This was the first cruise for all 8 of us with the age range of 7 to 65. We planned it as a surprise for my mother in law for her 65th b-day and retirement.

We flew out of Toronto at 6:45am to Atlanta with a 3 hour layover. When we landed in Miami at 1:50pm we located all but 1 piece of luggage quickly and about 15 minutes later the last piece arrived! The Carnival rep gathered a group and lead the way to the transfers. Thank goodness for airconditioning because of our large group we ended up as the last transfer and with a late plane I don't think we left until past 4. We made it to the ship and made it quickly through the embarkation process! This was quite fast and painless thanks to the great instructions from our TA we knew exactly what to do!

We got on the boat to our rooms three in a row 1331,1335 and 1339. We were surprised at the size of the rooms and lots of great storage! There were 3 of us in 2 cabins and 2 in the 3rd and we had plenty of room! We loved that you could call between rooms and also that you could look up your SS account on the TV and keep track of spending if you wanted to! For our 1st cruise we were thrilled with how everything was going! We went up on time for the muster drill my only complaint would be all the drunk loud people so you could not hear a think but I know it has to be done! Got some cute pix in the life jackets! Read more