This was our first cruise so we decided to do a 4 night to make sure we enjoyed it. We live in NJ so we drove to NYC and paid the $120 parking fee. Getting on the ship was very easy but this is because we arrived early. We were onboard at noon. Lunch was served at the buffet and we were to our stateroom-lido deck-by 1:30 pm. Our luggage beat us there. I would recommend checking your luggage when you park your car. We tipped the attendant $10 and it was worth it not to lug them around. We had a balcony room which was beautiful. Very clean-great bed. Definitely worth the price. Breakdown: get a map of the ship as soon as you board at the pursers desk in the lobby. You will need it the first day. We could not even find our cabin and wished we had the map. Do not travel when school is out if children bother you. Many,many children,some without manners are roaming all over the ship. We will only cruise before mid-June. The food in the dining room for breakfast is not worth the time. You can get the same food at the buffet and not wait. For some reason the dining room was very slow at breakfast. It took 15 minutes to get a orange juice refill. This was a problem when we docked in Canada and wanted to get off the ship. St John was a quaint little city with not a whole lot to do. I would not recommend any of the excursions as they seemed pricey and boring. You can walk from the ship to the part of town with the venders and restaurants(lots of moosehead beer).We enjoyed all the entertainment and especially the captains cocktail party. My husband said the casino was much bigger than he expected. Getting off the ship was a slower process than getting on. Highly recommend carrying your luggage off with you. The Victory is a beautiful ship and the staff was exceptional. Not one complaint on the staff. The next trip we take will be in April or May of next year before school lets out. This will be on the Carnival Miracle or Royal Carib Explorer-still trying to decide. So, I suppose the only real complaint was all the kids running around without any regard to bumping into you etc. My husband was disappointed that he was not able to use the hot tub due to all the kids in there.