We've cruised many times on differently quality ships and to different areas like the Pacific Coast, Alaska, Caribbean, etc.. This was a last minute cruise, as in we literally booked this cruise on Wednesday night and arrived for embarkation at 1:30pm on Thursday. It was my wife and I, and a friend from England.

My Expectations - They weren't high since this was a short Carnival cruise, which have been known to be rowdy and party, party, party. The combination of low fares and a short cruise appeals to young people from 25-35. I don’t blame them; it’s a great few days of all-you-can-eat and cheap drinks. These types of cruises attract a lot of people that have never cruised before. If you think about it, these cruises invite nightclub clientele and put them in an environment where they should conduct themselves with some decorum. However, a lot of those people don’t have good manners because they don’t habit this type of environment. As long as you have patience for that, you’ll be ok. For us, we like to relax since we’re in the 45-55 age group. I’m not complaining, we knew what we were getting into. Despite the plethora of obnoxious people, this cruise met my expectations.

Room – Normally, given several weeks or months to plan, we get rooms with verandas. However, we only had the choice of two rooms, which were both on the same level. Our room was U218, which was aft and down at the end. Surprisingly, this was a good place, away from the elevators at the end of the hall. We had an ocean view (Full 4’ x 5’ window) with plenty of light. I get claustrophobic but had no problem with this room. Since we had 3 in our room, they removed the second twin bed and pulled down bunk beds from the wall. So we had the equivalent of 3 separate twin beds. I had no problem with that. In this quality of room you get a small bathroom that does not accommodate more than one person at a time. The bathroom door opens, toilet on left, sink in middle, shower on right; can’t get more basic than that. 3 closets, one with shelves and a free safe, and two full-length. Also, a sitting area with a mirror. Finally, a very tiny TV in the corner of the room. The TV is on East Coast/Miami time and gets the local Miami channels. Since we spend most of our time outside the room on short cruises the room is less important than on a longer cruise. Read more