We drove to Port Canaveral and stayed the night at the Radisson Hotel. The hotel was located about 3 miles from the port, absolute the best. The hotel had everything you needed and was very comfortable. My D/W and I took our youngest son (22 y/o) with us and can you believe it, he is hooked on Cruising now! We were very impressed with the ship, it was a nice ship, very well taken care of and seemed to have a good layout and space. They were continually painting and cleaning, but for a ship built in 1993 she was in great shape. At one point they had to replace some carpeting on a part of our deck, where somebody spilt a drink that stained the rug. My hats off to the maintenance crew, they did an outstanding job. Our cabin was great and although the balcony was smaller than I expected, we loved it. Carnival went and done it, they hooked us on their balconies, Darn them. My D/W loved to have room service bring her a cup of morning coffee and just sit on the balcony before she got ready for breakfast. I found it to be extremely relaxing to sit on the balcony after my evening shower and contemplate the day and just relax.

The activities were fun, even won my first ship on a stick and my son won a medallion for beating me in a spirited game of bean bag toss. The adult comedy show on the first night was O.K., by the second comedian was great and his R-rated show left us in stitches. The first show by the ship's dancers was fantastic, however we did not care for the second show, not out type of music. The service was great, our room steward's gave us their pager numbers and they were absolutely the best. Our dining room staff was just a good and the selection of food was also great. I was very disappointed in our shore excursion. In Freeport we decided on a snorkeling excursion and it was cancelled due to the weather, as a diver who has been banned from diving for a medical reason, I was extremely bummed out. We chose the Blackbeards snorkeling treasure hunt, the next day in Nassau, you spent over $50 for the ride, day at the beach and lunch. The boat ride over was okay, but a bit like a cattle car. When you got there you quickly saw there were not enough lounge chairs and the ones they had were in serious disrepair. The food was so/so at best and there was a LONG wait for a hamburger and chips. The bathrooms were dirty and there was no paper. The showers to rinse off were very shoddy as well. The snorkeling was terrible, the water was cold and some what foggy which made it harder to see the Stingrays. It was much nicer in the Cayman Islands. We have decided that we will not revisit Blackbeards, it definitely wasn't worth it. I dragged, err....encouraged my D/W and son take a small "excursion" over to Senor Frogs which was right by the ship. They ordered a Pina Colada and I had my Daiquiri, we had a blast. It was well worth the walk over. This was our first time as VIP's for the embarkation and it was a breeze, I can't wait to do it again. No line and we were on the ship and having lunch in less then 45 minutes. When we got to our cabin early, the staff asked if we could come back in about a half hour. They did tell us we could leave our back packs there, which we really appreciated. All in all it was a very nice cruise, that we would recommend to everyone.