Since this is an older ship, I'll keep my review of the ship itself brief.

This was the fourth cruise for my wife and I. This was the second for my 2 boys (8 and 10). We traveled with my mother who has been on more than 10 cruises, but this was the first without dad who passed a year ago. My brother, his wife and my 5 year old nephew were on their first cruise. I did the booking. We wanted to leave from Tampa because mom lives near by in South Pasadena. That left us choosing between a too short Royal Caribbean cruise or similar 7 day Carnival and NCL cruises. Though I've always been a bit leery of Carnival as being a bit cheap and heavy on the party crowd, our last NCL cruise wasn't the best. If it had been our first cruise, we never would have taken another. Carnival it was.

Embarkation- A breeze! The Tampa port facilities are light years better than the NYC terminal we left from in 2 of our previous cruises. Read more