one room easily checked in and waited for us. It took longer as our agent was having trouble using 2 credit cards as my parents were on one account and the rest of us on the second. Overall it was a minor problem and we made our way to the holding pin. It was around 10 AM. We waited in this area until almost Noon when we were finally able to board. I must say the ship is magnificent to look at, so big. It reminded us of a large building, not a ship. In any event we quickly boarded, made our way to deck 5. We went to Guest Services and rearranged the room set up as we had booked one senior citizen in each room for the discount. They quickly issued new keys so that the correct people were in each room. We crossed the atrium and bought our soda cards at the bar there. So glad to have done that first thing as it was out of the way and the lines got long soon after. We then headed to Taste and had a lovely lunch. After lunch we checked out the pool deck and let the boys hit the rappelling wall. Rooms were ready before they had time to finish.

We had rooms 14029 and 14025. At first glance the rooms looked tiny, but we found that there was plenty of storage space. We were able to put all of our belongings neatly away, luggage under the beds and the room was plenty big enough for 4 of us. The toilet and shower areas were absolutely fine. Well you may be able to see color behind the glass, you cannot make out shapes or body parts so even sharing the room with a teenager of the opposite sex was NOT an issue. We were very happy that we booked an inside stateroom and even when offered an upgrade to a balcony cabin toward the end of the cruise, we declined as we were quite comfortable where we were and the hassle of packing and unpacking would not have made our trip any better.

The food was terrific. We tried all of the venues that were included in the cruise fare as well as Cirque Dreams and The Murder Mystery lunch. Those 2 meals were well worth the up charge for the entertainment value, though the food was not better than we found on the buffet or in the main dining areas. We were very happy with each and every meal. The omelette stations and pasta stations were a fantastic find. We did not do room service as we were close to the garden buffet and outdoor buffet so we really had no problem finding food at odd hours. We are not disappointed that we did not do more of the up charge restaurants as there was no need. Read more