Cruised out of Bayonne which allowed us to drive to the port, and it lined up with our spring break vacation. I did a lot of research to make sure there were activities for our kids (8 and 11). One down side was that Adventure Ocean was often at capacity, which I can understand due to the increased number of children on board. The other down side was the number of families budging in line for bumper cars. Other than that, we had a great time! The kids liked the interactive art throughout the ship! The staff was always in a good mood and ready to help. We especially appreciated them taking the time to talk to the kids, and the staff in the windjammer and our dining room were doing magic tricks for the kids!

My daughter and I have to eat gluten free due to Celiacs. Neither of us had an issue at all! I'm glad I did my research ahead of time or I may have missed some of the options though. The windjammer became our favorite place for breakfast and lunch! We discovered the gluten free section at the very back of the windjammer, which most people did not realize was there. It was quiet and there were never many people in line. Food is kept behind the counter except for sandwich makings and fruit. This keeps the food from being contaminated and made me feel safer. They have cooked to order omelets, as well as gluten free crepes!! We got a crepe every morning and loved them! For lunch, they have sandwich makings, some options for hot food, as well as cooked to order GF pasta. We could get pasta with tomato sauce, pesto, veggies, etc.

When we got on the ship, we were on a waiting list for my time dining. After we grabbed some lunch, I immediately went down to level 4 and spoke with someone about reservations. I asked if it would be possible to eat at the same time every night at the same table. My father in law has diabetes so I wanted to make sure he could get his food when he needed it, and we had a party of 9 so needed a larger table. They put our names down, and we only waited a few minutes that first night. After that, we ate at the same time, same table, and had the same staff in the American Icon Grill restaurant. We never had to wait in line for reservations, and were able to just walk right in and go to our table. We liked that it was a smaller room, and felt more like a restaurant instead of one huge room! Read more