This was our first cuise and all in all it was a great experience. We booked our cruise through Costco and received all of our documents in plenty of time for the cruise. We booked our flight with Hawaiian Airlines for the non-stop from Phoenix to Honolulu. I found VIP tours for our transfers from the airport to the ship, they were very affordable (about $9/person) and waiting for us at baggage claim. We arrived to the pier a little on the early side. It took us only about an hour to get through check-in and be sitting on the ship having a little lunch. By the time we were done with lunch (maybe 30 minutes) they annouced that our staterooms were ready. We arrived to our stateroom and about 30 minutes after that, our bags arrived. We had plenty of room for our clothes and to put our bags away under our bed. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of our balcony. We had enough room for a chaise lounge chair to lay all the way down plus 2 more deck chairs and the little table.

After getting situated, we grabbed a drink and walked around to get familiar with the ship. It was layed out pretty well, much better than I had anticipated (after reading multiple reviews). We signed up for the "pub crawl". That was alot of fun. Lots of people walking around to the different bars on the ship trying different drinks. After the pub crawl, we grabbed a quick bite at the buffet. Which by the way, I though the food was good at the buffet. They had lots of choices and there was always plenty available.

We ate at two of the specialty restaurants, Teppanyaki and Little Italy. They were both good. The only issue was at Little Italy when all of the order tickets got blown around the kitchen by the wind and our order was delayed for about an hour. They did apologize, and the rest of the dinner was good. I would say the only other complaint about that restaurant was the portion size, pretty small. I really do like the Freestyle dining. It was nice to be able to just show up to any restaurant and have a short wait. Read more