We sailed on October 29 for the Western Caribbean. The weather was perfect every day. The eight of us ranged in age from 52 to 85 and everyone left having a wonderful experience. We found the Opus dining room to be too noisy, okay food and sometimes slow service. We did a lot of specialty dining including the Chef's table, 150 Central Park, Vintages and Giovanni's room. 150 Central Park was the best but all were a quiet, intimate dining experience that left us feeling satisfied and forgetting that we were on a ship with 6,000 people. We ate breakfast and lunch almost every day in the Solarium. The food is fresh, healthy and the atmosphere was more laid back than the Windjammer Marketplace. We spent most of our ship time in the Solarium as well where you can find sun or shade and spend the day reading or soaking in a hot tub or the pool.
The Labadee port is good to just hang out at the beach or to be active all day. I did the zip line and snorkeling. Both were good. It is nice that they have a dock so you don't have to tender in to the beach. In Falmouth we did a swim with Dolphins and the Dunnes River Falls. Both great but the tour guide was obnoxious on the bus. We screwed up in Cozumel by opting for Tulum and beach break. It was a disaster with 5-6 hours of travel and almost no time at ruins or beach with a horrible lunch and old bus. Don't do it. The gym is great and has spinning class with Lemond bikes and great instructors. The sales pitch in the spa is heavy on products. They ask your stress level so they can pitch you products. All of the employees on this ship are pleasant and wonderful to deal with and they take good care of you. They make it great. There is also a new valet service where they print your boarding pass for the airport and check your bags all the way through. We put our bags outside the door on Friday night and picked them up at baggage claim in Philadelphia. It was worth $20 per person to not have to find your bags and get them in a cab. Make sure you let them know if you have status and don't have to pay to check bags on the airline.
Our cabin was fine. It is small and we spent almost no time there except sleeping and changing. The extra large balcony was not worth it because the chairs were just sitting chairs and it was not comfortable to sit there. People smoking below also drifted into our room when we had the door open. We brought a power strip which made charging our devices much easier. Bathroom works fine. If you get adjoining rooms you can have the balcony opened however check it before going to sleep. One night the cleaning staff opened it and left it open. We missed it and had our door open all night. It took five calls to get it locked in the morning.