Our decision to book on Carnival Victory was a last-minute one, as friends were going, and urged us to come along. We had cruised to the Eastern Caribbean on Celebrity Solstice from Fort Lauderdale in January, 2011, so we were eager to see more of the Caribbean islands.

Some reviews of this cruise have been on the negative side, so my husband and I had drastically lowered our expectations, only to be pleasantly surprised! The decor, while over the top in places, is interesting and appealing. The Sleep System in the staterooms is very, very comfortable. The stateroom as a whole was well-organized.

But what was most remarkable on the cruise was how friendly other passengers were. First off, a large contingent of passengers were Puerto Ricans who spoke Spanish. A Spanish-speaking Assistant Cruise Director hosted activities for them. A number of other cruisers hailed from South American nations such as Colombia and Uruguay. The cruise is also sold as a Barbados round-trip, so about 50 or so folks from Barbados come aboard on Day 4. And of course, there was a diversity of passengers from the U.S. with a number of African-Americans from the South and East. Read more