OVERALL Great cruise. The ship was gorgeous, the food was to die for and the ports of call were perfect. Drink prices were ridiculous. Photo prices were also nuts.

EMBARKATION Terrible. Our bus driver from Miami to Fort Lauderdale couldn't read. We left the airport at midnight as our flight was delayed out of Toronto. Lots of signs said, "I-95 closed ahead". He ignored the signs that said "I-95 detour" and went through lots of residential Miami neighborhoods. We felt very uncomfortable, as we were the only 2 on the mini-bus. Upon arrival at the hotel, we were given several different times to be in the lobby the next morning. Also, nobody told us that we could get out sign and sail cards in the hotel lobby in the morning. This would have saved us lots of time. After arriving at the cruise terminal, we stood in line for over an hour waiting to get checked in. Nobody was around to tell us where to go. The whole process took about 2 hours to get on the ship. It felt as if they were all doing this for the first time.

DAY ONE Everything was great as soon as we set foot on the ship. Our luggage actually beat us to the room. The buffet in the Windjammer was quite good. We got a drink and got set to watch us sail out of Fort Lauderdale. For dinner, we were seated at a table with a family of four ranging from 45 to 65 years old. Obviously no effort was made to match the guests at the dinning tables (there were 140 honeymoon couples onboard). Luckily we completely fell in love with our table mates. They were experienced cruisers that gave us great advice. They were just the friendliest people I've ever met. They were one of the best parts of our cruise. We were often the last table to leave the dinning room, the conversations were so interesting

DAY TWO - KEY WEST Beautiful. The ship seems to tower over Key West giving a great view. The free tram ride into town is great. We just walked along Duval Street and took in the sites. We found Hemmingway's house and the Little White House. We lunched at the Hog's Breath Salon. The "Hogerita" left me a little woozy. Great drink but strong! I wasn't too excited about this stop and wound up loving it.

DAY THREE - COZUMEL Great shopping. I bought 2 beautiful Onyx chess sets, and some gorgeous blankets. We lunched at Carlos and Charlie's. What a party! The bar was jumping with 5 cruise ship's worth of patrons. It was two in the afternoon but some folks had that 2:00AM glassy-eyed "Where's the floor?" kind of look. The food was good and plentiful (Excellent ribs!). The drinks were fantastic and powerful. We took a leisurely horse-drawn carriage ride back to the ship. The terminal was under construction, but that was just a minor annoyance.

DAY FOUR - AT SEA Getting a deck chair was almost impossible. With 2200 fellow cruisers, the ship was FULL. Still we were able to find a spot on the upper deck to lay on our towels. The weather was a little windy but warm and sunny. I used the Internet café to tease friends and family about me being in the Caribbean and them being in Canada. The cost was $0.50 a minute. I was able to create a HotMail account and send a couple of emails in less then 15 minutes.

DAY FIVE - GRAND CAYMEN What a beautiful island! We took the ship excursion to swim with the stingrays. My wife didn't spend much time in the water. She was a little intimidated by the stingrays. I had a blast! By the end I was chasing them around. This is truly a once in a lifetime experience not to be missed. This island reeks of money. Multi-million dollar homes, expensive cars, and Rolex dealers everywhere. We lunched at Captain Brian's, a great spot with a spectacular view of the harbor. The jerk chicken is excellent. It was neat listening to the young bankers next to us talking about being in Abu Dhabi the day before and then New York, and off the Rome the next day. We shopped a bit and bought tons of rum cakes and lots of liquor.

DAY SIX - JAMAICA We followed the herd and went to Dunn's river falls. We had a great time climbing the falls. Luckily our guide didn't insist on us holding hands like some other groups. I found keeping my balance was easier with my arms free. Also, I figured climbing would be easier without carrying the 300-pound woman behind me up the falls. We returned to the ship to change. The ship was empty. All the passengers were off exploring Jamaica and all Jamaican employees had the day off to be with friends and family. We then went to Evita's. This restaurant is high on the hill above the Ochos Rios. There are photos on the walls of the famous people who have visited: Anthony Hopkins, Keith Richards, and Madonna. We had the best meal of the whole cruise there. Great service, great food and a great view: tough to beat.

DAY SEVEN - AT SEA Still no use looking for a deck chair. Lots of deck chairs had towel and things on them. The cruise line doesn't enforce its rule about not reserving them, so why would anybody listen any ways? We had a nice relaxing day laying on the deck and watching the Carnival Paradise of to our left. We sailed next to her for the whole day. A neat site. Our table mates invited us their room for drinks and to show off their balcony.

DINNING
I can't say enough about the food. Every night had several great selections, so I usually ordered all of them! The steaks were done to perfection each time. Being from the East Coast of Canada, I was curious how the lobster would be. I didn't need to worry. The lobster tails was wonderful. Our waiter Cubi from Turkey was a joy. I asked the headwaiter how the Caribbean Banana Chicken was made, and he spent 15 minutes giving me the recipe and technique. Very friendly. The table was entertained when I order in French on the French night.

SHOWS
We caught about half the shows onboard. The Orpheum Theater is exquisite. I've never seen anything like it. The light shows and pyrotechnics were amazing. The shows ranged from good to great.

ONBOARD TV STATIONS
This was a real great feature of the cruise. The shopping and tour talks were carried live, each on their own channel, then shown over and over. Very convenient. The live shot off the front of the ship was great for us in the bowels of the ship without a window. The movies shown were quite recent. The regular channels (ESPN, CNN, A&E, and Discovery) were sometimes snowy or off the air but would return after a few minutes. It was great to be able to catch the last quarter of the NBA playoff games after dinner before going to the show. CABIN ATTENDANT I think our cabin attendant Marguerite was psychic. We met her the first day, and saw her a few times during the cruise. But the room was always done and our beds were turned down every night. Quiet, quick and efficient.

DEBARKATION
Slightly better then getting on the ship, but not by much. They made all non-US citizens gather at the Carousel lounge at 6:45 am (Ouch!) to return our passports. This only took about 15 minutes. Then they only let us of the ship at 11:00 when they called our luggage tag color. They told us we could watch CNN in the Orpheum and wait there. But you couldn't here the announcements in there, so we had to go sit elsewhere. Once our tag color was called the rest went well. RANDOM FIRST CRUISE THOUGHTS Weak drinks at $5.95 seem like theft to me. That's actually $9.00 Canadian. I saw a few folks really drunk one night. I thought, "there goes somebody who makes more money then me!" We like to have a few drinks while sun tanning, and a bottle of wine with our meal. A drink during the show is nice too. We were never drunk. But our bar bill at the end of the cruise was quite a shock. Also thirteen dollars a picture from the ship photographer seems a little exaggerated.

OVERALL We had an amazing vacation and would recommend Royal Caribbean to everyone. I'm afraid to get on a scale to see how much weight I gained because the food was so good. I realize that the cruise lines make a lot of their money on drinks and photos. But the high prices leave a lingering bad feeling when we reflect on our vacation.

Any questions are welcomed at jmaz@nbnet.nb.ca

Jmm