This was my seventh cruise, second with Carnival. This was my girlfriend's third cruise and first with Carnival. We arrived Saturday night and stayed at the DoubleTree West shore. We were looking for a hotel that offered hotel and port service. I was unable to find one that didn't charge an extra fee so we chose this hotel for the price, $87 per night. When I called to book the reservation, I was told they did not offer port shuttles. Check-in was a breeze and the hotel was very nice. The warm cookies were great. The room itself was very comfortable and clean. When we checked out I again asked about a shuttle t the port and was told no so they called me a cab. As we were walking to the curb a lady working a booth asked if we were waiting for a shuttle and I told her what happened. She informed me they do offer a shuttle at no charge and she got us on it. We were off to the ship! DAY 1/Embarkation I had checked-in online and had all my paperwork ready to get on the boat. That is until I left it in my checked luggage. We were able to get to the counter with only our passports. Once to the counter I thought it would take forever since I had no cruise documents. To my surprise it took less than a minute! We were on the ship about fifteen minutes after check-in and it was about 11:30. The first thing I noticed was how clean the ship was. Everything was bright and shiny. We headed to the Unicorn lounge for lunch and grabbed a bite to eat. The food was ok tasting I guess not bad for a buffet. After lunch we walked the ship to check everything out and found the boat easy to navigate. We headed to our room around 2:00 to check it out. The room was very clean and had more than enough drawers, shelves and closet space. All of our luggage arrived by 2:30 and after putting everything away we still had plenty of extra room. Our balcony was an extended and had one chair, one reclining chair and a table with lots of extra space. The only problem we had with the balcony was they changed all the furniture for the next cruise so we were unable to sit on the balcony our last night as they took all the old furniture off. I'm not sure why it was changed as ours was in very god condition. It was plastic so hopefully they were upgrading to a better quality. Once unpacked we headed up to the pool t swim and grab some drinks. We got buckets of four 16 oz. Bud lights in the aluminum cans for $17.50 plus tip. The pool area was spacious as they have two pools and an adult pool. The band that was playing was WAY too loud. If you were at the hamburger station you couldn't talk and it actually hurt my ears. We headed back to our room to get ready for lunch and met our cabin steward, Eduardo. Very nice guy and did a great job keeping our room clean throughout the week and always seemed to be around if we needed him. We got to dinner and had a great table for eight at the back of the boat. Our seats were in front of a huge picture window so we could look out to the ocean all we wanted. We had the second seating and it stayed light enough out to watch for half the dinner. Three nights we had storms in the distance so we could watch the lightning also. We had originally asked the Maitre D' to change our seats to a table for two and he said he would starting the next night. We liked all of our table mates so we kept that table and had a great time with them the rest of the week. The food again was ok, seemed like everything was room temperature, the meals were not hot and the desserts were not cold. Our head waiter (Sabby) and assistant (Zultan) were awesome! We headed back to the room after dinner to get ready to check out the shows and nightlife on the boat. We woke up nine hours later! Oh well it was a long day and a great first impression of the ship.

DAY 2 This was our first day at sea and first formal night. We woke up early and headed up for breakfast at the Unicorn Cafe. Breakfast, like lunch and dinner was ok. The service was great. Seemed like the Cafe was always crowded and the staff was quick to clean off the tables and stock them with new utensils. After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for the pool and our room was already cleaned, very clean. We headed up to the pool around 11:00 and all the chairs on the pool level were taken. Seems towels like to lie out in the Caribbean! We forgot about the adult pool so we got two chairs on the next level surrounding the main pool. The weather was great and we lied out all day except a trip for lunch and headed to our room around 4:00 for a nap before dinner. We headed up for dinner and we were one of the first is the dining room. Watching people walk in everyone was dressed differently. We saw a few tuxes and suits. Mostly dress shirts and ties. There were a few people with no ties and even some short sleeve button down shirts. The atmosphere was great and everyone seemed to be enjoying them. This was lobster night and I couldn't wait. I ordered two and my girlfriend order an extra on for me. When Sabby brought out the lobster, I couldn't wait to take a bite. I was the first served so the anticipation was killing me as I waited for everyone else to be served. I finally took my first bite! BLAH, the lobster was very bland and the only flavor came from the butter. We headed back to the room after dinner to get ready for the rest of the night. Eduardo had the room spotless with a towel animal on the bed. Again we woke up nine hours later. We hope to make the shows at least once. DAY 3 Grand Cayman! We headed to breakfast in the Truffles restaurant hoping for a better breakfast. The food was the same as the buffet they just served it to you. Once our waiter brought us our food, we never saw him again, so our drinks were left empty. The first things we checked out were the shops. We quickly found there are no good deals here so we headed to Seven Mile beach. We took a taxi bus for $5 per person and there was no admission cost but they were charging for chairs and umbrellas. We brought a large towel so we just used it. We went to the bar for a drink and it was $9.75 for a daiquiri and $4.75 for a 12oz beer. We only had one drink. The beach was nice and the water clear and warm. It wasn't very crowded except for about an hour while a tour was there. We got back to the ship about twenty minutes before the final tender. The line was LONG and there was no shade to hide from the sun. It took us about 20 minutes to get to our tender but they had lemonade and water for free to keep you cool. We headed up to the burger station for a snack and it was great. They had burgers, fries, chili, potato salad and all the fixins. We ate by the pool then jumped in for a swim. The pools were never crowded on port days even after the final tender. We went back to shower and get ready for dinner. We walked around the ship and gambled for a while. I was getting a little hungry so we headed to the deli station, what a great place. They have a menu of what they serve but will make anything you want. We got to dinner and on our table was my beer as well as the guys sitting next to me. Pinky, our dinner bar waitress was awesome! She had a beer waiting for us the rest of the cruise. When she saw us in the show lounge or by the pool we only needed to nod and she was there with our drink and knew our folio number. We finally made it to the late show and it was good, what you would expect on a cruise. We headed back to the room after the show for some drinks on the balcony then off to bed. Just a note for those with balconies, if you are not in your room please don't leave your balcony light on as it ruins the experience for the rooms next to you.

DAY 4 Cozumel. Same routine Breakfast, back to the room then off to Cozumel. We checked out a few of the shops but really just wanted to go to the beach. The shops were cheaper than Grand Cayman, some with really good deals. We took a cab to Paradise Beach for $6 per person. I tried to pay with a $20 as I only had $20's and a $10. The driver only had change in Pesos so he just took the $10 and left. I felt bad I had no tip for him, but he didn't want to wait for me to get change. There was no cost to enter the beach or to use their chairs. You could pay $9 for a bracelet to use the water sports, trampoline, water mats, iceberg, Kayaks and snorkel gear. We got a chair up front by the water but we got there kind of early. By lunch time the beach was pretty busy. A bucket of Sol was only $9 and we also had chicken nachos for $6. The weather was cloudy and storms were in the background. This seemed to keep some people away so the beach wasn't overcrowded. Rain finally came but not so hard that we couldn't keep dry under the umbrella. The rain only lasted about 15 minutes then back to nice weather. We headed back to the boat and with plenty of time to spare s we headed to the waterside shops. The waterfront area is nice with some good deals. However, the side streets looked a little shady. We bought some earrings from D.I. and headed to the boat. There were plenty of drunk people in line to get on the boat. They were entertaining though, not annoying. We had an open bottle of water on us that security took aside to check. They only turned the bottle upside down and shook it then asked if it was water. We told them it was and they were fine with it. After grabbing a snack we headed to the adult pool and hot tub. Carnival did a good job of keeping kids out of this area the whole cruise so it was nice not having splashing water while there. Dinner was the same, all room temperature food, but the service was excellent. We made it to the comedy this night, the comedian was ok but I could have missed it. Thanks Pinky for being there with a beverage! Back to the room to sleep. Read more