My husband and I and another couple just returned from the Carnival Valor, March 23-30, 2008. I'm pleased to report that we had an awesome time!!

We flew in a couple of days in advance as we had a house booked in the Miami area. I won't get into any details there; suffice it to say that Air Canada continues to make it difficult to get anywhere from the east coast of Canada. We ended up arriving three hours late and in Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami. Air Canada blamed it on "weather"; I guess sunny and mild now makes it difficult to fly!! It was an $80 cab to Miami. We lost our rental car as we were late, and ended up paying triple the cost for a vehicle. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the couple of days before the cruise. It gave us a chance to unwind and get some sun.

We arrived at the port about 11:30 Sunday morning and were onboard within an hour. Now, we had booked an inside cabin but did not know our cabin assignment. A few weeks before the cruise, I had read on these boards about a trick where you try to send yourself a gift; if you get the message "gifts cannot be sent to a guarantee cabin", it means that is your cabin at the moment. Sadly, this trick did not work for us. We ended up in an inside cabin, however it was still an upgrade as it was on the 10th floor, which was a great location. I was a little disappointed as the last two times we booked insides, we were upgraded to outsides, but I know that's the chance you take. We were more that content with the cabin. It was comfortable, lots of storage space, but I did miss the couch. We met our room steward, Henry, who was terrific, and greeted us by name all week long. Read more