We are a married couple in our early thirties and this was our third cruise (2nd time on Carnival) but the first one together with our son Bradley (2 years 3 months at time of cruising). We are from Malta, which is a very small island in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea. Having our young son with us, we had to adjust our expectations and tried not to cram too much stuff in the schedule. We just planned with Bradley in mind. Traveling with such young children requires extra thought and planning and how your experience will be, depends a lot on your child's temperament. So we started planning for this cruise early (almost a year ahead) and I can say that thanks to a lot of information and tips we got from the CC Boards we had an amazing experience. In all we spent 15 days, a pre-cruise 3 night visit to Rome and 12 night Mediterranean cruise on board the new Carnival Freedom. This review will primarily be on what we did in the various ports we visited. It is long, as I tried to include as many details as possible and if you have any questions, please ask, as I would be pleased to answer.

Our flight got into Rome Fiumicino Airport on 28th April at around 11:00am. We had transfers booked with "Limousine Roma" (limousine.roma@libero.it) at the price of Euro 50.00. We met the driver at the exit of the airport arrivals hall and he took us directly to our b&b. We stayed at the "Best B&B Vatican". I would highly recommend staying at this B&B. The price was Euro 170.00 / night. The rooms are very clean and we had a very good breakfast each morning. If you are going to visit Rome by metro, the location of this B&B is excellent because there is a metro stop (Ottaviano - San Pietro) just round the corner. We had already visited Rome three years ago, and therefore we had already been to most major attractions, so we focused on places we had missed or really enjoyed. After we settled, we went to buy two metro tickets for 3 days which cost Euro 11.00 / Each. For the buses you use the same metro tickets. In the afternoon we went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Vittoriano and Campidoglio. After we went back to the B&B to take a shower and in the evening we went for a pizza in the Trevi fountain area. This pizzeria was full with people, so we thought it was a good pizzeria; however the pizza was nothing special.

Second day in Rome This time, having Bradley with us, we also tried to visit places that he can also enjoy. Not having any zoos in Malta, we visited the Rome zoo ("Bioparco").The zoo is in the Villa Borghese area and admission tickets cost Euro 8.50 / each. To get there we took the metro and stopped at "Flaminio". From here it is quite a long walk to the zoo, but this is the nearest stop. After we walked around the Villa Borghese Park until we reached Piazza di Spagna. Read more