There was 8 total in our group, it was a college graduation/birthday celebration cruise. We all flew in from Houston, Dallas and Austin the same day as the cruise. used the carnival transportation, yes it is more expensive than hiring our own shuttle but it was easy. We arrived at Port Canaveral about 1pm, so we missed the crowd, we were on board by 1:45 dropped our carry on bags in our rooms and headed to the lido to eat. I booked this cruise for the itinerary, and the dates, it worked for our group everyone was off work or out of school that week. But cruising in July is more expensive so we all did inside cabins , mid ship on deck 7. They were fine, worked for us . I like deck 7 because its in the middle of the ship , so your usually just 3 or 4 flights of stairs away from anything.

Embarkation day was the only day the ship felt crowed to me. We ate in the Italian place on deck 11. It was just okay, but it not crowded so that was a plus.

We had early seating dinner in the Northern lights dining room. We ate there every night. I was okay with the american table experience. There is not as much pampering as there was 10 years ago though, it feels less relaxed, the wait staff really does have to hustle. We made sure we arrived on time every night, but saw people arrive 20-30 min late every night. I wondered why they just did not do the any time dining . But that's one of my pet peeves, i have very low tolerance for people who are constantly late, i just see them as rude. Read more