We left St. Louis on Fri. Sept. 6th, and arrived in Venice on Sat.,at 9 a.m. and proceeded to our mainland hotel, the Marco Polo in Mestre, where our room was already waiting for us. We had arranged for the hotel shuttle to pick us up at the airport for 20 Euros. Very reasonable when the price of a taxi would have exceeded that amount, and dragging our luggage on and off the airport bus didn't appeal to us. The Marco Polo is a very nice, clean hotel which offers a continental breakfast (quite adequate) for a mere $115. Euros total (about $159. US dollars)for our triple room. It was nothing fancy, and in fact, sort of looked like a dorm room with 3 beds lined up. Prior to our trip, we had also reserved their shuttle to take us to the pier on Sunday morning. Another wise decision as it turns out, because we were driven directly to the embarkation entrance to the ship, whereas had we taken the bus, we would have had to drag our own luggage from the Pizzali Roma (last place for vehicles when entering Venice proper)and then onto the People Mover which takes you to the pier, but then you have a long walk down to where your ship is moored.

Embarkation was professional, smooth and we were on the ship in less than 15 min. Less I forget later on in this review, debarkation in Barcelona was the same. We opted for the Carnival shuttle to the airport upon leaving the ship, and our luggage was waiting curbside when we got off the bus.

Now for the ship itself: Carnival did a beautiful job of "reconstructing" many parts of the vessel, and "refurbishing" others. The only complaint I heard was from those who had cabins underneath or over the newly redesigned "Liquid Lounge" which took the place of the main theater. The concept was good, but in my estimation, not thoroughly thought out. Whereas with the old theater, when shows were over, the space was mainly unused, and now after the shows, the new Liquid Lounge becomes a disco which goes well into the early hours, and the boom, boom, boom is heard by all in the aforementioned cabins.  They still have some minor plumbing problems which seem to stem from the addition of the 3 story Serenity spa and waterfall. At any given time there was a bucket in the middle of this hall or that catching drippings from the fire extinguisher apppendage. But these were the only visible signs of age in an otherwise beautifully redesigned ship. Read more