There were 13 of us that arrived to FLL a day early and immediately rode a shuttle to Miami. We booked that with ftlauderdaleshuttle.com and they were prompt and efficient. Only $20 per person round trip! We stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay the night prior and had a great view of the swimming pool, everyone else in the group had a great view of the Port of Miami (POM).
The next morning we caught a couple of cabs to the POM. We arrived there about 11:15AM and were aboard the ship by 11:45AM. The kiosks were very user friendly as long as you have all the stuff they tell you you need. We immediately proceeded to the lido deck for lunch.
The ship was very clean and the staff were very professional. I have to give compliments to Jose and Ratna our cabin stewards. They kept the room very clean and even played with our 3 year old son. We ate in the main dining room almost every night. We were in the Washington dining room 4th deck way in the back. It was a nice table but between the motion of the ship and the view of the ocean it made a couple of people sea sick. Our wait staff were amazing. Dao and Antonio interacted with my son everynight. They found out he liked marachino cherries and everynight in his soda there were 5 or 6 of them. The food was good and plentiful. There were some items that left a little to be desired but not every restaurant nails every dish either.
Carnival is very strict on their towel policy. If you check a towel out from the towel hut on the lido deck make sure you return it that day. Even if you go to the guest services desk with the towel they will not refund your money. :( I found that deck 3 has the quietest outdoor area on the ship.
Debarkation was a mess. People would skip 20 zones and slow the whole process down. My only real downside to this cruise was the fact that our room was on the first floor and it seemed to take an extemely long amount of time to get onto an elevator and then once we were on one it seemed to stop on every floor.
