Immaculately clean and Beautiful ship

We just returned from an 8 day cruise from Bayonne to Florida/Bahamas.  We had a really wonderful, relaxing and memorable trip.

The Ship: This cruise is a work of art.  The design of each space is purposeful and beautiful. 

Activities: There is no shortage of activities for adults and kids, indoor and outdoor.  They have a seaplex with bumper cars, sports activities, roller skating, arcade, game room, rock climbing, surfing simulator, sky diving simulator, 3 theaters, a ton of restaurants and lounge areas and really so much more.  The room was spacious and every inch of the ship was CLEAN and very well maintained.

The staff: I love the mixed international staff, I think that's a really nice touch and everyone was so helpful, kind and pleasant. The cruise director and activities team were all very fun and a joy to see, they deserve a lot of credit because they truly make the cruise fun for all the guests.

The restaurants:  There is no shortage of complimentary and specialty restaurants.  They do away with the traditional huge dining hall for those who get the classic dining packages and replaced it with smaller, more intimate themed restaurants, which I loved.  You still keep your waiter who meets you at the different restaurants each night. The buffets have a mandatory hand washing station prior to entering, which I loved!

Shows:  The shows were very elaborate and visually impressive.  The stories were a bit weird, but the productions were grand and still worth attending.

Advice:

*Some activities are VERY popular (ie Trapeze, bumper cars) so make sure you get there an hour BEFORE the scheduled time if you happen to be on a full ship or a ship with a lot of younger kids to make sure you get a spot. We went during spring break, so we had a full ship.

*Book your excursions on your own!  RCL charges too much and the excursions are shorter than if you go on your own.  We went to Atlantis through bahamasdaypass.com and it was significantly cheaper per person for the same activities and we were able to stay at Atlantis for 2 hours longer than if we had booked with RCL, getting a taxi was very easy right outside the port and only $4 per person.  We went to Gatorland with RCL, which was great as an excursion, but booking it on our own would have allowed us to stay at the park much longer, which was needed because we did the ziplining which takes 1.5 hrs and left us no time to explore the park. The 3 hr excursion was waayyy to short to catch the RCL bus back to the ship at 1:30 when we were staying in Port Canaveral until 8 pm.  We did not realize that when we booked and next time we would just rent a car or take a cab as both are easily available right at the port.

*A March cruise is hit or miss with the weather sailing down/up the coast.  We had cold weather the first 2 days and last 2 days so we had to spend a lot of time inside the ship.  There are a ton of things to do inside, so we never felt cooped up or bored, but it would have been nice to enjoy all of the outdoor deck activities as well on those sail days, which were either closed or too cold to attempt even when they were open.