I went on this cruise with my family, ranging in age from 2 to 77, during Christmas week 2010. This was my first cruise so some of comments may apply to the cruising experience in general rather than this particular cruise. We chose this cruise because the original itinerary had us stopping at a different island every day, but Carnival changed the itinerary after we booked (without informing us), deleting the stop in Dominica (which was the island we were most looking forward to visiting) and adding a sea day (which we were trying to avoid).

I have given this cruise an overall mediocre rating, and do not intend to take a similar cruise again. However, this is truly a cruise that is optimized to give best value to the masses, and my values may not be shared by the majority of readers. The young kids (2 & 4 years) in our group enjoyed the cruise, and their parents found it to be a hassle-free way to travel, but all the adults in our group had more sophisticated interests and tastes and found the experience to be banal. The problem may have been that I didn't fit into the targeted demographic for this cruise.

Let me start with the good. We were quite satisfied with the cabins (we all had balconies on upper decks). We were concerned that a regular-sized cabin would be too small for my brother's family with two kids, but their bunk system worked quite well. The room was clean, had lots of storage space, effective air conditioning, and the bathroom shower had good water pressure and hot water. I didn't use the balcony at all because I'm the restless sort that likes to walk around the ship, but others in our group liked to sit out on the balcony and read. Another thing that worked well was the ease at which we could enter and leave the ship at port. I had heard horror stories about long lines that can develop when thousands of passengers want to go ashore, but we never had to wait. The final good thing I'll say is that the entire operation was run very efficiently and professionally. The service staff assigned to your cabin area and your dinner table was very friendly and went out of their way to make the trip an enjoyable one. Read more