Our group of 7 flew in Sat. and stayed at the Holiday Inn Bayside. Four of us flew into FLL and booked a private car for $64.00 through one of the transport companies. The other 3 flew directly into Miami. Our ages are 49 - 56 with one couple aged 69. Three were rookie cruisers. The hotel was great directly across from the Bayside Market. Rooms were nice but not cheap at $200.00 but we would definitely stay there again.

Embarkation went very smoothly we left the hotel at 1030 and were on lido by 1130 having our 1st or maybe second foofoo drink . We could not get into our rooms until 1:30 although I know of others that were able to get in sooner. That was ok as I had told our group that it would probably be until that time anyways. Our dinning room was the Lincoln we were initially assigned a table upstairs with no window so we lined up to speak with the maitre'd at 1 pm who changed us to a table on the lower level with a window. We had the 6:15 seating which I found was better than the 5:45 that we had last cruise that extra half hour made a big difference esp. on port days. We ate dinner in the dinning room each nite and the food was excellent. Our head waiter and assistant were very efficient and pleasant. For breakfast we did a little of everything mostly we ate in the washington dinning room which had open seating for breakfast. A couple of mornings we had room service breakfast and one day a few of our group[ had breakfast on lido. The chocolate buffet was sat. our last sea day at lunch on lido. There were lots of goodies to be had. The only negative thing I can say about the whole eating experience was that I was disappointed in the fish and chips this time I felt the batter had a funny earthy taste to it. I was disappointed because last year the Valor's fish and chips were the best. All of our cabins were on Main deck midship. 2 of us had OV and one had an inside. What a difference having a window! We will probably stick with that for future cruises. I could not justify the extra $400.00 for upgrading to a balcony. I wanted to be low on the ship as last cruise i had seasickness for 3 days and we were on Empress deck midship that time. We appreciated having the sofa and bigger coffee table in our cabin this time as our cabin tended to be the gathering point for all. We had brought a plastic bottle of libation on in our checked luggage which I had placed in 2 large ziplock bags and was unopened prior to the cruise. Glass will show up in an xray and plastic won't - I wasn't sure if they were xraying the checked luggage or not so I wanted to play it safe. We also carried 2 bottles of wine on in our carryon and had no problem getting it on the ship. We had hot sunny weather the entire cruise. Two formal nites were monday which had the captain's cocktail party prior to dinner, and thursday our Grand Cay. day. Past guest party was wednesday and it was held in the Ivanhoe Theatre. We did a couple of shows which were all well done. We especially liked the motown nite. We did the piano bar one nite with Trevor who was very good but not a wild man like Ron the piano man. (with Ron we were in the piano bar every nite). The smoke in the bar bothered many in our group. We tended to camp out each nite on the sofas along side of the casino to people watch and drink. The guitar/singer in that area was very good. We played the slots a little every nite. One of our group won big on two nites for about $1100.00 total Her name changed to Lucky in a hurry. We had a great time with a couple of the photographers and they took lots of crazy photos for us consequently I spent much more than I had planned on photos this cruise. Didn't see much of the CD this cruise and we had Rebecca last year on the Valor so I really had no expectations of what a good CD was. I am still waiting...... I'll stop here gotta get some laundry done then I'll review our port days. Feel free to ask any questions I will try my best to answer.

Ports/Excursions BELIZE- A tender port. We booking with cavetubing.com Yhony, Richard and the lads provided a memorable day for us, in fact it was our favorite port. On the way to the caves we stopped to pick up some local beer for anyone that wanted to try one on the drive up to the rainforest also a shot glass of local wine was offered to anyone that wanted to try. The bus ride itself was memorable with Yhony driving the bus and Richard performing for us all the way - Love you Richard! He is quite a character. Once we got to the parking lot of the beginning of our hike through the rainforest we were given headlamps, lifevests and inner tubes. For those that had difficulty carrying their tubes the boys (men) would carry them for them. The hike through the forest was a little challenging in a few spots when the path got very muddy but we simply slowed down and sloshed our way through. One member in our group was a large gal and Yhony stayed with her the entire walk to the caves making sure she was able to navigate her way safely to the caves. She felt like she had been treated royally! I was very impressed with their kindness and consideration to her. In fact Yhony called her Princess . Once we got to the caves we got into the tubes and linked together in small groups maybe 4 people per group and each group had their own guide. This worked very well as I saw the other tour that was going on at the same time, the one sponsored by the ship and there were people floating everywhere with minimal supervision and that looked very scary. In fact our guide said that he had to rescue someone last week that had been on the ship's tour through the caves. We did little if any work through the entire tubing experience. The guides pulled and navigated us through the caves. We felt completely safe the entire time! In the shallow areas the guides would yell "butts up" so we would know to raise up so that we wouldn't drag bottom. After doing the 2 caves we voted to go for lunch and for $5.00 received a great lunch of chicken, rice and coleslaw. I have to say this was my favorite excursion of the entire cruise! BUTTS UP BABY! and thanks Yhony for a great day! I should add that this excursion was half the price of the one offered through the ship and we did 2 caves instead of the 1 cave that the ships excursion did. ROATAN-We were able to dock at this port. The first thing that strikes you about this port is the lushness of the island. Here we booked through Carnival the Tabyanna Beach Break. I think it cost about $35.00 pp This provides transport two and from the beach beach admission, chairs there are no umbrellas but lots of natural shade available. The beach was lovely clean warm water and sandy bottom. There are outdoor showers available and the bathroom are kept very clean. For $10.00 you could get a lunch buffet big enough for two people to share! This was a relaxing day which was welcome after the cave tubing. GRAND CAYMAN- This was another tender port. For this port we booked the 4X4 jeep excursion through Island Marketing. This cost 69.00 pp Everyone in our group of 7 agreed that this was the best way to see the island and learn about it. Our tour guide Gino did a great job. We stopped at the rum factory, Pedros bluff, a couple of other brief stops for photo ops and ended at Rum Point. There was no admission to the point and chair, hammocks were free. The restaurant was reasonably priced and served large portions of excellent food. We stayed on the beach for approx. 2 hours then drove back to the ship. I am not a shopper so we did no shopping there. COZUMEL- This was supposed to be a tender port however the captain managed to make a deal with some other ships and we were able to dock. I think there were 6 ships in port that day. We shopped on the main drag for about 1 hour then I had had enough so we took a cab out to Paradise Beach. The cost of the cab was $13.00 each way which I thought was quite reasonable. This a great beach it reminded me of orient beach in St Marten but not quite as busy. Chairs, umbrellas were free. Great service by all the lads working. Food and drinks were very reasonable i think my husband had a couple of beers and I had one of those drinks by the yard and an order of guac. and chips (almost more then we could eat) for 26.00 Met the infamous Paradise Tom a transplanted Cannuck. For $9.00 you could use their water toys there were lots of kids (well behaved) around with lots for them to do. MIAMI- We did the art deco tour with transfer to FLL which was through the ship and I think cost $35.00. We had done this tour last year with a Miami transfer instead and last year our guide was excellent. This year I saw our guide from last year still doing the tour with the Miami transfer but we had a female and there was no comparison between the two. Oh well it was a good way to kill a few hours and get us to the airport. We enjoyed the 1.5 hours on south beach, had brunch at one of the outdoor cafes on Ocean Park Drive (despite what we had been warned about the prices it was quite reasonable with generous portions).