All in all, it was a good vacation for our family. This review is LONG, but I wanted to give our unique review of the Carnival experience. Hope it provides good insight. Bon voyage!

Embarkation: Our United flight, scheduled to arrive from Denver to IAH airport around noon, was delayed by 3 hours due to mechanical and weather issues. We nearly missed our embarkation. I, along with numerous other cruisers on the same flight, called Carnival frequently, providing updates and pleading with them to delay embark time. Carnival customer service was a bit disorganized, and provided conflicting information to many of us. It almost felt like Carnival was unprepared for this type of problem. We booked our bus shuttle from the airport with Carnival, with the steep round trip price of $66 per person. Coach USA is the company that Carnival contracts their bus shuttle from IAH/HOB airports. I spoke with several others who used private shuttles or limos, and the price was much higher. Houston/Galveston really needs better shuttle options, as this is a big extra cost for cruisers. After much consternation, we found that Carnival had ensured that Coach USA buses were waiting for us. Carnival also delayed embarkation by about 2 hours. The plus side of the delay is that we were able to get through the boarding process in minutes. In hindsight, I would probably have gotten to Houston/Galveston a day early. This would probably have eased some of the stress&.after all, it is a vacation. Or, another option would be to cruise out of Fort Lauderdale/Miami where you wouldnt have to deal with distance/major extra costs of shuttles.

The Ship: The boat is simply huge. It dwarfed the Carnival Ecstasy that I last cruised. It took several days to get familiar with the layout. There are maps of the ship and its facilities available in the lobby. Getting from forward (front of ship) to aft (back of ship) isnt always straightforward. Sometimes you cant get straight through, or you have to go through smokey lounges, or go up and down stairs/elevators, etc. Get the map! The upper decks are the focal point on Days at Sea. Most people stake out chairs early in the morning. This is a real issue. Carnival has signs advising people not to reserve deck chairs, but no one follows this suggestion. We found ourselves on the starboard or port sides most times in areas with much fewer people and away from the action. This was probably preferable anyway. Carnival had a good mix of Americana: quite a few snowbirds, lots of young teens, and families galore. The amount of children probably doubled due to the spring break timeframe. We were initially in balcony room 6368. The room was spacious, and we had plenty of space for our stuff. We discovered after the first night that we were right above a disco&.and we promptly notified the concierge. It took another couple of complaints, and they moved us to balcony room 8248. That resolved our noise issue, though we were sleep-deprived for several days. Read more