My family and I arrived a day early in Miami and stayed at the Embassy Suites Airport Hotel, which was a nice hotel; it was our second cruise on Carnival. I was almost dreading the check-in procedure for the Carnival Valor, but it went very quickly - the new self-service computers for check-in are terrific; we were on-board within 15 minutes of arriving at the port. And the Carnival facility seems new and is well organized.

We all had inside cabins, lowest level, aft. Remarkably, the noise from the engines was not a problem when arriving in ports (I thought I'd be awakened early at every port, but not so). Some things I liked about the ship were the efficient cabins (plenty of storage room; nice and clean) and the shows (we saw a stand-up comedy act, and an 80's Tribute; the lead female singer belted out almost every song like a Taylor Dane wannabe!).

We had room service a few mornings, as we preferred starting our day relaxing with coffee, and the continental breakfast was good. The breakfast buffet was OK but could have more higher quality offerings. Dinner service was, at times, a bit spotty, as our waiter seemed to be without his assistant 90% of the time - more staff shortages??). Nothing to ruin the cruise, though, and overall we liked the food. Read more