My wife and I took this 5 night cruise out of FLL to give Royal Caribbean a try. We have done 1 Carnival cruise and everything was below our expectations so we wanted to give RC a try, and I have to tell you that it was much better.

Embarkation was a breeze and within 10 minutes of stepping foot into the port we had moved past security and check in and we were on the ship starting our day. Immediately we could see the difference from RC and Carnival. Just the appearance only was far superior on RC than Carnival. The ships refurbish helped this but I still believe RC does everything better than Carnival. Our Cabin was 7148, a balcony in the rear of the ship. We really enjoyed our balcony for breakfast and relaxing outside. Our MDR food was very good and the service was top notch. Unfortunately, this was the only place we saw this level of service. Bar service around the ship was painfully slow and you could hear people talking about not wanting to get drinks just because the wait was so long. This was a major problem around the ship at all times. RC needs to get this corrected pronto because they are losing $$$ every minute. The casino is small but has most of the major table games and slots. All casino employees seemed less than excited to see you and never went out of their way to start a conversion or make you feel excited about being there.

We did not attend any of the production shows but the marriage, quest, and other entertainers were very good and the shows made us laugh. The specialty restaurant was a nice option but we did not find it worth the extra money when the food was very good in the MDR. Vision was a great smaller ship but they need to fix the service issues fast.