We travelled with a group of "50ish" couples with varying degrees of cruise experience. For my hubby and I, this was our third cruise. We took a Carnival cruise more than ten years ago, that turned us off Carnival and cruises in general. We were very happy to see that Carnival has made many improvements, and look forward to more cruises in the future.

We flew in the day before and stayed at the Embassy Suites, which we were pleased with. It was too cool to sit outside as we had hoped, but there was a mall right across the street so we spent some time there. One note, though, the concierge told us that the shuttle to the airport would be the least expensive, and booked us to take it at 12:30 for $12pp. We weren't happy about the time or the price, and we made that clear, but that's all they would offer. So we got the phone book out and arranged our own transport with Yellow Cab for what amounted to $5pp including tip. We saved $14 per couple. And of course we had them pick us up at 11:00!

Embarkation went smoothly despite the fact that many people were arriving at that time. Read more