My wife and I had cruised twice before, both on RCCL, on the Mariner in Nov 03 (initial voyage out of Port Canaveral) and again in Apr 03. We had a seven year hiatus - you know grandkids and all. In any case, we decided to book this cruise to celebrate our 40th anniversary which was actually the previous June. We splurged a little and booked a Grand Suite on the hump - wow, great. On our previous two cruises we had booked a balcony and then a junior suite - my wife really enjoys a tub. Being in the Grand Suite we were able to use the Concierge lounge - what a great surprise. The concierge and bartender were just wonderful and we met some great people who had cruised many times including one couple on the 64th cruise and another couple that had spent 72 days in a row on one cruise (talk about B2B).

Everything was as great as we had hoped it would be except for one item I'l mention later. We chose the "My Time Dining" and it was great. We did book dining times before embarking but don't think that was necessary. Except for one night, we had the same waiter and assitant waiter who were both great and sat next to some of the same people that we bantered back and forth with on most of the nights. The service and food was excellent.

We also booked two nights in Chops and it was as good as we remembered from Mariner. The rack of lamb was great. Read more