This was my 3rd cruise with Carnival. This cruise was heavily discounted so it attracted mostly very pleasant working class, ethnic Florida families and a collection of very rude young couples who wanted to get drunk/smoke from all over US and wear little clothing. We did not fall into either of these categories as we are a professional 40 something couple from the Northeast. We were shocked at how many children were cruising since it was not a holiday so it required missing several school days. We chose this cruise because of itinerary, price and date of departure.

For the money you can't find a better deal, food was good, ship has a perfect easy to navigate layout, cabin was big/clean/basic, and all staff went out of way to be pleasant. Maitre d in the Pride dinning room and his team was as good if not better than we experienced on premium lines (Cunard, Holland America). Spa/fitness area was in need of a face lift, woman's changing area reminded me of a YMCA. Piano bar MIRAGE very fun, during the day this same spot served as a host to tea, a very enjoyable way to get a snack between meals and enjoy fine quality piano playing. We enjoyed some duty free shopping onboard. Surprisingly, a scheduled trivia game was never held without any explanation, 20 of us are still wondering why we wasted 30 minutes of our life waiting for it. This was management failure of the Cruise Director, Lenny.

We explored Key West independently and in Calica, MX we chose the Talum coach tour from Carnival. The later was excellent if one enjoys history/culture, it is an experience of a lifetime to see these amazing structures and impressive cliff top. One should be aware there is an excellent sandy beach at the foot of the ruins, so if you enjoy swimming, bring/wear a bathing suit. There is a series of steep well made wooden steps to get to the beach therefore it is not accessible to all. The walk from the bus parking lot to the Mayan site is about 10 minutes, there is a trolley for $2 that is a round trip ticket, we chose to walk in but still was charged the $2 to return so would recommend just taking it both ways, since the walk in was on a poor surfaced road and uninteresting. Our tour guide was also our guide at the ruins, Manuel was excellent and spoke English better than most of the people we were cruising with on the Imagination. There is a sneaky shopping stop they slip in enroute to Talum, some of our fellow guests did not bring money/credit card for this and wish they had known. It is a touristy kiosk with masks, hats, ornaments, etc. all certified to be authentic. Read more