This was our first Carnival cruise in 4 years and it was a pleasant surprise. The last one was out of New Orleans and debarkation and embarkation were a nightmare as well as the cruise itself. This one was great. We decided to give Carnival another chance simply because we wanted to go to the Bahamas for snorkeling, and Port Canaveral was convenient to our home. We found very inexpensive parking at curiseparkingofportcanaveral.com They give personal pick up and drop off. In fact, we were delayed almost an hour getting off of the ship because our liquor purchase was delivered to the wrong cabin and they had to track it down. The shuttle waited for us because we were the only ones scheduled which was very nice.

This is the first time we chose the least expensive cabin which was on deck 4. It was very comfortable and quiet. In fact, we talked to people who were on Deck 8 that paid much more whose cabin was under the stage and they could hear the whole show in their cabin. I recommend you check that out when choosing a cabin. We were mid ship and convenient to both the dining room and the buffet. This was our first time with "your time dining" and we loved it. We never had to stand in line. We had to request sitting with other couples because we enjoy visiting with new acquaintances and always got very interesting tablemates. The food was pretty good in the Wind Star dining room. One evening our dessert was very slow coming and our table mates left without it, and it did seem the service was a little slow because there was no way to grade the servers so there is no accountability. We did not eat in the buffet other than breakfast because we were off the ship every day. We did eat there twice for lunch and it was excellent. There was a big variety of unfried, non starch vegetables which isn't always the case. I thought the desserts were excellent in the dining room and the buffet too.