This was my first cruise and the mixed reviews had me wondering what to expect. The cruise left on 3/3. My brother and I got a mini-suite on deck 12. Getting onto the ship was fairly quick and easy and our room was ready by about 1:30. One of the first things I noticed was their efforts to keep germs down on the ship. Everyone's hands were sprayed getting onto the ship and there were hand sanitizer dispensers on all elevators. They also had people at entrances to all food lines spraying your hands.

The room was not near as cramped as I expected from the reviews, and I liked the layout with the toilet and shower stall. You could pull a curtain closed to separate that area, so my brother and I being in the same room did not cause any problem. There is tons of storage space in the room. We had a choice of splitting the bed into two or using the couch as a separate bed. We chose to use the couch as the second bed. Our room steward would come in every night for the room turndown and put an extra pad on the couch along with the sheet and comforter and then change it back to a bed the next morning. The room steward (if I remember right his name was Arnoldo) was excellent and was very quick to respond to our requests. (Mostly getting us ice for our buckets of beer....)

We had a meet and greet on ship for the members of our cruise critic roll call (Thanks Tammy for organizing!) and all of the department heads of the ship showed up and met the group. They provided us with their direct numbers and encouraged us to call if we had any questions or problems. All staff on the ship seemed very happy to help at all times and were always friendly. Read more