This was our seventh cruise. We had a great time and had some good weather and some bad weather. Hurricane Mitch was hanging around in the Gulf and causing some problems.
We had wanted to sail on the Royal Princess for some time and we may have built it up in our mind too much before the cruise. The ship was nice but it was showing its age. They had a bunch of new carpet and new furniture and new paint but the design of the ship seemed old after the Vision of the Seas. I also could not believe that if you put the beds together to make a semi-queen sized bed you could no longer get to the balcony. That was odd but not a big problem.
We did the air ourselves. You can fly out of Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale for almost nothing on Air Tran or Delta. We choose Air Tran, Delta needs the competition to keep their prices low. The flight there and back was uneventful.
We met my in-laws in Ft. Lauderdale and hung out all together the night before the cruise. We happened to stay at a hotel Princess had a hospitality desk at so they let us check in at the hotel. No lines at the ship at all. The best part of the trip was the van that my in-laws had rented to haul everybody around in. Every time we went back to the hotel people waiting thought it was the airport shuttle and tried to get in.
Our first port of call was Key West, Florida. I had never been to the Keys so it was nice. All we did was walk around but it was nice. The weather was almost perfect.
Our second port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. We had been to Cozumel before and were not planning on doing much so it wasn't so bad that it rained most of the day.
This was the first cruise that we did not run around like crazy in each port and try to do as much as possible. We actually came home and felt rested. Normally you need a vacation from your vacation to catch-up.
We had a great lazy trip and plan to make that a major part of future cruises. Maybe the days at sea are not the loss we once thought they were.