My wife and I are in our mid 30's. Arrived in Tampa the day prior to embarkation and went to Ybor City on the bay that night and ate at a local Italian place that made their own noodles that melted in your mouth without even chewing. Very good. We then looked at the unique shopping in that area and had some drinks at the local bars. Sunday 9/2 - Arrived at port at 11:45, dropped off bags to porters at drop off point and was on the ship within ½ hour and eating at the buffet. Due to the fast developing Felix we learned of our change of ports to Key West, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman rather than our Western Caribbean ports. We did a quick tour of the ships different decks. I went to the Maitre d' 10 minutes before he was supposed to be there but he was already taking requests. I had no problem changing from early to late dining and he put us with a couple our own age. Our room was ready and clean at 1:30 when we stopped in. Most of our bags were at the room by 2PM but one bag didn't arrive until 7 PM. Looked out our balcony and noticed that the aquarium next to the port had a kids water park type area for kids about 7 years or younger that some parents might consider doing before getting on the ship if they have younger kids. I highly recommend to everyone to go to the funnel deck when the ship goes under the skyway bridge after about 2 hours after you leave port. The ship only clears the bridge by 9 meters but looks a lot closer. Coming closer and closer you will have your doubts it will clear it due to depth perception. Dinner was a delight with great server. Carnival appears to seat those of the same age groups together. Food was good and every night we pretty much ate from 8:15 to 10 PM which is not problem since they have a late show as well. Afterwards we changed and went to the piano bar where the piano player wasn't the greatest singer but he had a great rapport with the crowd and was quite funny. From there we went to the show or Medusa's disco. The disco is for teen dance until 11PM when it changes for only for those who are 18 or older. (yes, they do card after 11 PM) DJ seemed to play types of music in blocks. Such as 4 songs of rap in a row, then 5 songs of Salsa, then 3 songs of 80's etc. So if you didn't like what you heard, leave and come back in ½ hour and music will probably be different. Disco got busier the later in the night. It's always pretty dead from 11 to 11:30 but picks up around midnight and once I checked it out at 3 AM once after the casino closed and it was packed full.

Monday- Key West Walked up and down Duval Street and picked up gifts for my kids. Passed by the pub crawl people a number of times and they looked like they were having a lot fun. Back on the ship, took a nap, went to dinner, piano bar, disco and then saw the adult comic. He was hilarious.

Tuesday- Day at Sea I always woke up early due to either my internal clock of when I normally would go to work or due to balcony chairs scraping or neighbor's toilettes flushing (LOUD SWOOSH). I went and chilled out on a chair by the aft adult pool. People started arriving or putting towels down round 10:30 - 11. I went and played in a $50 Texas Hold'em poker tourney in the casino. They filled 2 tables with 10 players each but you only compete against your own table. Winner gets over $300. No dealer involved, its all done electronically which I didn't care for. I didn't win at poker and went back to the pool. The pool was packed full by 1 PM and nobody said anything about drinks in the pool although kids were asked to leave (saw this twice). The more time went by the more alcohol was consumed and the aft adult pool was a rocking and a fun place to be for those partaking. It was a little crazy and not out of hand but the security came by and threatened to close the pool down by putting the rope nets into the pool. This riled up the crowd and it got even louder and nobody would leave. Multiple warning from security just made worse but we kept spending lots of money at the bar so they let it stay open. Finally the pool party dissipated and most people took a nap or passed out in their rooms. Once I got back into my room all the power on the boat went out and the ship glided to a stop. I had read in articles before where this has happened in other past cruises and it wasn't repaired for a day so I was a bit worried, but it came back on after about an hour. I'm sure it wasn't nice for those people that had early formal night dinning or an internal room during the blackout. Power came back on and everything was back to normal. Formal dinning was that night and everyone I saw was dressed up. I ordered both the Lobster and Fillet minion so I could give my extra lobster to my wife. Afterwards we took photos at about 5 different stations they offered. Very nice and professional photographers. The next day we picked the photos we liked best and didn't have to play for the ones we didn't want. Only advise is to not buy the extra smaller photos until later in the cruise when they give a discounted price. Also try to go during the early dinning period to avoid the lines rather than after dinner. They were the best photos we had of ourselves in years. Read more