This was our 5th cruise 4th with Carnival. My husband and I traveled with 7 other friends ages 35-49. We booked a three day for a weekend getaway with friends. We flew from Ohio to Miami a day early and had booked a Hotel on Ocean Dr. in South Beach The Beacon highly recommend great hotel great location. Got a Taxi the next day at 11am to go to the cruise port. Dropped our luggage off and was on the ship eating by 12noon. Could not get to our rooms for about and hour or so but that was not a problem gave us time to enjoy the view of Miami and have a drink of the day. Got to our rooms on the Empress deck and was surprised to see they have been redone with a new bathroom shower flat screen TV and new carpet. The ship itself is very clean but not to glamorous as I've been on newer larger ships before, but that was ok since this was just a weekend getaway. Went to our muster station for the life boat drill that didn't take to long at all, went up to the lido to watch us set sail. This was kinda neat as we went down the river and did a 360* turn and then set sail for the Bahamas. We had asked for the 6:15 dinner and was scheduled for the 5:45 which was not a problem. Had booked a late seating on our last cruise and was not happy with that as by the time you wait for dinner at 8:30 at night you get pretty hungry and after dinner your ready for bed. Food on this cruise was better than I have remembered on the other cruises the other past guest we were with thought the same thing. Our waiter June was friendly but very busy he never really talked to us very much but gave us whatever we asked for. One thing to remember on our next cruise we always ask for coffee with dessert and each night we never did our coffee until after we were finished with our dessert mainly because the waiters had to sing to us at that time. So next time we will order coffee with dinner. Next day we were docked at Nassau my husband and I opted to take a taxi to Paradise Island to book a Dolphin Swim, our other friends booked a stingray excursion through Carnival. I had research this on line. Carnival only offers the Dolphin Encounter. Be warned taxis to PAradise Island runs about $4 per person we one of the first persons to get a Taxi and one guy tried to charge us $10 per person turned and walked away another driver told us $5 per person so we went with him. Only about a 5 min. ride over the bridge, and he dropped us off where you can book your Dolphin Swim. Pricey but well worth the once in a lifetime experience.We were on the same boat with the people that booked the encounter through the cruise line and when they dropped people off at Paradise Island they told all of the cruise ship passengers to stay on the boat, so we stayed on the boat and got a free ride back to the Cruise Ship. Went back to the ship to have lunch, then went to the straw market to do some shopping too many people to hot. Went back to the ship to get ready for dinner. Again excellent food. Went to the shows they were very good. Next day at sea took in some sun, and a few drinks of the day. We opted to keep our luggage and had breakfast and got off the ship by 8:30am I did like that better so we didn't have to wait to be called by our tag color to get off the ship and search for luggage, the only draw back was it was a very long walk off the ship. We had booked a ride to the airport online through Ambassador Limo Service I called them as we were a little early getting off and they had a driver on the way. They were supposed to send a 11 passenger van for the 9 of us but they up graded us to a Stretch Excursion Limo. Darn.. Highly recommend this company ended up costing us $13 a person to Fort Lauderdale cheaper than Carnival @ $24 per person. Overall absolutely loved our long weekend getaway Carnival is great as always. Highly recommend this cruise. In fact hubby is ready to go again in the spring!!!Yea