We've never cruised before and didn't know what to expect. We wanted time away from work and the kids and were told that a cruise would be a good value.
I booked through an ad with Intercontinental Hotels Group. We received and upgrade to a balcony room and found that it was definitely worth it. We both had trouble getting a lot of time off of work, so we flew down from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday morning, but arrived in plenty of time for the cruise.
Day 1:
We were in cabin 1532, a balcony stateroom towards the front of the ship on deck 10. It was lovely. we had a queen couch which folded out (we didn't need that) and the two twin beds were pushed together into a king. The balcony made the vacation for us, because there were many times when we just needed to chill and watch the water. I think the stateroom attendant came in and cleaned the room every single time we left, haha. She was fantastic. Yes, the bathrooms are small, but they are efficient, clean and definitely not bad. The air return in them is good, too, so shower steam and bathroom odors are quickly absorbed. I am fanatical about that and brought a can of Febreeze air effects, which helped to freshen the entire cabin at times.I found the cabin to be roomy. There was only one good outlet, so bring a power strip if you need to charge multiple devices (I didn't).