Let me start by saying that me and my wife are first time cruisers, thirty somethings with two kids traveling under the age of 5, frequent travelers and also Canadian. We booked this trip in particular because of the ports of call, cost and because we were told Carnival Cruise lines is good for people with kids.

Ship:

While the ship is older and the decor somewhat tacky I never felt dissapointed with the ship itself. It had all the features we wanted, overall it was very clean and the staff was always very helpful and always said hi. There seemed to always be a bar or washroom nearby and overall was easy to navigate. The pool area in the middle was nice but not somewhere we wanted to be, it was always occupied by college kids and singles and since we had our kids the top deck with the splash pad was our hang out. The splash pad and waterslide area is great for kids and my two had a blast. We would just sit out on the chairs and let our kids play. Our two year old would play in the splash pad and our four year old would go up and down about 40 times a day on the smaller water slides, we never felt like the kids were not safe and it was nice to allow us to relax as well. Only negative about the ship is sometimes it was difficult to get to one part of the ship due to all of the elevators not going to all of the floors. Depending on which side of the hallway you were on or which end of the boat you would have to work out a different combination between elevators and stairs to get to where you wanted. Sometimes the elevators took a while to get to you and it was easier to take the stairs but after a few days it became easier to navigate. Read more