Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Sovereign of the Seas
Date of Cruise: March 16 - March 20, 2003

Bahamas on the Sovereign of the Seas
By: Janet

This was the first cruise for my family: my husband (54), our daughter (14), and myself (49). We will cruise again, because it was a very relaxing vacation, and the phrase, "floating hotel" fits the description of what a cruise truly is. No worries about driving, cooking meals, entertainment, shopping.

I was most worried about checking in with all the proper paperwork. Upon arriving at the Orlando airport, there was a RCCL person with a sign on the way to the baggage claim area. We checked in with her immediately, got our bags, and had to wait about 30 or 40 minutes for the next bus to the ship. When we got to the ship, there were tons of people-but we checked in approximately 30 minutes after we departed the bus. It was easy for us, because we were one of the last buses to arrive.

Warning: Have all your paperwork completed before you leave, and things will go smoothly. We bought these hanging passport "wallets" that go around one's neck for our birth certificates, ID's, plane tickets (bought them at REI). They were VERY handy for organizing everything in one place-no digging in purses, wallets, etc.

Once on board, we found our cabin, then had to get ready for the mandatory safety drill. After the safety drill, we headed back to our room. We saw our luggage, so grabbed the suitcases and went back to our room to unpack. We had one of the cheaper interior cabins on deck 2, so it took a lot of organization to get 3 people unpacked and not feel "cluttered". Yep. The room was small, but I read a lot of suggestions on the internet, and we were comfy and organized without tripping all over ourselves. The cabins are showing signs of age, but they were clean and our cabin steward, James, responded instantly to every request we had. He was SUPER!

Suggestions--packing: We put a hanging canvas shoe rack in our closet (purchased from Lowes) and this organized everyone's shoes quite nicely so we weren't tripping over them. We took a couple of pairs of shorts for each of us with 4 or 5 tee-shirts that would go with both pairs of shorts. We wore the shorts more than once, and swapped out fresh tee-shirts each day. We did the same with nicer pants and tops for the dining room. There is a miniscule closet in the interior staterooms, along with 4 small drawers at the small, lighted desk area in the stateroom for things like underwear, shorts, etc. I packed all my clothes on coathangers so I could just unpack and "hang". There were about a dozen coathangers already provided in the closet. My daughter had a smaller rolling suitcase which she put under the bed. She dressed from her suitcase every day. I also took a small basket to put in the bathroom for my make-up, toiletries, etc. My daughter loved having the TV, so she could watch all of her programs.

DINING: We had first seating-6 pm-because that's the time we normally eat. We had difficulty making it to the dining room at this time each day-except for the day at sea. We found that if we did a 1 pm excursion, we couldn't get back, showered, and changed in time to make it to the early dining time. Next time, my family will either have to force themselves out of bed earlier so we can go on early excursions, or we'll have to sign up for the second seating. I'm an early riser, so eating at 8:15 pm might be difficult. We ate most of our meals at the Windjammer Café, which I thought was very well done. My daughter is a "carb baby" and they had LOTS of carbohydrates with the cuisine. We did make the dining room on the last night and the food was EXCELLENT. We went to breakfast a couple of times in the main dining room during open seating. I was amazed that we placed an order, was served pretty quickly, and the food was good and hot. If you are a coffee addict, though, everything I read about the coffee is true. It's bad. There's always food somewhere, so you won't have to worry about going hungry. The wait staff in both the dining room and the Windjammer were wonderful.

My only regret is that we decided before-hand that we wouldn 't go to the formal night captain's dinner. I wish we had. Everyone looked wonderful-even the teenagers in their suits and fancy dresses! We were quite exhausted the first day with check-in, unpacking, so we went to bed VERY early Sunday night. All of my family sleep with white noise, so I did have one of those sleep machines that I ran all night long. It was a GREAT help-many folks stay up until 3 a.m., and the sound machine kept us from hearing the night time noise (except once-one very rude person was tipsy as she was going back to her room at 3:45 a.m. She could've awakened the dead when she was telling a friend of hers goodnight….)

SUGGESTION: The next cruise we take, we will arrive a day early and go to the ship as soon as we can get onboard so we're not so exhausted on the day of check-in. That was a lost day….. On day 2, we were supposed to go to Cococay, and I was INCREDIBLY disappointed that we were in the middle of a storm with winds at 70 knots, seas at 7 feet, and lightening ripping across the sky. The captain continued on to Nassau, and we ended up spending 1-1/2 days in Nassau.

When we docked, it took about 2 hours before we could leave the ship. We decided to shop in downtown Nassau for souvenirs on the short day, then sign up for the Blackbeard's Cay beach excursion on the full day. The excursion said 3 hours, but one hour of that time was getting to/from the little island on a boat. We ended up with only having 2 hours on the beach. (Enough for me, since I'm not a beach bunny, but if you want to spend more time on a beach, pick another excursion.) We did swim in the crystal clear water (82-degree water temp), and lay out on a chair to catch some rays. That particular day it was 88 degrees in Nassau! The last day was a day at sea, so I let my family sleep late. I got up early, hit the pool, and read a book. I shopped some in the shops and just lazed around. Very relaxing.

We never went to any of the late night shows; I just can't handle wee-hours partying. But, if! you like to do that, you can-plenty of shows, music, dancing, etc.

My daughter wouldn't go to the teen thing for her age group-because she's 14-1/2 and didn't think it was fair that she had to hang out with 12 and 13 year old "kids". She wanted to lie about her age and join the teen group for 15-17-year olds, but I wouldn't let her. She's very shy, and I thought hanging out with kids as old as 17 was probably not the best thing.

All in all, we had a very good time, the ship and its staff exceeded our expectations, and it was a wonderful first-time cruise experience. We are already planning to go on a second cruise, but we'll do at least a 7-day cruise with more ports of call (in case there's lousy weather). I would cruise with Royal Caribbean again. It's a great value for the money. I did hear a couple of other folks say that their experience on other cruise lines was superior to RCCL; On the flip side, I talked to some who ONLY cruise RCCL. And, as one past cruiser said, "if you look for problems, you'll find them-no matter what cruise line." I agree. Go with the attitude of having a great time-and you will….I did not have one bad experience on Sovereign of the Seas, and would sail on it again (except, I want to see different ports now! I agree with others that, once you've seen Nassau, you've seen it…time for new and exciting ports of call!)

DISEMBARKATION/LAST NIGHT PACKING: It took us 1-1/2 hours to pack on the last night, and we had our suitcases outside our cabin by 9 pm (all suitcases need to be outside your door by midnight on the last night). We put yellow duct tape on our suitcases, and the next morning when we went downstairs to get them, we could see the yellow duct tape immediately! We had our suitcases within 5 minutes, and we were at the bus 10 minutes later. We were at the airport by 11:15 a.m. (for a 5:40 pm flight), and the US Airways attendant put us on an earlier flight. We were on stand-by for our connecting flight when we got to Charlotte, NC, and we DID manage to get our stand-by flight, arriving home 2 hours earlier than expected. The line at the Orlando airport check-in was fairly long, but we were able to check in quickly. I wouldn't plan a departing flight before 2:30 pm, though, in case the lines are extremely long at check in….Oh, and one last tip. You don't need LOTS of cash-except for the casino, and souvenirs in Nassau. On-ship purchases are put on your ship card, which is billed to your credit card. Make sure you have a credit card. One man came on board without a credit card (he was set up with a cash account), and when it was time to settle his account, he didn't have enough money. I don't know what he did. We spent $288 on board (included souvenirs, drinks, tips, excursions), and probably spent another couple of hundred dollars in cash in port, at the airport, travel to/from the airport, etc.

GO AND HAVE A GOOD TIME!

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