We are a family of 4 from Los Angeles that have cruised 20+ times on various lines, including RCCL, Princess, Carnival, NCL and Costa. We are in our mid 40's and have 2 kids - DD 16 and DS 14. We have sailed Mexico many, many times and have sailed Hawaii, Alaska, Bermuda, Caribbean and recently, New England. We enjoy ship life just as much as the ports and try to balance them out. This itinerary didn't have enough sea days for my taste but all of the ports were new to us and that was attractive.

We flew into Baltimore a few days early and stayed at the Homewood Suites in the Harbor East area. Although I really enjoyed the location, I thought the room was on the small side for the $200+ price tag. They offered breakfast that we enjoyed and the staff was very helpful. They even allowed us to leave our bags there post cruise since we had a late flight home. It was a quick walk to the Inner Harbor and we finally made it to the Aquarium. Very nice Aquarium.

The morning of our cruise, Baltimore had an early morning storm that knocked the power out at our hotel so we headed to the ship early since there wasn't much else to do. We had to wait over an hour to board the ship but that was expected. We had priority check-in so we were amongst the first people to board and headed straight to the Windjammer. Within 20 minutes it was PACKED! Read more