My husband and I flew from Sacramento, CA to Houston, TX, we flew in the day prior to the cruise as it is to stressful to fly from California to Houston and worry about flight delays and potentially missing the ship. We stayed at the Marriott All Suites in Houston near the Hobby Airport, they picked us up quickly and were very accomodating about taking us to a restaurant for dinner and then picking us up again. We took advantage of the Carnival shuttle from the airport to Galveston, so we again used the convienant shuttle from the hotel to the airport. The shuttle transfer to the ship was more organized than two years prior, they gave you numbers in which to board the bus, our entire group filled one bus and we were on our way shortly after 10:00am. The trip took approximately 50 minutes to reach the terminal, Porters were waiting to unload our luggage this is one of my favorite parts it feels like your vacation has begun. We booked an Ocean Suite and this provided us priority boarding, we were quickly through check in and security receivied our sail and sign cards and waited no more than 15 minutes and we were boarding. We checked out our cabin and it was ready so we deposited our carry on luggage and set off to explore the ship and have some lunch. With being the first group on the ship we experienced no lines and had the Mongolian Wok, the lines for this can be long and since it is prepared in front of you it does take five to six minutes per dish to prepare. Life boat drill was held in the Northern Lights Dining room and was quick and effiecient. We unpacked and sat on the balcony for departure.We had early dining in the Southern Lights dining room, we were seated at a table for eight in the lower section of the dining room, very nice to see all of the action but almost to noisy to have any type of conversation with your table mates. We had very attentive servers and they worked hard to insure we were happy. After dinner we walked around the ship and took in the late night comedy show, it was fantastic but it was the only comedy show we saw from that point forward as the line were ridculous, at least 100 people in line 40 minutes before the show. Carnival needs to seriously rethink the seating and venue for the comedy shows it is something that is well attended and it should be held in the main theater.

Each morning we had coffee and tea and pastry delivered by room service, this allowed us to lounge on the balcony before getting dressed and heading to the Southern Lights for breakfast, we did not eat in Lido any day for breakfast as it is nice to sit down and be waited on. We tried many areas for lunch, and they all were adequate. We tried the Steakhouse one night and it was a disappointment from our experience the prior year on the Libery. The food was tasteless and the service was not that fantastic, this was something we were looking forward to as our prior experience was awesome. This just didn't hit the mark tough cut of meat, slow service and waited for refills on drinks. (water). We did try the Cucina (Italian restaurant ), it is fantastic, the food was perfect and the service was top notch. This is free for lunch and a small charge for dinner ($12) per person.

After two lazy at sea we were excited to dock at Cozumel, we selected the Jeep Tour at Punta Sur, this was a very organized and fun excursion, after a short safety briefing we departed in jeeps, that sat two or four, we had a jeep to ourselves. We experienced a rather fun and almost a little hair raising ride on the main roads until we reached the turn off. We saw a small ruin and beautiful light house and snorkeling on the beach with a lovely lunch. If you are looking for a snorkel adventure with alot of fish this is not it, it is also quite a swim out and quite a swim back in, we are in our 60's and it was a little bit strenuous but it was the most fun we have had on any excursion, they had someone taking pictures of you in the jeeps then at the small ruin and they offered them for sale for $10 each. We drove back to the cruise termianl and still had a few hours to shiop prior to getting back on the ship. We found the best t-shirt and trinkets for home were in Cozumel. Next stop was Grand Cayman, this is a tender port, it was very hot abd we just walked around and did some shopping, we stopped at Margaritaville to take a picture of the dollar bill we had written on and placed on the ceiling when we were there two years ago and ound out that it was gone as they used the money to remodel. That was kind of weird, I guess they could keep adding to it or the ceiling would be all money, but I would think a local chairity would be a better use of the money. Next stop Jamiaca, we chose the all inclusive resort, (Secrets) it was lovely, the food was plentiful and the grounds were clean and wll maintained. They had many organized games and music, we chose to be lazy and sit in the shade and watch the word go by. We tried to do some snorkeling there quicly relized that it was mating season for Jelly fish and they were everywhere, being the chicken I am I quicly exited the water. They had sailboats, and Kiyacks for free, anything motorized was a small charge. No one selling anything at this beach it was very selcluded. Read more