We took the January 2, 2014 cruise from Port Canaveral to Nassau, The Bahamas as a Christmas gift for our whole family and significant others, a party of 7 in all which meant booking 3 staterooms. The older kids had 2 staterooms near the Atrium on Deck 7. My husband, myself and our 14 year old daughter had the aft cabin E259 on the same floor (Empress level). This was our 4th cruise as a family, 1st for our daughter's boyfriend. First I'd like to say that we've cruised out of Miami (twice) & Tampa. This was our first Port Canaveral experience, and by far the best port we've used in Florida! Embarkation was a breeze, even for daughter's bf who only had a birth certificate. We drove over from Tampa, parked ourselves (parking prepaid), and literally walked right through the process, no lines or waiting! We took our Welcome picture, and proceeded to the Lido deck for some lunch. This normally stressful, because it's so crowded we can never find a place to sit with our food. This time, however, we easily found a seat for our group, got a decent lunch and chatted a bit while waiting for rooms. We decided to check about 1:00, and they were all ready. The aft-balcony room was smaller than we've been used to. We always get a balcony but this was our first aft. The bunkbed for our daughter was over the king bed. A bit awkward, but not a bad arrangement. Walking around space was very limited. The balcony was GREAT! The other kids loved their ocean vies rooms as well.

The dining room was well located, and the servers were friendly and attentive. The food was about what we've come to expect on a Carnival cruise. Tasty, but not 5 star. I'm not complaining....at least I didn't have to cook! We checked out the family friendly comedy show and checked out some of the lounges, and trivia games. All were adequate, and fun. The older kids checked out the casino and bars.

2nd day was port day in Nassau. It was overcast and gloomy, but warm. We opted to do a self-guided walking tour, and enjoyed ourselves. We found a restaurant to eat at that was reasonably priced. The Bahamian Kitchen. It's not touristy and definitely part of the touristy area near the port. We walked to the Queen's Steps, Fort Fincastle, saw many of the government buildings, saw a park where dead palm trees had been carved into sculptures, went to Graycliff Inn, and John Watling's Distillery. We even managed to fit in time at the Straw Market for some keepsakes. All in all, we spent about 5 hours in town and enjoyed it. The downside to that is that it was also Elegant night on the ship, meaning the fancy dinner, usually steak and lobster, and formal pictures. We had an early seating and didn't have time to make it back for dinner, and forget getting ready for formal pictures after walking around all day. We felt a bit gypped on having to make a decision to cut short our port visit or miss our "good" meal on board ship. Read more