For my wife and I, this was our 7th. cruise, our first with Carnival. We had previously cruise with Princess, RCL and Holland America. This was a special cruise, as we had given my two sons and daughter in law this cruise as a Christmas present. This was our first cruise with family, so we were very excited to see if they enjoyed cruising as much as we did.

Embarkation: Living locally we drove to the pier Sunday arriving about 2:00 PM. We had no trouble finding a porter to take our bags and were able to proceed to the terminal without any problems. We were going to include all of the passengers on one credit card for sign and sail cards, so we had to all go into the customer relations office inside the terminal so as to get everyone on on credit card authorization. This was done in a matter of minutes, very easily and since we were all were processed, we went up the escalator, a picture and onto the ship. We were aboard and in our cabin at 2:30 PM. This was by far the easiest embarkation we have e had in all our cruises. Very easy and painless.

Cabin: Our kids had inside cabins. We bought Cat. 1A guar. and they both were upgraded to 4D. 185 sq. ft. they are not very big, but they had enough storage space and the bathrooms while small were ok for them. My wife and I had purchased a Cat. 9A and were upgraded to a Cat. 11 suite on the verandah deck aft. Very near, actually on cabin from the rear of the ship. Not a problem until the last day when there was quite a bit of motion, as can happen on this route on the return as they maintain 22 knots most of the time against the wind and current. The cabin though smaller in actual sq. footage than any of the last 4 cruises we have taken was laid out nicely and was quite comfortable. There is plenty of storage, in fact more than the suite we had on the Sea Princess or Cat. B on Vision of The Seas. The decor is right out of Vegas, and not quite as elegant as other lines but it is pleasant enough. The verandah was very nice, plenty of room, but again, Carnival and their plastic furniture leaves something to be desired.