After spending three days at sea aboard Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas cruise ship I can honestly say it is all it's cracked up to be. I was expecting a range of fun activities. Some live bands and shows, fine dining, casinos, pools and of course plenty of open bars were in my thoughts as we went through another customs check at the Port of Miami and I'm happy to report we got them all, and then some.

A boat cruise consists of a combination of putting your feet up and unwinding while at the same time being on the go time and time again to take in all the ship has to offer. You'd be seconds away from nodding off while sunk deep into one of the many pool deck banana lounges as you let the Atlantic Ocean warm breezes tease your hair with a beer or cocktail only a short reach away and then you'd be ripping up, or perhaps stinking up, the dance floor to a hip hop mega mix by the resident DJ in the boat's nightclub. You'd hop on over to the casino to hit the craps or black jack table and then maybe take in a comedy show at the boat theatre. The experience had us joking at the cruise's end that maybe we could get away with hiding in a room and getting aboard the next cruise. I really did not want it to end. I don't think Maddi wanted to leave after one of the luckiest runs at the Texas Holdem table I've seen. Just ask him about that first straight that he got.

It helps when taking on an adventure like this that everybody is in holiday mode. Bad attitudes were checked at the docking station and everybody was so friendly and relaxed. There were easy going smiles everywhere and one man was so relaxed he fell asleep on a chair by a sale table in the ship's centre where the shopping sale was going on with his head tilted back and his mouth wide open, snoring away. This is normal on a cruise ship and he was left alone by staff despite some others having to walk around his sprawled out feet. I loved seeing this.

There are lots of different nationalities on a cruise ship like this. Lots of Europeans, South Americans, Indians and of course United States natives take up residence in the staterooms but what I did notice was the scarce amount of Aussies. In fact not once do I remember hearing an Aussie accent anywhere besides our own. In a way it was a good thing as just hearing us talk was enough to fascinate some people, like that young American girl who turned in the elevator and said "I just love you guys' accents." Granted after taking the conversation further she thought it was a Canadian accent but still, people love the Aussie accent here. I even taught a young opera singer from New Jersey how to pronounce certain words in fluent slack Aussie. It was a laugh.

One of the first things offered onboard to those of age was a drink card package. All the beer you can drink for thirty five dollars a day was enough for me and with three bars at the pool deck, one in the casino, one in the night club, one in the dining hall, food court and restaurant it's not all that hard to ensure you get value for your package. Maddi opted for the premium package which included spirits for around fifty dollars a day. I think he got his value in the first two nights alone and when all you have to do to get a drink is swipe your card and sign a receipt it was a wonder how more people didn't need help back to their staterooms in the wee hours of the morning. Oh and the bar tenders' idea of standard scotch and coke consists of just enough coke to make the water black. They are certainly not shy.

Despite how easy it is to get a drink and get drunk the atmosphere is very family orientated. Little kids are running around everywhere, there's a games room complete with skill testers and Air Hockey and teens are typically doing their best to prove to many others that they are older than everybody thinks they are. A twenty year old college junior with lots of flirty smiles and heavy eye makeup seemed to be doing a bang up job in getting in the pants of a slick looking guy at least seven or eight years her senior in the casino. No, it was not me but yes this was not the first guy we saw her hanging off.

First dock was Royal Caribbean's own private island, Cococay. I was sure to wake early enough to see us arrive in the wee hours of the morning from the ship's front and let me tell you it was a spectacular scene. The island itself is tropical relaxation at its absolute best. After a physically taxing round of kayaking for nearly two miles through the crystal clear waters surrounding the place, and also competing with the demons in my head that emerged mid-kayak when the instructor casually said to the group "Oh and if you see a shark or stingray let me now.", it was time to stretch out and flake out on the silky sands. The breeze was gentle and warm, the sun bright yet not stinging and, again, the people were relaxed. Until you've actually been lounging on a Caribbean beach I don't think you can truly understand just how soothing it is. They also fed us particularly well too with a full buffet that even included barbeque ribs with every side you could want.

Nassau on the other hand is certainly not private. In fact we docked with four other cruise ships and the place is swarming with not only tourists but locals on scooters and in old bomb cars and there is a fair share of homeless and beggers in the downtown shopping district. You don't have to go more than about ten steps to get offered Cuban cigars and some people you're probably best not to make eye contact with. I have a feeling drinking and getting drunk is a fairly big thing here too. Still the place has a wealth of stunning clear water skirting it and the more luxurious side of the lake offered some of the most ridiculously expensive real estate your likely to see. The likes of Oprah Windfrey and J.K. Rowlings own homes on the water and even Elvis Presley owned a place that we passed. Nassau is also home to the famous Atlantis hotel and casino which adds a quite unique feature to the Nassau sky line with its most expensive suite connecting the two buildings at the top. Maddi and I spent our remaining hour on land at one of the coast bars where I sampled the local Nassau beer, which had a tinge of Corona about it. That's a tick from me.

So there's not a hell of a lot of negativity to report from the cruise, except for maybe Maddi receiving a poultry four pieces of ravioli for his main course pasta dish on Saturday night that had him fairly upset when I got nearly half of a duck. It was great company, great service, great cruising.

So, now that I know the value of ordering a beer at a bar without a shirt is high on the satisfaction and relaxation scale and being excepted into a dress dinner hall wearing thongs and fluro coloured board shorts is extremely gratifying if not embarrassing I have one thing I can say to anybody, young or old, spoken for or not, thinking of taking one of these types of vacations. "Do it, do it, do it."