A little background about us. We are a (mostly) retired couple. My husband and I have been on 7 cruises. This was our first Carnival Cruise. This review will be long. I hope its informative!

We arrived in Tampa by Air via Frontier Airlines out of Trenton. It was our first time at it definitely won't be our last. Great little airport with free parking very close to home. We picked up our rental cat at Avis - $48 for the weekend. We drove 5 minutes to the Intercontinental(priceline - $55 bid). This was a great hotel. It definitely caters to business people, but since we were there over Labor Day Weekend, it was mostly quiet. No complaints about the room - there was free parking in the garage, but they did charge $13 per day for WiFi. I used my hotspot from Verizon so I was fine.

We had dinner at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. What a treat! We loved everything about this place. The food was awesome, but the entire ambiance made it a very special dinner. There was a floor show of Flamenco dancers and they were very good. I had Pompano en papillote (fish cooked in paper) delish!! and churros for desert. My husband had a seafood Fra Diavolo and flan - he also loved his dinner. Read more