We have cruised with Carnival several times in the past and looked forward to our cruise on the Victory. We flew into Miami one day before our cruise and stayed at the Kent Hotel on Collins Ave in South Beach. The hotel lacked customer service and was just okay. The pictures on the internet made the hotel look much nicer than it really was. We would probably not stay there again.

On embarkation day we arrived at the port at 11:30 am in the pouring rain. After making our way to the terminal, we found the line inside to be very short. Within an hour we were on the ship in our cabin. We have embarked in Miami before and endured an endless line, but this was very smooth and quick. We had booked at 6a cabin, which was the Riviera Deck, midship. We wanted to prevent sea sickness while in our cabin.

We had 2 rough days at sea. We felt the movement while we were out and about on the ship, but not in our cabin. Our cabin was roomy with a sofa, table, and large window. We plan to book this deck and type of cabin from now on. Our cabin steward was nice, but he always seem to miss something each day. It was either wash cloths, towels, beach towels, soap, etc, that we had to remind him for. He did, however, bring us a large bucket of ice in addition to the one already in our cabin. We noticed our cabin could have been cleaned better on embarkation day, but that got better as the week went on. Read more