We boarded the Big Red Boat III on June 24th and we thought we were quite fortunate to get that far. The BRB III has had its troubles since its inaugural cruise on the 27th of May. The first two cruises had A/C problems and many refunds were given out and then the BRB III had a collision with a Tug Boat, which put it out of commision for two weeks. So this was only the 3rd sailing of the BRB III.

For myself and Jennifer, this was our second cruise, for Kyleigh (7), this was her first cruise.

Overall this was a great cruise for us. We truly had a great time. The BRB III handled pretty good. We had some bumpy seas all except the last day, so we had a nice rocking motion for the first 6 days. I noticed several people wearing patches, but didn't hear of any sea sickness complaints. There were about 1300 on this cruise with about 300+ kids (17 and under).

Embarkation was pretty smooth. We opted to drive and park there as we were only four hours from Houston. We arrived to the Port at about 1145, circled and dropped off the luggage and Jen and Kyleigh. I parked the car, $49 for the week. Check in was easy and quick and by 1 pm we were on the Ship. We were personally escorted to our cabin by our cabin steward.

Our Cabin was on the Verandah Deck, V57. I thought it was a good sized room. I'm told it was 180 sq feet, but I think it was bigger than that. It had two lower beds and one upper bed that folded down from the wall. Plenty of closet space and drawer space. It had a full bathroom with plenty of room.
The window was good sized and had a great view. The A/C worked and most of the time we had the vent closed and it was still a good temp in the cabin. There was a safety deposit box in the room and an Honor Bar with some soft drinks and water.
The only drawback I can think of was that there was no TV in the Cabin.
I thought the food on board was good. I wasn't very impressed with the food in the Main Dining Room or the service for that matter. Our Busboy didn't have a clue as to what was going on and I'm not sure if our waiter understood English. The dress in the Dining Room was pretty much come as you please. The breakfast and lunch buffets were really good and the Midnight buffets were really good. I was disappointed that there was no Chocoholic Buffet though. I'm hoping that the Dining Room Service will improve after the staff works together for a few cruises.

Overall, I was pleased with the shows on board. It seemed like there was a Shania Twain theme on board. We didn't go to a few of the shows though. Plenty of seating and almost every seat is a good one. Bar service in the Piccadilly Theater is very good also. On deck "Island Magic" played throughout the trip. They were a very good steel drum band.

The on board activities were really good. There was the typical Horse Racing, Pool Games, Trivia etc.... The swimming pool was pretty fun, especially with the rocking of the boat, the bigger pool was turned into a Wave Pool. Bingo was pretty popular, some guy actually walked away with $12,667 from Bingo on the Final Night. The Casino's weren't too good to us. Pretty good arcade on board also.

The Children's Program was really good. Kyleigh had an great time. She was always asking to go to "Kids Group." They had Kids only Dining (which was really good, we snuck in there once) and plenty of activities. They started at 9 am and went til 10 pm with the option of going til 2 am at $5 an hour. Really worth it.

We had 3 Ports of call: Veracruz, Playa Del Carmen and Cozumel. We didn't get to see much of Veracruz as when we docked, we boarded a bus and headed for White Water Rafting. It was about a 2 hour Bus ride, but well worth it. The Rafting was great and lasted over 2 hours. Along the rafting we stopped to walk up river and float down stream and our guide even went up the tree to get us some fresh Mangos. Great rafting

! Veracruz also put on a short fireworks show for us as we were pulling out. Playa Del Carmen was a wasted port. There is no Dock there, so they had to use tenders to get ashore. It was a 2 hour operation to get us ashore. By that time, it was time to take the tender back to the ship as this was a short stop. Not to mention the storm that came in that really stirred things up.

Cozumel was a great Port Call. We arrived there at about 8:30 PM and were able to enjoy some of the night life there. The next day we went snorkeling with the Fury. Not much time for shopping here, because of the excursion, but absolutely a great time.

Not much to say about Debarkation. It was a zoo. It was supposed to work by colors etc... We ended up just getting off when we wanted to. The luggage was organized in the terminal, but with no room to move around to get the luggage. It did only take about ten minutes from the time we left the ship to get our luggage and get in the car. I'm sure after a few cruises this will be worked out.

The BRB III is an older Ship but it is well maintained, there was maintenance and painting going on throughout the cruise. The ship had a tricky layout, to get to the children's area, you had to go down a floor then up, then across. It took a few times to get that one right. Plenty of deck space and chairs. The gym was busy but never too busy. Jen and I never had any problems getting on one of the four treadmills. We only tried room service a few times, only sandwiches and chips (in the late evening), but they were real quick.

Like I said, Overall we had a great time. If you have any specific questions please email me at larryorvis@hotmail.com. For a review with pictures please go to http://members.sonetcom.com/larryorvis/review.htm.