After a brutal winter here in the NC mountains we woke up one morning and it was still snowing. Deciding that there must be warmer places to wake up we booked our cruise with Carnival to the eastern Caribbean. We started cruising back in the 80's and were on the inaugural cruise onboard the Glory, Carnival's largest ship at that time some years ago. We enjoyed the Glory and decided that Carnival had the best itennary and price to the Caribbean. After reading the reviews on Cruise Critic we went with the Victory.

We had a couple of vouchers for US Air from an overbooked flight we got bumped off of last summer so decided to fly from San Juan and spend less time getting there and more time cruising the islands. We lived on a boat for a year so we have had our share of long days at sea. We left Charlotte at 9:45 and were in our cabin on the ship by 2:30 or so. We didn't have any of the problems that some earlier reviews talk about. We travel with only carry on bags so we didn't need to wait at the airport, just walk off the plane and grab a cab. The cabs at the airport are very easy to get and ours cost $19+$1 per bag for two of us. We tried to find someone to share the cab with but found it easier to just pay and go.

Check in at the ship was straight forward with no surprises. We did buy a few bottles of water at the airport only to find them at the pier for a fraction of the price we paid. They were selling a case of water for $5 inside the terminal and several people we saw took advantage of that. Refilling on the ship was easy. Just go to the buffet area and look next to the tea and coffee machines. We did not get the drink card but choose to just put them on our sign and sail card. I think we had only two cokes on the bill at the end of the cruise. We drank water, ice tea and juice that is available several places on board at no charge. Read more