We are a couple in our early 40's, world travellers and this was our 13th cruise having previously travelled with Carnival, Celebrity, NCL and Royal Caribbean. This was a trip for our 20th wedding anniversary and due to a family illness our original plans were cancelled and we booked this cruise about 6 weeks before departure (very late for us!).

We left home in central FL on the Wednesday before the cruise and enjoyed 3 nights in Key Largo at the Hilton Key Largo. Our second stay there, had some issues but overall it's a good hotel (see a separate review. Had a relaxing few days prior to the cruise and visited Key West.

We did get the e mail from Carnival asking us to arrive at the port after 1.30 but we chose to head up early and arrived at about 11.00am. We were originally going to save a few bucks and park off site but having read reviews and then driving in and seeing the off site parking places I'm glad we didn't. Venture a few blocks from the port area and you are in a not nice area and we chose to park at the port ($20 per day) and am relieved we did. Having said that Miami is a nightmare port (we live and hour from Port Canaveral and it's just so easy to cruise from there) there is so much construction and signage is non existent. On our way out of the port we somehow got lost and had to ask a cop for directions!! Read more