Background Information: This is our third cruise overall--but our first on a Carnival cruise ship. I (30) shared my balcony room with a friend (33), my sister (38) shared the other balcony room with my mom (71). We were supposed to go to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Costa Maya. Thanks to Hurricane Dean, we were re-routed to Key West, Nassau, Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk.

Hotel Info & Travel To Port of Embarkation: We flew to Tampa from New York on Delta a day before the cruise, spent the day in Busch Gardens and stayed at Courtyard Tampa Downtown. The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel is fixed at $22. It costs about $25 to travel between Busch Gardens and the hotel. The hotel is pretty nice for the money. The rooms are clean and the beds are comfortable. The bell boys were not too friendly, but those at the front desk were very professional and helpful. We picked this hotel because it was relatively close to the pier and the hotel has a shuttle that would take you to the pier for FREE. The ONLY problem is there are only 10/12 seats available, and the shuttle runs every hour on the day of the cruise--that's because the shuttle is shared by this hotel and the Residence Inn Tampa Downtown (which is right behind this hotel). Ask about the pier transfer sign up sheet when you check in the hotel, because it fills up rather quickly. We end up paying $3 per person to take a taxi to the pier. We arrived at the port around 12:15 PM, and there was a line waiting to enter the terminal already. They did not allow anyone into the terminal at this time, so everyone had to stand outside and the sun was at full blast. Tampa was very hot and being in the sun did not help. It took an hour and a half to complete the boarding process.

Ship Info & Stateroom The ship looks pretty good and rather new. The staterooms are a little bigger than the ones we had on Norwegian Spirit. There were plenty of closet space and the balcony was nice. The beds and the pillows were not as comfortable as those on the Coral Princess (actually, the beds and pillows at the hotel/Courtyard Tampa Downtown were better than those on the ship). The TV was a good size and we brought a portable DVD player and plug that into the TV to watch movies without problems. The safe uses a credit card and thanks to fellow Cruise Critic members, we bought some expired credit cards to lock/unlock the safe. The refrigerator is not that cold, but it's nice to have one in the room. Read more