Background  Our cruise was primarily to celebrate my mothers 70th birthday. We had a total of 12 in our group. My wife & I and our two teenage boys shared our cabin. My sis and her family were in an adjacent cabin. My mom and the others were in an interior room and how I wish now that we had gotten them a room with a balcony. This was my familys first cruise and Ill never go without a balcony if we cruise again. This was my sisters fourth cruise and first on Carnival. They had always gone with Royal Caribbean and we opted for Carnival to save a few bucks. How successful this strategy turned out is unknown.

Impressions of the ship  Well it is certainly large and I cant imagine getting on a bigger boat. The atrium was impressive and it was relatively easy to maneuver around. On sea days, we always just hung around the pool area in the front. Because I was usually up early, we were able to get 6 or 7 loungers together. Although I generally abhor folks who save chairs we didnt have any problems to speak of. I did witness what could have turned into one heck of a catfight between two middle-aged females over some chairs. In hindsight, I would have liked to seen them go at it.

Activities  My sis sent her two kids (6 & 4) to Camp Carnival every day and they seemed to love it. My ten year old daughter went a couple of days and enjoyed it as well. My boys got a little tired of the arcade and internet after awhile, but my 16 year old never got back to the room before 1:00 am so I guess the teen area passed muster. My 14 year old never got into that and spent most evenings in our room. They played some basketball but mostly hung at the pool with us and ate constantly. Read more