Relaxing and fun filled cruise

This was my first cruise so I don't have other cruises to compare this trip to. We left Tampa about 4 PM so darkness settled in when going under the Skyway bridge. I would have liked to see the western coast of Florida as we were leaving. There is a wide variety of things to do on this ship from playing cards, trivia, bar scene with lively dancing or piano bar for quieter singing, comedy shows, shows, shopping, lazing by the pool and of course eating. The Deli serves super sandwiches but I only ate there once because there were so many different choices. I had a grilled Reuben which was piled high with corned beef. The variety of specialty drinks is endless and I didn't find any that I didn't like. The wait staff, Carlos, I Wayan and I Made in the dining room were superb. We requested the same table every night and the staff remembered us by name and what we would order to drink. They also made good recommendations of food to order based on our previous likes. Guys Burgers fries have a spicy seasoning that wasn't to my taste but they made some plain ones on request. The burger with a bacon patty was to die for and I never order burgers especially with bacon on it! The ice cream station was just ok and wouldn't waste my calories on it in the future. We went to some educational sessions on gems with a chance to win jewelry. However, the jewelry wasn't worth much at all - unsure what metal it was and the gems in the pieces were so small they could hardly be seen. The education was ok but mainly selling their own expensive brand. We played BINGO one afternoon and the hostess, BeBe was so loud with the microphone it was painful. BINGO was expensive and the possibility of winning a large amount of money was only if achieved before 49 numbers called on a black out. The shows were okay but I'm glad they didn't cost extra money as I would have been disappointed if I had to pay more. The comedian that we saw was funny and I would have paid to see him at a comedy club. The pools were small but not very crowded. The shore excursion in Grand Cayman that we did was swim with the sting rays and dolphins. The sting rays was a little lame with a million boats there. The guide grabbed a sting ray and everyone lined up to have pictures taken with the sting ray. It took a long time to have everyone have a picture taken. The dolphin swim was better but they were still pushing the picture taking so one would buy their pictures at a cost of $35 per picture. They had us swim out and hold the dolphin's fins to swim back to the dock and another trip was to swim out and 2 dolphins pushed you towards the dock via your outstretched feet. There were many pictures with the dolphins. There wasn't any time to explore the island after the swim but we will do that next time. The shore excursion in Cozumel was a tour of Tulum. Our guide, Adan Daniel Castillo Gomez was extremely knowledgeable and interesting! I love history and this was something I thought was fabulous. The ruins were just a bunch of rocks to most until the guide brought them to life with the stories that the research has uncovered. There was time before and after the cruise to do a little shopping in Cozumel.