We chose this cruise because of the time period - it is the only time in the year that our family can go on a vacation together. The ship was fine and food average. But RCL does nickle and dime you to death - you pay for every extra and marketing is continuous. Many families did not control their children in the evening and areas marked "quiet", like the library, were full of shouting kids up to midnight and past. There is a lot for the children to do and the ships makes a great effort to have all activities before 10 p.m. be "family friendly." The library is a disaster - very few books - so bring your own if you plan to read. Also, we had a very cool week with weather well under normal, so bring ALL kinds of clothes including jeans, sweatshirts, and light jackets. Some of the tours require long pants, including the All Access tour to view how the ship operates. The excursion that was greatly overrated was the Glass Bottom Boat tour - PICK ANOTHER ONE IN COSTA MAYA. Not worth it at all, unless you want to spin in circles for over an hour and see only three medium size turtles. Other excursions were better - but Costa Maya is quite disorganized and definitely still "developing." Watch your bill - ours had several mistakes on it and I spent over 90 minutes three different times waiting in lines to make corrections. In general, the service desk and some of the venues do not have enough personnel and spaces for some of the activities are too small for the number of people there. Also, be aware that if you select a stateroom overlooking the Promenade that you will hear very loud music right up until 11 p.m. some nights - so that location would not be good for early to bed and early risers. We had no hot water any morning for our showers (at 7:30 a.m.) - the best we had was just lukewarm.