In early February, we decided to take a cruise with another family of five. After nearly booking a 5 night Cruise with Carnival, I found a 7 night cruise with Royal for less and all the kids had their own bedrooms. To my surprise, we were able to get 5 rooms side by side with a 6th 2 doors down on the third deck right under the dining room. I do not know if they had a group cancel, due to the pending Gulf War (we invaded Iraq the day we arrived in Key West) or how we were able to get these rooms together and at a very good price.
Embarkation, Cabin and Ship Appearance: We arrived at the terminal at 2:00 (when about half the ship did). We dropped off our bags at the pier. We drove around the convention center at least three times trying to find a place to park. Their main lot was full and the overflow was a parking garage that my full size van would not fit in. After parking in the convention parking lot and having to walk abound this large building we met up with the rest of our party. The line was long but we were able to get checked in about 30 minutes. We were send into another room were they described the security procedures. After about 10 minutes we were on the gang plank waiting to have our first pictures taken. (one for fun and the other for our guest pass)
The main area that greeted you when you first walked on the ship was beautiful. It reminded us of something you would see at a nice land based hotel complete with glass lined elevators.