We arrived at the Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel the night before. Expensive but well worth it in regards to proximity of the Pier. Checked out at 1030 and walked a half a block up the street to the pier to board the ship. The Ship: We booked an aft facing balcony, cabin 8434. I had read that the 8th floor balconies are located under the aft pool and bar area and in the very early morning hours you could hear the cleaning crew sliding the chairs and tables on the deck and waking you up. We did hear the chairs moving about during the day and evening as people were out and about but never heard any movement during the night or early mornings. Did miss not having a mini fridge in the cabin to store my buckets of beer. I did notice on this ship that they never made an announcement when the ship was cleared to disembark on the islands. We left when we noticed people walking down the pier. The ship was nice and clean but I did feel it was over crowded especially around the buffets. The comedy shows that were held in the Adriatic lounge were overflowing and did not have enough seats for everybody. Be sure to get to the comedy shows 30 minutes early to get a seat. They had the comedians repeat their shows every night to try to accommodate everyone. The two comedians were Happy Cole and Hank McGauley for the first half of the cruise. They were fabulous. The other two for the last half were Al Romero and Purcey Cruise 2.Do not miss Purcey Cruise 2's shows. This guy will have your sides hurting from laughing. The absolute best comedian I've heard on a cruise ship. Word of advice to the parents, when they say adults only they mean adults only! Also not for the easily offended no matter what race, religion or sex you are. Saw a couple of people walk out during his show shaking their heads. Not sure what they'd expected. If you want just a simple choice of breakfast and lunch go to the aft pool area where the Mississippi Grille buffet is located. There were hardly any lines .Embarkation Day: Arrived at Pier at 1045 and was seated in the waiting area after checking in at 1105. Waited in the waiting area for about an hour before we were called to board the ship. In San Juan you go through the security screening just prior to boarding the ship. This took another 10 minutes then we were on the ship and at the buffet by 1230. Buffet lines were non existent since we were the first group to board but as the day went on the lines were very long.On the first night there was no assigned dinner seating or times. We just showed up at the restaurant and was seated at a table.Sail away was at 2200 hrs. and the party was lively.Day 2: St. Thomas: Having been to St.Thomas before and doing the island tours we decided to just take a taxi to Megan's Bay for a day at the beach. We walked off the ship with no delays around 9 even though we heard no announcement that the ship was cleared to disembark. We walked past the taxis that were next to the dock that were offering the tours and went through the shopping area to the taxi stand. We caught a taxi to Megan's bay for $ 8 pp and a $ 4 pp entry fee into Megan's Bay. The taxi also made a 5 minute stop at the high point of the island overlooking the harbor so you can take pictures of the ship. We arrived at Megan's bay at about 10 and the beach was pretty empty. There was one other ship in port with us. Even though there were plenty of free picnic tables along the beach and tables by the bar, we decided to rent 2 chairs for a total of $ 22 with a $ 10 refund returned when you return the chairs. They also rent a variety of other beach related gear. The beach was clean and the restrooms and shower houses were also very clean. There is a bar there with very reasonable prices and they also have a waitress walking the beach taking your drink order. I would recommend this beach for both adults and family. Day 3: At Sea: Sat around by the pool, only saw 1 chair hog who was hogging the chair next to her and never used it but to keep her bag on it. The kids pool was closed due to maintenance but the " Pool police were out and did a good job of supervising the rules. Tonight was the first formal night. Day 4: Barbados: Went to the taxi stand and met a taxi driver by the name of Garcia. We were just interested in just going to Harrison's Cave but he talked us into a 3 hour tour with 8 other people for $ 25, plus stopping at Harrison's Cave. The tour was well worth the 25, as we drove from one side of the island to the other stopping at Harrison's Cave, an old 17th century church with great views of the island and a local street corner where we got out and fed the native monkeys. If you plan on doing this, somebody bring a banana. It was then off to Harrison's Cave and for $ 31 we did the cave tour. It was well worth it considering you ride a tram throughout the 40 minute cave tour which is good for people who have trouble walking. They stop twice along the route for photos. Garcia waited for 7 of us to complete the cave tour then we continued the tour stopping at Cockspur beach where he dropped off 5 of our group. From what I could see Cockspur beach looked nice and had facilities there to change and shower and the beach was bright white sand. My wife and I and 3 others decided to skip the beach and we went back to the ship and Garcia told the others he would be back at 3:45 to pick them up. Overall our complete tour lasted 4 - 5 hours with a total cost of $56.00 pp which included the caves. If you just want to do Cockspur Beach then I suggest taking a taxi just to the beach since its only about 10 minutes from the dock. Day 5: St Lucia: We went with Spencer Ambrose Tours, selecting the "Jalouise Beach Break Tour". The tour was $ 70 pp but what a great day. Spencer was waiting for us at the dock and we promptly left on time as well as the other 3 large tours he had for that day. We were taken for a 45 minute hi speed boat ride around the coast of the island to Jalouise beach stopping along the way to point out some local landmarks. I had read some of the bad reviews people had written on this board but I must say that in my experience with him it was well worth the money. He was with us from the time we left the dock until the time we arrived back on the dock. Ok, I have to admit it was pretty easy for him to do since he was driving our boat but he was there at the beach supervising his other tours that stopped by. Our boat did run out of drinks when we left the beach for the ship but he pulled up next to his other boat and promptly loaded up more drinks. Since we booked only the beach tour we were the first two tour groups to arrive so we had our pick of chairs and umbrellas in the free area of the beach. I would suggest taking the short walk to the resort area of the beach for swimming since in front of the free side there was alot of boat traffic pulling in dropping off groups. The snorkel area was in front of the free side but we do not snorkel but from what I heard from other people the snorkeling was very good. Day 6: St Kitts: We were beached out from yesterday and the weather did not look good so we did a $ 20 pp island tour. Was a nice drive around the island, a little boring at times but I think it was because our driver was not that interesting and just pointed and kept driving. We did get to see both sides of the island stopping at the "volcanic rock" side for drinks and photos. Day 7: Took a taxi over to Maho Beach for some plane watching. As usual a great day for plane watching, most of the planes start coming in after 12. Taxi rate varied depending on how many were in the taxi. $ 10 pp for 2 was the maximum. We paid 8 pp since there were 8 of us going over. Disembarkation Day: We told our cabin steward to give us the last zone since we were on a 7:04 evening flight and was in no hurry to leave, but got zone 12 out of 32. Carnival has the self walk off plan and it is for U.S. citizens only which started at 7:06. We went to the MDR for breakfast and we heard no announcements on which zones were being called. When we left the MDR around 9 A.M. they were already on zone 4, so if you have an early zone don't eat in the MDR because you will miss your zone. They were through half the zones by 10:30 and the rest were called by 11:15. We left the ship around 11:20 and everything went smoothly leaving the ship. It was easy to find our luggage since it was the last two bags in zone 12. Once out of the terminal we were looking for a place to store our luggage before our flight. We decided to take a $ 25 pp tour of San Juan on a mini bus which included traveling with our luggage and being dropped off at the airport. The airport fare alone from the pier would cost us $ 23 so we decided this was just as good as storing our luggage somewhere and coming back for it later. The tour was about 3 ½ hours long. I would have been disappointed in this tour if I had done this as a shore excursion but it did its job as a time killer and luggage storage. For what we did on the bus, you can take the free trolley around Old San Juan.San Juan airport went smoothly but remember to take your bags to the agriculture check point first before going to your airline or your airline they will send you back. The agriculture scanning is immediately on the right or left depending on where you enter the terminal.On a special note:My wife has a latex allergy that prevents her from eating food that may be touched with latex gloves. Carnival is the only cruise line that we know of that still uses the latex gloves in their kitchen. We notified the Maitre De as soon as we arrived on the ship and they arranged that every night at dinner my wife would pre order her meal for the next evening so that it could be prepared without gloves.I would rate this as one of my top 3 cruises I've taken and would highly recommend this cruise to anyone.