As a 1st time cruiser I was a little apprehensive but I have to admit I truly had a beautiful time and got the tan I was hoping for.

I chose an early embarking time to avoid the crowd since I use a cane and had a 7 year old in our group

OMG this is the part I was waiting for... I enjoyed all of the food on the ship.

I looked forward to the daily swimming and tanning in 1 of my 8 bathing suits. I loved Hair spray, Hiro and the diving show. I also (after much deliberation) did the zip line on the boat.

I loved the reggae band that kept me rocking on the pool deck as I got my tan on. Being Jamaican my children and I did not like the music at the parties especially the night of the Caribbean block party. I thought we would hear more Reggae being on a cruise line called Royal Caribbean but none the less I FULLJOYED the reggae music that was being played on the pool deck.

Although our party included a 7 y/o and a 17 y/o we decided that since this was a family trip we would not do anything that had an age requirement. We did however send the little one to the supervised" play" area when we watched the play Hairspray cause she didn't want to stay. She really loved it and asked if she could go back again when we did something else she wasn't interested in doing. She made a few friends there that she was able to play with in the kids water area.

I must use this platform to address our dinner service. Our servers were named Main server PRABHU, Assistant server MELODY and Head server Christina. We were on the cruise to celebrate my 2 children's college gradation, my little sisters HS graduation, as well as, my daughter turning 21 on our 2nd day at sea. I informed RCCL of this prior to traveling and our servers were absolutely wonderful and went above and beyond to ensure that we FULLJOYED every minute and celebrated with us. I was totally impressed with the fact that by night 2 they knew all 7 of our names. At dinner the 1st night my 7 y/o sister who LOVES mozzarella sticks asked why they weren't on the kids menu stating, "Don't they know all kids loves these." We explained that. that is not really an item for formal dinner. I guess Prabhu took a mental note of her sadness because one night after she placed her order, to her JOY they surprised her with a plate full of mozzarella sticks. Next I have to commend them on their professional approach to the RUDE men of the family at table 119 who were next to us. They yelled, snapped fingers, and even said some belittling things BUT they remained professional. They were a party of roughly 5 or 6 adults and 3 or 4 children and they never came in as a group but wanted the undivided attention of the servers upon arrival. One night I had to speak up because our food had arrived and when Prabhu and Melody were bringing over our food one of the men yelled while snapping his fingers, "Hey, hey don't you see our water glasses are empty." Prabhu very graciously responded, "One second sir." By this night I couldn't stand it any longer so I snapped my fingers toward their table and said, "Hey, hey don't you see him carrying our food? You gotta wait your turn! OMG y'all are very rude! " My entire family just fell in love with them and on the last night we all cried (servers included) because we sad for it to come to an end. They get 95 more stars from me then your allotted 5 shown above.

Cleanliness was excellent. I was impressed on my 1st night when I decided to sneak away from my children 20 & 25 and went up to the pool after 12 am to have a smoke and encountered the staff members cleaning and bleaching down the pool area. I was thoroughly impressed with that. The mandatory hand washing areas located in some of the buffet areas to ensure those folks who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom couldn't touch everything with there dirty hands was a Great idea, as well as, the sanitizer dispensers that were strategically all around. With regards to the ships design I am a 1st time cruiser so I didn't know what to expect but it was truly a magnificent specimen of a ship. Other than the very long and even difficult walks giving the hint to its size. I did get a gist of how big it was when I looked off my balcony prior to disembarking at our 1st stop of St Maarten and saw the little ole Carnival Ship parked besides us. LOLOLOL THE LAYOUT... This is where I had a problem with the location of the elevators. I chose a room which was 1 room from the back of the ship. I use a cane to walk so I limited my boat activities because of the long walk to get to an elevator. I spent most of my days on the pool deck or in my bed watching the Pan American Games. Upon submitting the Disability Access form weeks before traveling and was contacted by a staff member from that department who inquired about my ailments and told me about getting assistance at the ports. If he had informed me of the option to rent a scooter in Miami I would not have been as immobile. I found out the scooter rental option from another passenger in St Maarten when I saw his scooter had a rent me sign on it and when I asked him where do I go to rent one and he told me he got it in Miami.

My room was great and and the size was more than I expected. Although I was scared when we passed thru bad weather the morning sunrise & evening sunset were worth feeling the ship rocking a little. As I stated earlier, My daughter turned 21 our 2nd day at sea and I booked us mommie/daughter 8am massages so that my other family members could decorate the room for our return. The young lady who took care of our room was named Karina or Katrina. She was a gem and when they arrived to decorate she helped them and even did a little something extra from herself. Loved her too

This is where I experience rude staff. I purchased all of my family members new luggage sets for this cruise and my sons big suitcase was missing destroyed. Upon arrival at the location to retrieve you luggage I noticed my son struggling to get his bag over to where we were with a look of disgust on his face. As he got close to me he said , "They broke 2 of the wheels off of my suitcase and the gentleman over there told me it probably happened at the airport and not here. I told him these were new and for your information my family drove down from Richmond so there were no airlines involved." As I walked away I heard him tell a co worker, "People always trying to get over. Dem people came with raggedy bags and want to blame us." I went and spoke to the gentleman regarding the suitcase and his statement and his response was less than acceptable. He began by saying, "That suitcase had to be like that when you arrived and you can't prove it was done here." I told him his response was unacceptable and I would like to speak to his supervisor because he was being dismissive. I told him the suitcase was new and this was the 1st time it was used and when I packed his bag last night it was fine. I told him I wanted to speak to his supervisor to complain about not only the luggage but most importantly your nasty attitude. I was told there wasn't anyone there for me to talk to but directed me toward an area where I thought a supervisor would be but soon realized he had shown me to the exit and there was no one there to speak to.