This was our third cruise overall and first-time with Carnival. We sailed on the Carnival Valor from Miami on September 18th, 2011 on a 7-Day Western Caribbean Cruise. We stopped at cruise ports in the Grand Caymans, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. The weather was perfect and the waters were so calm, you sometimes thought you weren't sailing at all.

Overall we had a great cruise and have limited criticism to report. Although I will say of the 3 cruiselines we have sailed, Carnival would be at the bottom.

We arrived in Miami on 17 September and stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel. We had made reservations months earlier and secured a military rate of $104 per night (my wife and I are retired Air Force members). We took a taxi from the Miami airport to the hotel and the cost was $25. The hotel was very nice and centrally located; we spent an evening at Bayside shopping and eating. On the morning of cruise departure; we took a hotel from the hotel to the port and were there in minutes; the taxi ride was about $7. The embarkation process was flawless and we were on board within 30 minutes of check-in; although we couldn't access our room until 1:30. That wasn't a problem as we used the time to eat lunch on Lido and tour the ship. Read more