Background: I am in my mid-50s, and my wife is in her late 40s. My wife is a former travel agent, and had done some cruising before we met. This was our 5th cruise together, having formerly cruised on Holland America, Celebrity, and Carnival. My wife had also cruised NCL previously. This was our first Royal Caribbean (RC) cruise, and our first transatlantic. My oldest sister-in-law and her oldest son accompanied us on the cruise. We had corresponded with several of the Cruise Critics members on the roll call prior to sailing. We live in Florida, so we drove done to Miami in a convoy, with my brother-in-law and his golfing buddy in another car. We got to Miami around noon, and dropped the two ladies off, then went to return the rental car. The two golfers dropped my nephew and me off, then they headed back home.

Embarkation: We made it through security very quickly, then over to the lines to check in. There were several lines available--certain decks were supposed to go to certain lines, and of course there were special lines for the platinum and diamond members. Being the law-abiding citizens that we are, we got into the proper line, even though it was one of the longer lines. I had high expectations concerning embarkation after reading the reviews on Cruise Critic, but suffice it to say that I was not impressed. We definitely had a more expeditious embarkation on our last Carnival cruise and on our one and only Holland America cruise. I will say, however, that embarkation on this cruise was much smoother than our Celebrity cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale last year.

Stateroom: We got hooked on the aft balcony cabins on our last Carnival cruise, so I tried to book an aft balcony cabin online for this cruise. The web page did not give me that option, so I booked a cabin as close to the back of the ship as possible. About a week after I booked 9248, I called RC customer service to see if I could get on a waiting list for an aft balcony. The very helpful representative checked to see if there was anything available, and lo and behold, there was a room available on the same deck. I told we'd take it. I tried to keep it a surprise for my wife, but it wasn't long before I let the cat out of the bag. Needless to say, she was elated. The room itself was nice--fairly standard for a balcony cabin. The ship had just been outfitted with new beds and bedding, and I slept like a baby (but then again, I always do when I'm at sea). The bathroom was laid out well, although the shower never has enough room for me (and I'm not a big person). Definitely enough storage space. The balcony was probably the largest of any of the balcony cabins we had had previously (we had a balcony on both of our Carnival cruises). The balcony came with two reclining loungers, a small table, and two other regular chairs. Read more