As cruise reviews are highly subjective, I feel it important to provide some of our background and the reasons we enjoy cruising. We are a family of three (DH and I are early 40s and our son is 12) that prefers the more traditional aspects of cruising -- dressing for dinner, walking on an outdoor promenade, enjoying good food and a bit of pampering, and -- most importantly -- spending time together as a family. Our cruise history spans 16 years and includes NCL, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, Holland America and a few lines that are no longer in business. This was our second cruise on Carnival Cruise Line, and our fifth to Atlantic Canada

Overall, our five-night cruise on Carnival Victory to Halifax and Saint John was very enjoyable. This was by no means an elegant cruise -- and we knew that going in -- yet we highly recommend it to anyone who wishes a quick getaway to two wonderful ports while enjoying good food, service, and entertainment.

ARRIVAL AND EMBARKATION. We opted to fly from Boston to New York to avoid the four-hour drive. As the flight time is only one hour and there are numerous flights every Sunday, we went against tradition and flew down the morning of the cruise. Upon arriving at LaGuardia Airport's Marine Air Terminal at 10:45 am, we gathered our luggage and quickly hopped into one of the many waiting taxi cabs. Forty-five minutes and $37 later (including tip), we arrived at Pier 92, where Carnival Victory had just finished disembarking passengers from the previous cruise. We were directed to a row of chairs in which to wait until embarkation was to begin. At 11:40, a mere 10 minutes after arriving at the terminal, we were called to check in. This took just a few moments as we had completed our paperwork online, and had our credit card authorization form ready to go. The only glitch was that our Sail and Sign Card indicated that we were assigned to an 8:30 pm dining time, which is terribly late for us. We knew we could fix this on board, so we followed the signs to the gangway and -- after posing for a Welcome Aboard photograph and another photo for security purposes -- boarded Carnival Victory for the first time. Read more