Royal Caribbean International
Sovereign of the seas Cruise Review
Bahamas

David Brickell
Age: 48
Occupation: Senior Production Supervisor
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: July 2nd, 2007

We caught an early flight out of RDU in North Carolina and arrived early around 9:00am in Orlando. We rented a car to Port Canaveral which is only slightly cheaper than taking the shuttle. The nice part about renting a car is you can stop and purchase bottle waters or sodas to take on board. The steward checked our drinks along with our regular luggage. With our pre-registration boarding the ship was easy and uneventful. My wife and I were celebrating our 25th anniversary and we were excited about our first cruise.

We were able to access our room as early as 11:30am however our luggage did not make it to the room until around 5:00pm. This was not a problem as we carried on a smaller bag which had our swim suits. The room was a little small and showed some age but we quickly grew accustomed to our surroundings. I sprang for what is referred to as a Superior Ocean View room which is on the 9th floor. We liked  the 9th level, mid ship location as that it was close to the pool, Windjammer Restaurant and the 4th floor lobby with its stores and other attractions. I was a little disappointed because all of the  pictures of our stateroom which I could find on line indicated that the room had a small sitting area with a couch. This of course was not the case. I did inquire at the customer service desk but was advised that the pictures on line are meant to be "representative". I asked the person working the desk why in this time of modern technology the cruise line could not manage to post an actual picture. I did not receive much  of a response to my question. None the less, I didn't let it bother me and we proceeded to have a great time.

Choosing a dinner time is a little tough. If you choose 6:00pm then you feel slightly rushed to finish your afternoon activities and if you choose the 8:30 time slot you feel it cuts into your evening activities. I do believe that next time we will shoot for the later dinner time.

The excursions desk on the ship will sell you a pass and provide you with transportation for about $95.00 dollars a person, for 4 hrs. However, you can take a bus directly to the Breezes Resort with only a few stops for $1.00 dollar per person. Once you enter the facility inform the desk clerk that you wish to purchase a day pass. In the lobby of the Breezes, you can pick up a free visitors guide which has a coupon for $5.00 dollars off. With the coupon, you can purchase your day pass for $55.00 dollars per person saving about $40.00 dollars per person. Again, this is an all inclusive resort with includes  all the booze and food you can handle. One word of advice, we were approached on the beach by a nice man who indicated  that the hotel down the beach enjoyed having visitors who may later return to Nassau and stay at their facility.  He added that for visiting their facility, that would provide $100.00 dollars to use in their casino and free passes valued at $60.00 dollars to visit the aquarium at the Atlantis hotel. We  agreed, but quickly realized once we arrived that this was a time share promotion. We stuck it out for about 90 minutes, declined their offer and  found out quickly that only 2 of the 5, $20.00 dollar coupons were of any value in the casino as that you can only use one per person. Next we found out that the  last tour for the aquarium was at 4:00pm  which would only allow us a short time at Breezes which I had just paid about $100. dollars for. The good news is we were able to trade our tour voucher  for $60.00 dollars worth of duty free liquor.   We won $25.00 dollars in the casino and left the hotel with 5 bottles of liquor for 90 minutes of our time, which incidentally it was raining during this period.

All and all we  had a nice time in Nassau and a great trip. As previously noted in other reviews , the ship is aging but the staff works hard to keep it shining and to ensure that everyone has a great vacation. Watch out for your Sea-Pass charges they can add up quickly. I understand that one way to avoid any surprises is to place a cap on your card. Once you hit that limit, you can raise the cap to your own comfort limit. Again, great first cruise.