Be sure and arrive at your designated time, you don’t want to get in the longer early or late line. If you bring on a small ice chest, no ice or water allowed, bring freezer packs. Cans only is the rule now days. If you don’t have faster to the fun, expect to keep your carry on luggage with you when you go to the spa for a tour, or to the busy lunch buffet. You can get access to your room at 1:30. The room key cards will be in the mail bin by your door. If you buy an alcohol cheers package, it starts the next day. If you get a soda cheers package, expect to pay tax for each drink until the boat is under way.

If you are planning on using your spa privileges / discounts, be sure to go take a tour early, before it gets crowded. They show you all of the areas of the spa, and try to talk you into each procedure offered. Research what you are interested in before you get on the boat. Not every spa offering is included in the 20-30-40% off, and the best deals are on port days, including departure day. Schedule your whole week right then, so you can get spots before or after your shore excursions for the best prices. My daughter was 16, so was limited on what she could do, but they offered her much more than was on the zspa teen list, there were many adult offerings she could do at the spa room discounted prices. On departure day we both got the body scrub with a massage for 75 minutes. I highly recommend that, it was so wonderful I did it later in the cruise. I tried acupuncture to relieve chronic pain in my shoulders. They felt better for a couple hours, but my wrists, ankles, and butt still hurt the next day from the needles. I’ll not try that again. The steam rooms and heated recliners were wonderful as well. If you want your free yoga, it is at 8am, and the palates is at 4.

The serenity deck was nice, but crowded during the day, with all of the seats saved early. The salad bar was wonderful. The hot tubs were not crowded after dark, and no kids swimming in them! Deck 14 was very quiet, no drunks walking the halls at night to wake me up! Only 2 elevators go to deck 14, expect to find one that goes to 12, and walk the last flight up. I would not recommend deck 14 for people that can not use the stairs. The elevators are really as bad as stated on previous reviews. The casino is not smoky like other reviews stated, if you take the path around. I did miss the glass elevators. Only kids movies were offered in the Imax, the same 2 all week, so I did not go to it. Read more