[Daniel Magix]

Dcasp, my man. First life comes from your balls, now a cruise. Man, things are going great for you lately, congrats!

I have been on THREE cruises - all of which occured when my wife and I were first married. Good thing you are doing the cruise now, because once Dcasp Jr. enters the world, the only cruising you will be doing is cruising the diaper aisle in the grocery store.

Anyway, I did RC for the first two cruises, which were Western and Southern Carribean. I did Norweigan for my Hawaii cruise, only because RC didn't have a ship doing the Hawaiin line.

RC kicks ass, imo. The service and food were amazing on the ship. If given the option of the early or later dinner, I would suggest the earlier one. It gives you more time to take in shows or just hang out later. Plus, you usually have to be back on the ship by 4pm or so anyway, so a 6pm dinner just made more sense to me than the 8pm option.

As far as excursions go, one mistake we made, is signing up for too much the first year. I think we made the mistake of booking an excursion for like, 4 out of the 5 islands. The next year, we only booked two. The excursions are usually great (although we did do one 6+ hour island tour that ended up sucking big-time), but you don't want to tie yourself down to an excursion every day. It's nice to have a few days to do your own thing. My recommendation for excursions, would be to choose two that seem the coolest.

BTW, one of the excursions we did in Grand Cayman, was swimming with the stingrays. It was probably my favorite thing we did, but looking at the pictures of me with 4-5 giant stingrays around me and on my back, kinda freaks me out now, given the Steve Irwin incident.

Our ship was awesome. It had a rock climbing wall, basketball court, mini-golf, ice rink, running track, and all the usual stuff like jaccuzzi's, pools, etc. You really do forget that you are on a ship. It's like a city on the water.

The first day, you will have to do an emergency test drill, and everyone puts on their life vest and proceeds to their muster stations. Prepare to feel like a giant tool walking through the halls in your goofy orange vest!

You'll also get a ship credit card, issued to you when you board. They basically give you a card that is linked directly to your credit card. So you can pay for basically everything, through your ship card. Makes it pretty easy.

Does your room have a balcony? I'd HIGHLY recommend that. Our first year, we didn't have one. But the next two we did. It's SO nice to sit out there and watch the sun go down as you just read a book and relax. It's also really cool to wake up to a brand new landscape out your window every morning.

Anyway, you'll have a great time. The ship will probably be overwhelming to you. It's very easy to get disoriented and lost on the ship too - the thing is HUGE. It's awesome. With a second kid on the way, a Disney Cruise will probably be my next trip. Probably not as romantic as Hawaii or the Carribean, but whatever.

Be sure to write a trip report when you get back.