My wife and I have become addicted to cruising. This was our fifth cruise (we're only 25) and we had a great time but with some small concerns. We have sailed on three different cruise lines. Our first cruise was with Carnival, Royal Caribbean for our honeymoon, then Princess the last two times. This was our second with Carnival and there are definite differences between them. I must give a kudos to Carnival, my wife and I were upgraded from a 4A to a 11A (persistent calling was required) because of the price drops we kept seeing. The room, of course, was outstanding with a huge balcony, jacuzzi tub, fake granite/marble countertops, and a king size bed (bed was a little firm for my back).
We did see a few signs of wear i.e. the bedspread was worn through and a closet door was broken but nothing really bad. We chose this cruise for the itinerary, Belize City, Costa Rica, and Colon Panama. Several days at sea made us a little bored but we did get plenty of sleep and sunning in. If I had any real complaint about Carnival it would be the Lido Deck food court. The food was never vary good, average at best. The burgers and hotdogs were great and we found that we just stuck to that most days. The main dining hall was OK. Food was good overall, sometimes a little cold but the dining room service was horrible. We never had forks. Carnival has the retarded idea to replace your fork after each course. It would be great but they always forgot to replace it after they took it. My wife and I actually thought it was funny and we played a little game when one of us forgot to keep our fork from our last plate. Viva Le Fork!!
Our favorite port was Belize, rough around Belize City but the cayes are completely awesome. We took a Tropicair flight over to Ambergris Caye and had a blast. We went fishing/snorkeling and even though we had been in the Caribbean before, the water in Belize amazed us with so many different shades of blue. The swells were so bad in Costa Rica we had to change ports and it really killed out time there. We had planned a trip to Puerto Viejo to go Ziplining in the Jungle (Almonds and Corals Lodge) but those plans were spoiled when the port was delayed. Lastly we stopped in Colon,Panama. The actual port area was clean and had a nice shopping gallery attached right to the port. Colon itself was pretty run down. The building looked like they were going to fall over at any moment. We took the the Panama Canal tour. A little pricey but well worth the money ($173 a piece). The canal was really cool, it makes you proud of what we accomplished there. The guides were very informative and had great attitudes towards the tourists. Overall, this cruise went well and despite the Lido Deck food and the shotty Dining room service we had a great time and it was without a doubt a great value.