First let me just say that on this cruise it was my husband and me. My husband is 28 and I am 24 and we have both been on 5 cruises, 3 on Princess and this being our second Carnival ship.

Embarkation: We left out of Miami, seeing as we live 3 hours away decided to drive over the day before and check out the zoo. We stayed at the La Quinta by the airport, it was a nice hotel but noisy due to the airplanes flying right over. Staying at a hotel the day before can very beneficial because sometimes they will let you park your car there for free up to 7 days like this one did. The next morning their shuttle bus took us to the port at about 10:00 am. We breezed through the security and check in. We waited in the terminal which was freezing cold till about 12:30 and then boarded the ship. We were one of the first on and went straight to the buffet line. I did the burrito bar and my husband did fish and chips, both were very good, definitely NOT Denny's. We then met the Matri'd and changed our table to a table for two with no problem. We then made it to our room, an interior, a little smaller then on Princess but still nice. We had earlier seating dinner which worked out nice for us. Our head waiter was Alti, he was so nice. Dinner was good, better on Princess but better then an Outback, great selections and you can get as much as you like. We went to the welcome aboard show and enjoyed the comedian Percy Crews II and looked forward to seeing him the next night for his adult show.

Fun Day at Sea: We took it easy spending the day sleeping and checking out the ship. The only complaint about the ship set up is that the Lincoln dining room is smack dab in the middle of the ship making it hard to get to the back when on decks 3 and 4. We were trying to find the web, the Internet cafe, but getting around that dining room and actually finding it was very frustrating. We eventually found it hiding in the back of the cigar bar on deck 4. The decor on this ship is nice, we read reviews that made it sound crazy and outdated, that definitely was not the case. We found out every Carnival ship has a theme, and the theme on this one is heroes, hence the Lincoln and Washington Dining rooms, and the One Small Step Dance room dedicated to Neil Armstrong. We had lunch at the buffet, the deli was ok and the buffet was good. This night was formal night and we enjoyed lobster tail and decent size shrimp, it was very good. We stayed up and watched Percy Crews II 12:00 AM show and he was hilarious. Read more