BACKGROUND INFORMATION: My hubby and I had cruised twice before, once on the Celebrity Summit and once on the Mariner of the Seas and our two main concerns were that a 5 day cruise would be far too short and that the smaller ship would detract from our vacation. Of course we found the cruise to be too short (but that's true of any cruise, no matter how long) but found the smaller ship to provide for a much more low key and relaxing vacation than we had anticipated.

TRAVEL TO PORT/EMBARKATION: We live in Orlando, so we simply drove down to the port the morning of the cruise. Traffic wasn't too bad but tolls were a little more expensive than we thought they would be (about $12 each way). Embarkation was much easier than we thought it would be. We walked right up, checked in, and were on board the ship eating in the Windjammer in less than half an hour.

STATEROOM: Our stateroom was about the average size of an interior stateroom and was nice and clean with a little bit more closet space than I had on previous cruises. The bed was comfy and, thanks to the curtain that divided the bed from the rest of the stateroom (and succeed in blocking out all light), we slept soundly almost every night of the cruise. My only complaints about the stateroom were that the phone was bolted onto the dresser and we had difficulty finding our way to it when our wake-up calls came and that the thermostat had broken on our last night, leaving the stateroom sweltering. Read more