My boyfriend and I are from New Jersey, and leaving out of Baltimore made the most sense to us. During March, airfare to Florida would have cost us close to an extra $1000 per person! We chose this 12 night cruise because the itinerary was appealing (St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Martin) and the drive was less than 3 hours to the port of Baltimore. I have to say, I was extremely pleased with check-in and embarkation. It cost $15 per day to park in port, which was relatively affordable compared to a flight to Florida. The entire embarkation process took maybe 15 minutes, after which we were directed to assigned seating by muster station until boarding began. I have been on two other cruises, and this was the smoothest embarkation by far.

I was disappointed to soon learn that our visitation to St. Lucia had been canceled. Unfortunately the northeast was hit by a massive storm the night before which was still lingering in the Atlantic. Our itinerary was changed to hug the coast line in attempt to escape large swells. As disappointed as I was, I was still grateful to the captain for keeping us safe. Even in the shallow waters of the coast, the swells were large and hitting us from the side. We were rocking and rolling for two days. We were moving so much that dishes were breaking in the dining room, and cabinets were opening and closing in our stateroom. Thankfully waters were calmer when we reached Florida.

Activities on sea days were definitely catered towards an older crowd. In fact, the majority of passengers were probably 70+ which we were not expecting. My boyfriend and I are in our mid 20's, and we were one out of a handful of couples we saw the entire cruise that were in our age group. We honestly did not mind though. We still found many activities to keep ourselves entertained. Old folk do not like to stay out late though, so this ship felt empty by the time 8 pm dinner ended. Read more