First off - I had a great time. We left on July 17th for the seven-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We went with 6 other people - all family - 6 adults, 5 children all under 10 years old. My cabin was portside, aft on the Verandah level, Deck 8. It was quiet and the housekeeping staff - Bernard and Gaday - were excellent. If you travel on this cruise - these two guys are outstanding - and knew all our names after only one meeting - including my kids. This was our second cruise on Carnival (the first on the Ecstasy - 4-day cruise to Ensenada). But it was our first with all the kids. I'll just go by the list of things that stuck out:

Cabin: very good. Quiet; we had a balcony. Cabin was clean, no smoking odor or anything. A bit of vibration when the engines were at full but other than that - we were on a quiet part of the ship - with the exception of our kids. We had a note placed in our box that we were being too loud but I believe the people that wrote it had a horrible embarkation, hated the room, and were jawing with the Carnival staff before we even got to our cabin.

Food: very good. If you like to eat - this ship has it all. I must give a shout out to both Connie and Valencio in the Gold Pearl Dining Room. They were awesome. They treated us very well and brought out multiple main courses so we could sample them. They were great to our kids and my sister's kids and really went out of their way to make the dinners special. Not really wanting to go to the sit down dinners more than once or twice - I'm glad I only missed one sitting. Special props to the BBQ Cornish Game Hen - it is really good. Read more