My 11 yo son and I booked this cruise during his short winter break. I was unsure about sailing on Carnival and about a short (4 night) cruise. We had previously sailed on Celebrity, HAL, RCCL, and Norwegian. I thought Carnival would be a little shabby, but I was wrong. To start with, the price was great. We had a newly refurbished balcony cabin, which was a little smaller than we were used to. There was also slightly less storage and no minifridge. Oh well, no biggie. Everything was brand-new in our room-flat screen tv, bathroom fixtures, bed coverings. The balcony was nice sized, with 2 comfortable chairs and a table. JAX port was a breeze to get through. Park, and walk right to the terminal. Same on disembarkation. We walked our bags off and were in our car within 20-30 min. The public areas of the ship were very attractive and well-maintained. The Lido restaurant's food was good, but there was not enough space to accomodate all of the passengers--congested, difficult to find a seat. We ended up eating around the main dining times to avoid the crowds. Like I said, the food was good (better than Norwegian's). Excellent pizza and deli. We ate in the MDR at dinner and were seated with other single moms with their child(ren). These were the best seating companions we had ever had. The maitre-d had obviously thought out who would match well with whom and we all got along like great. (On a prior RCCL cruise my DH and 2 young children and I were seated with 2 childless couples on a 2 week cruise--a total nightmare for us and them, and we were unable to change tables). The entertainment was very good--we went to almost all of the shows. I spent some time in the casino which was very popular on this cruise, and made it more fun to have a lot of activity in there. We had 2 ports--Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas. The weather wasn't very cooperative, but we managed to enjoy the ports. We had planned a bottom fishing excursion in Freeport, which was canceled due to the rough seas. We ended up just taking a taxi to Port Lucaya for shopping and conch fritters. Inexpensive and fun. In Nassau we went to Atlantis, which we had never seen before. We spent the entire day there and enjoyed all the pools and amenities. This was a ship excursion and one that I would do again. Lazy sea day and then off the ship. Overall, a great cruise at a great price. And the 4 days didn't seem too short (although I would have loved another week onboard).