Generally, we cruise with Celebrity. Our first cruise was on Royal, and it was a good one, so we had no qualms about doing another. I only mention this as while the two lines aren’t directly comparable, Celebrity serves as my point of reference. This cruise was a 9 night repositioning from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa. The ports were Labadee, Curacao, Aruba and Grand Cayman.
Embarkation: Fantastic. We spent the night before in Lauderdale, and had a rental car. Budget has an office quite close to the port, and runs a complimentary shuttle service; I highly recommend it if you are renting a car. The line for the higher status passengers was much longer than ours (we’re “gold”), so I would say we were on the ship within 10 minutes of arrival. Our rooms were ready within an hour after boarding.
Dining in the MDR. We had late dining in the MDR. The food was hit or miss. Some meals were excellent; some were rather pedestrian. The service was excellent (shout out to Sherlin, our head waiter). The food was hot, and we did very little waiting. When in doubt, order the standard NY strip. I asked for medium rare and it was cooked perfectly. The coffee was passable. The menu doesn’t state that cappuccino was an extra cost.
Fantastic. This cabin has a balcony that wraps around the corner of the ship. It was easily 10 feet deep and maybe 20-25 feet long, with room for lots of people. At one point, we had 15 people over for drinks and could easily have fit 15 more. If you can get this cabin, do it. As for the cabin itself, pretty much what you expect at this level. It isn't a suite, it just has a balcony similar to a suite.