We just returned from a 4 day sail on Sovereign, Nov 23-28, from Port Canaveral to Coco Cay on Monday, Nassau on Tuesday, a day at sea on Wednesday and back to Port Canaveral on Thanksgiving morning. We were a group of 10 this time. Bob and I, our son and his girlfriend, our daughter, son in law and granddaughter (19 mos) and my sister, her husband and their son (8 yrs old).<br><br>Bob, myself and my sister have cruised before, the rest of our group, was their first time.<br><br>I agree that Sovereign is an older ship and you do see some wear and tear, but nothing that made us say..."Ooh that's disgusting!"<br><br>Of the four days, 3 meals a day we can honestly say that we were disappointed with only ONE meal. The day that we were in Nassau we decided to eat in the main dining room for lunch instead of at the Windjammer. 3 of us had cheeseburgers, 1 had a salad and the other had a Reuben. The Reuben and the cheeseburgers were a bit dried out. Other than this meal, all of our other meals were very, very good. The presentation of all meals was very nice and very yummy. The night that we had Filet was excellent....you really didn't need your knife to cut the meat. The night of Prime Rib, was again, excellent. It came to the table exactly as ordered. Escargot, was delicious, as usual. The night that shrimp cocktail was on the menu our son (23) ordered it for his appetizer, his salad entree and for dessert. Yes, he loves shrimp cocktail and usually only gets it when Mom makes it or Mom and Dad are footing the dinner bill. Desserts after the meal were all very good. No complaints on the main dining seen.<br><br>We were the early seating in the main dining room. Our waiter, Maceijek, assistant waiter, Winston and Head waiter, Ahmet were all very personable and helpful. Chatting with us each night. We were our waiters only table during the first seating. We asked him why that was. He answered us...'he couldn't tell us that'. We immediately thought that he may have gotten into some kind of trouble and that one table per seating was his punishment. But it turns out that he is quite a joker and later told us why. Because we were one family of 10 we got our own waiter for the purpose of being taken care of without distraction of another table. Which was not special to us, but apparently the way the line likes to do things. <br><br>Breakfasts were always in the Windjammer and absolutely no complaints there. We were all very happy with the selections and presentation.<br><br>Lunch in the Windjammer....again very happy and nothing to complain about.<br><br>Monday we were at Coco Cay. Basically we just layed around enjoying doing nothing but relaxation. Our son, his GF, our daughter and son-in-law all snorkeled as did Bob and I. Saw lots of fish and some manta rays. One scared our daughter right out of the water. She stood on some shallow ground and yelled at ther husband to get her out of the water and away from that big monster fish. Our granddaughter enjoyed that water and the sand and making us adults chase her anywhere she could get to, fast. My sister and her husband soaked up the sun and their son went to Adventure Ocean in the morning and again in the afternoon, on the island. Dom enjoyed Adventure Ocean very, very much.<br><br>The first night of the cruise Dom went to AO until 10 pm, the second night 11pm, midnight the 3rd and the last night until 1am. It was nice to have that option, as it gave my sister and her husband some time to enjoy the Adult version of the cruise. They decided to go to a show on the 2nd night of the cruise and they were glad that they did. The show was Rock and Roll on Broadway....but AO kids program was also in the show all dressed up as pirates, with Dom in the show.<br><br>Lunch on the island was a barbeque with cheeseburgers, hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs and chicken. Fruits galore and many salads. It was warm and very tastey. Again no complaints about the food.<br><br>Tuesday we pulled in to Nassau bright and early. The Majesty (sister ship) pulled in shortly after we did and Carnival Fantasy pulled in too. Lots of sea legs in Nassau that day. My sisters family decided to do the Seaworld explorer semisubmersible in the morning. Bob and I and our brood decided to go out to cable beach. I had arranged before the cruise for a tour of Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort, so Bob and I headed there. Our taxi driver dropped our kids off at the Wyndam Resort so that they could do the beach and rent jet skis. The taxi dropped us at Sandals. We toured Sandals for about an 1.5 hours then took the city bus to the Wyndham resort ($1 each) to find the kids. Found them on the beach and enjoyed relaxing for a bit there. We had arranged with our Taxi to pick us back up at the Wyndham at 1230. We headed out to the front of the resort at about noon and he showed up at 1215 and took us back to the pier.<br><br>In the afternoon Bob and I, our kids and our nephew headed for the Nassau Harbor cruise and Atlantis tour. The Atlantis is unbelievable. The aquarium is very impressive. We got a great picture of the Ray in their tank. The kids (of all ages) enjoyed this excursion. Our advise on this is that if you're going to take it, take the earlier one so that you can have time to roam around. The guided tour is an hour and then you can roam around if you like. We took the second tour at 2:15pm and headed back to the ship on the 4:30 ferry, as it was formal night. So we felt rushed. There is also ALOT of walking on this tour. If you have problems walking or with arthritis, take it at your own pace or load up on your meds, as I did. <br><br>My sister and her husband stayed on the ship by the pool for the afternoon and relaxed. <br><br>Wednesday was a day at sea. Rest and relaxing by the pool was the order of the day. And that's exactly what we did. <br><br>We did play some bingo. $160 for me, $66 for our daughter. We did go to the casino at night...$270 on a slot for me, $150 for Bob at Caribbean Stud, $95 for our son on roulette, $30 on slots for my sister and our daughter.<br><br>Our weather wasn't the greatest, but wasn't totally horrible. It was sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy to sunny again on all of our days. We had a quick shower in Nassau, however were on the ship at lunch at the time, so it didn't bother us. The temps were in the high 70's to low 80's.<br><br>We pulled back into Port Canaveral on Thanksgiving morning. We got off of the ship around 945 am with our driver waiting for us just outside the terminal. We chose to spend a day in Orlando instead of traveling on Thanksgiving day. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express close to the airport that had a shuttle. We had a wonderful family style Thanksgiving dinner at the Airport Marriott at 3pm. That meal was absolutely wonderful.<br><br>On Friday we all started migrating to the airport for our flights home. <br><br>We had a great family vacation. The 7 that had never cruised before had a wonderful time and can't wait to cruise again.<br><br>Bob and I, as we've cruised before on 7 day cruises, had a great time, but prefer 7 day cruises and more at sea days. But the price was right for this 4 day jaunt. It was our kids Christmas present, so we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas all in the same week.<br><br>We've been on the Majesty, Nov '99, my sister and I went on Enchantment, Mar '02 and Bob and I are going on Enchantment, Feb '03. I'll have to put together trip reports for those trips....soon.