As a 29 year old cruiser I find that sometimes i want to party all night and other times sit in the sun and just relax and mellow out with a drink in my hand. Pre-Cruise hotel : I stayed at Sofitel Miami the night before while a nice hotel with great rooms mainly high end suite type desk big comfy bed. This is a very business oriented hotel it seems and it's right next to the airport not that noise was ever a issue never heard a thing not one sound all night. But this hotel is rather far from areas like south beach and even down town Miami. So unless you have a car it can get pricey to travel around. They do run a shuttle service for $10 per person to your ship from the hotel leaves at 10 - 11 - 12 - 1 sat and sunday. A taxi fare is about $34 from the hotel to port miami. I took the shuttle

Ship : Carnival Triumph Embarkation: I have to give carnival this they have it down to a science when it comes to putting everyone on board their ships. Arrived at the pier 11:30 am and was on lido by 12:15 sipping a fun ship special and eating lunch. State rooms weren't open till 1:30 so did have to carry around some stuff for a hour or so but no big deal. Activities: This cruise was mainly a bunch of spring breakers from canada and from the mid-west who only wanted to drink till they passed out and most did. But carnival did have the normal activities going on all day and night shows, entertainers, piano bar (Mark is a great singer and knows how to party!! ARRR!!!), casino games, deck parties.

Service: I have to say this is the first cruise I've ever taken where i had my luggage before the ship set sail. I took this as a sign of some great things to come. Mainly i was right. Shore Excursions: San Juan- We arrived at 5pm sharp to the pier off the ship by 5:30 went with a few new friends and took a private bus tour of the island got to see some great sights as the sun set and got some great pictures. The driver then dropped us off a few blocks from the ship in a shopping area / bar area. Went around looking for anything worth buying didn't find it. Went to a restaurant that claimed to be the original creators of the pina colada. I have to say this best one I've ever had in my life not to much ice not to much liquor you can't feel your face after a few sips. Made it back to the ship by 11:15pm. Sadly a few in our group forgot something at the restaurant and thought they could run there and back to make the ship. Sadly they were wrong and we got to watch them run the pier trying to make it back only to miss the ship in seeing we were 50 feet off the pier already. Thankfully carnival put them on the pilot boat and let them jump on board while we were leaving port. St. Thomas- I took the shopping and beach excursion tour through the ship and i would do it again. The tour was very reasonably priced and if you had to pay for a taxi your self to the places they took you the cost would be much more. The took us down town in the morning and we got to shop for about 3 hours give or take a few minutes. Then back to the ship for 30 minutes to get our stuff for the beach and to have lunch if we wanted to. back on the bus and off to morning star beach (Marriott's beach) very nice plenty to do or plenty to not do if you wanted. I brought my own snorkel equipment and enjoyed every minute of it the coral and rocks and boulders buried in the sand were awesome along with the fish and a barracuda we saw. Then they took us back to the ship about 3 hours later. St. Maarten - Once again the America's Cup race rocked. We had a bit of rain in the morning but nothing to major but it sure did make for some great sailing. So great that the boat spend alot of time heeling over on it's side and running fast. We of course blew the other boat out of the water and taunted them about it for the rest of the week. They took us back to their marina after sailing about 2 blocks from down town. Had some rum punch and walked downtown for some quick shopping. Wandered around saw a guy getting arrested and figured it was a good time to turn around. Don't miss the Chocolate Shop on old street, best chocolates around and they package them so you can bring some home. Read more