My wife and I both 61 yrs old took this cruise for our 40th anniversary out of Baltimore. We arrived a day early and stayed at the Best Western on O'Donnell Street. One of the best decisions I made prior to the trip. Nice hotel with breakfast with a shuttle to the inner harbor for dinner and then a GREAT shuttle they sub contract to take us to the port and pick us up. Picked us up at 10:45am from the hotel and 15 minutes later dropped off. On return we left the ship at 7:30am and there where 3 vehicles from them waiting to take us back!

Embarkation went very smooth as we got out of the van and the driver put suitcases near the handlers and we just walked off to the ship! We arrived about 10:45am after passing a line of cars and walked right on ship. Never being on this ship and our only 2nd cruise in 15 years, we were a little confused after getting on deck 4 the centrum. They had the center all filled with tables and big signs for selling stuff. So we stumbled around and finally found where our room would be, then went up to the Windjammer to eat. Room was ready at 1:00pm and our luggage was delivered by 3:00pm. Be prepared for them to ask you at least 20 times about buying the separate dining packages the first day on every corner of the ship you may be. Annoying to say the least.

Ship looked great to us, but met some people that said they have been on 50 or more cruises, so others may have other remarks as they have many to compare to. But this being our 2nd cruise, we thought it looked wonderful and we did a lot of staring around at all the glitter. Read more