Being as this was my first ever cruise, I don't have much to compare it to, other than my expectations.....

Embarkation: Slow. We had wine in our carry-on's so had to stop at the table to have them "reviewed" and listed. Once through there we went into the check-in desk area. That took forever! We had 4 of us in a cabin with 1 person having made the reservation. For some reason they could not figure out how to separate our bills so that each of us were using our own credit card for on-board charges, etc. We checked in on-line two weeks prior to the cruise and gave our credit card info there. After spending 20 minutes working on this at the check in counter they STILL were charging the one girl's credit card for all of us in the cabin. Finally after two more visits to guest services on the ship, after our 4th day at sea, they figured it out and we were able to view our on-board spending on our own separate accounts. Whew!

Cabin: For having 4 grown adults (women) in one cabin (ocean view), it was surprisingly un-crowded (is that a word?). Our cabin steward came in twice a day, cleaned, put the couch back in the morning and pulled down the upper bunk each evening. We did ask for extra blankets a couple times and both times they were provided. We had the room with the extra shower/sink area which was nice for when all of us were getting ready at the same time for dinner, etc. We were on Deck 1 so we did a lot of walking up stairs/elevator rides to get anywhere. Also, by the end of the week, there was a horrible sewage stench throughout our hallway. Tried to ignore it but it was bad. Read more