My husband and I sailed on Carnival Victory for our 23rd anniversary. We live in upstate New York and took Amtrak to NYC followed by a cab to the pier. The process was easy and very inexpensive saving us the hassle of trying to find our way to the pier in our own vehicle and the total cost was only slightly more than the cost of parking. The embarkation process was very easy and our cabin was ready shortly after boarding. We had a veranda cabin that provided plenty of room for the two of us. Meals were good, not excellent. Our servers were very efficient and met all of our needs. However, they were impersonal compared to other servers on previous cruises. We never knew what country they came from, whether they were married etc. I find talking to the staff to be a learning experience and was disappointed by this. My husband is a picky eater and would have liked the option of a standard menu offering basic items each evening as he has had on other ships. Our cabin attendant was also efficient and the cabin was neat and cleaned well. Again we never saw him except for 2 or 3 minutes after arrival. The bedding was luxurious, and the samples in the bathroom were a pleasant surprise. The ship layout is very hard to navigate. It took 4 days until we could find our way around with ease. Others still were using a map on the lst day. The shops were standard for all cruiselines. The amount of lounges were a pleasant surprise. The availability of deck chairs in good working order was a disappointment. Our dinner companions were fun and well matched to us. I believe we have made lifetime friends from the trip. We had 1 day of solid fog with the fog horn being blown every 2 minutes for 24 hours. After a short time it blends into the background. We did not participate in any booked excursions. We walked around Halifax and shopped. My husband had wanted to golf but at over $200 for that excursion he opted not to. Would we sail Carnival again? Yes, for this ease of travel and cost we would without a doubt.