WorthFlorida

This was our fifth seven day cruise in 11 years. Three of them on RC. The ship itself is just amazing and sometimes we found it to be too big but after a few days your learned how to get around.  The longer you are on the ship and having been on several other ships you get to really appreciate the 'Boardwalk" and 'Central Park" areas since they are open air. The weather was perfect and the night air was fairly dry for the caribbean and by the last night of the cruise we wished we spent more time in Central Park. As one reviewer mentioned, if you get a balcony facing the Boardwalk or Central park, it does get noisy and there is no privacy while you're on the balcony as there is on the ocean side.

The balcony cabins are about the same as on the "Navigator of the Seas" and most other cruise ships. The cabin steward was exceptional. As one reviewer mention that there wasn't any room for their suitcases, they did not realize the they will fit under the bed. We had two very large cases and the at least three suitcases would fit, maybe four. We had a room right off the stairway and elevators and everyone (FWD) had to go by our room. We heard absolutely nothing inside the room. Extremely quite! Most nights we were able to sleep with the balcony door open, My wife's only complaint was there were only two chairs and a table on the balcony (as advertized). She wanted a lounge chair so she could at night sleep on the balcony. It breaks my heart.

The main dining room at the 6:00 PM sitting was crowded and I'm sure the 8:00 PM sitting was probably better. The food was great and the waiters and the Maître d' were very attentive. One night the assistant, being extremely busy forgot our coffee order. The Maître d'  for the remainder of the cruise always came by to be sure everything was in order especially the coffee. One night the diner was a Prime Rib or a Lobster Tail dinner. I was able to order both, we put both on the same plate for a surf and turf dinner. The prime rib was outstanding, nearly able to cut it with a fork. We did not try an of the other specialty restaurants. The Windjammer was nearly huge and you could always find a seat. There are one or two other free food resturants and the one off of Central park was very good.,

Our only disappointment was the shows. I did not know that you now need to make reservations and the first day we frantically made reservation to see most of them during the week. I learned from a travel agent taking this cruise that all of the cruise lines and especially the very large ships are going this way. I think because since there can be up to 6000 passengers that a theater could not be made large enough even though it sat 1500 people.  The Ice show was very good. The comedians are in the very small room that seats only about 75 people and two or three shows a night, We could not get reservations but we got on the stand by line and about 16 people did not show up so we did get the see one show.

There was so much to do that it was not possible to do it all on the ship. A tour of the gardens in Central Park was very nice and to me it was well worth it. You learned more of the mechanics of the garden to keep the 12 thousands plants alive and how the park is integrated to the the ship. 

I have no comments on the ports of call since it can take too long to write. My wife and I go for the ship experience before the importance of the ports. However, we did book a cruise for Feb 2017 Southern Caribbean (9 day) to the ABC islands on RC

Royal Caribbean.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_islands_%28Lesser_Antilles%29