Travelling in a party of 9, we embarked on a Carnival Sensation cruise after an 8-day stay at Disney. My wife and I had previously cruised on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas and we thought all cruises were similar. Boy were we wrong.

The party of 9 included my family, the wife with 2 kids, aged 4 and 3. It also included friends who had 3 children, 4, 3 and 9 months. Admittedly, travelling with children on a cruise is not ideal but we had heard a lot of positive things about Camp Carnival so we figured we'd have few issues. More on that later.

Getting on the ship was quick and easy. The porters were very efficient and the check-in was smooth. We took our pre-boarding picture and were on our way. Read more