First time Carnival
I go for the”Ds”- Destination, Date/Duration and Deal.
This time I went for the destinations Aruba and Curacau. I had to choose between CCL and HAL.
Since we didn't want a cabin way down in the ship the only option was to take a chance on a cabin back-to back with the lifts. The odd design of these cabins, with bunk beds and lots of empty floor space is due to the fact that they are ment to cater for the needs of a cruiser in a wheel chair. There was no noise to worry about, so it turned out to be the best cabin I've ever had. and the cabin was, can you believe it, too big. I asked for an armchair to fill out some of the space, and it came after a few days. Other than this delay the service was perfect. The crew working around the cabins were really nice.
This extra large inside cabin has an excellent location on the nineth floor mid ship. Just behind the stairs there is direct access to the buffet reataurant and the outdoor eateries near the main pool with the big screen that is used for the night time cinema. The kid's club is another flight of stairs up.
We made our own pre-cruise arrangements. We rented a tree house at the Earth-N-Us Community Farm in Little Haiti and visited Miami Beach. It was my best pre-cruise holiday ever.
Aruba was a delight. We walked off the ship right into the bus station. After a few minutes a bus took us north-west to some nice beaches.
Curacao was my reasom for the season. I spent the whole day with my old friends, but it was my third visit to the island, and it's a really nice place to visit.
Grand Turk is a surrealistic place seemingly in the middle of nowhere. First of all you dock at the beach itself. After a while another cruise ship came along and its waves flushed us away to the exted that for a moment I thought that I had lost my child. A very artificial torist village is built up right behind the beach, and it seemed to appeal to a large number of people. The option to walk in the opposite direction of the sandy beach was most rewarding with a beautiful coastline and plenty of huge shells to pick up.