Since I have found Cruise Critic very helpful in the past I felt I should contribute my review of a recent cruise.

Background: this was our 11th cruise with all of them in the Caribbean - 2nd on Carnival - with 5 on Holland America; so much of the comparison will be to the HAL experience. Since we've been to many of the islands, we consider that "the ship is the trip". The previous Carnival cruise was on the Victory in April of 2003 and we enjoyed it, particularly the entertainment. My wife and I are around 60 and wanted to come back to Carnival since the live entertainment on the last few HAL cruises has been very disappointing (last cruise on HAL was December 2004). I'll give letter grade just to give you an idea of the quality of various aspects of the cruise. These are just our opinions - some people on the same cruise will have different ones.

Embarkation: B. We left from Lauderdale which we have generally found very easy (we live just across the state). Arriving at about noon, it seemed like everyone else got there at the same time. Lines were long and there were only 2 of 3 scanners open, but once past them, the lines moved steadily. We were in the cabin by 1:20pm. Read more