This was our my third cruise, we previously sailed on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas in March 2006 and the Mariner of the Seas in October 2006. We wanted to try a new cruise line as we did not have anything to compare other than Royal Caribbean. We found ourselves comparing all aspects of our Royal Caribbean to Carnival. I decided to write a review because I found it helpful reading reviews from other members before I booked my cruise. I will try to be as detailed as I can and hope that you find it helpful.

We flew into Tampa on Northwest night before the Cruise and landed in Tampa around 11:30 pm. Made our way to the Taxi stop and found about 10 Taxis waiting to in line. As we went to the taxi at the front of the line, the taxi drivers on the first two taxies started fighting that it was their turn and after a few uncomfortable minutes we were able to board the taxi. Without additional drama we were driven to our Hotel at Days Inn Tampa/Port of Tampa/Ybor City. The hotel was clean and for staying a few hours it was ok but I would not recommend it. The hotel showed its age, they offered free breakfast which was had two choices of cereal on a dispenser, sticky buns, a gallon of milk sitting on ice for the cereal and coffee and juice. Hotel was $81.74 and taxi to hotel was $32.

We took a taxi to the port and as we arrived the porter took our luggage and we headed inside to register. The only line we encountered was outside waiting for the IDs to be checked (we were fifth in line). We made it thru registration in about 20 minutes. We were assigned group number 6 and were asked to wait for our number to be called. At 11:30 group number 1 was called and it took another 15 minutes for number 6 to be called. We made it to the Lido deck in less than an hour from the time we arrived at the port. The staff at the port were extremely polite and helpful and the port was clean. Taxi from hotel to port was $22.00. We boarded the ship and proceeded to the Lido deck and headed for the buffet. The line was long and the food was so-so. We attempted to upgrade our cabin but the ship was sold out. All the halls for the cabins were blocked by a security door that was not opened until 1:30 PM. At 1:30 we headed to our stateroom which was an inside cabin E150, this was the only cabin available at the time we booked the cruise. We were apprehensive about choosing an inside cabin since in our last two cruises we had balcony staterooms. The cabin was surprisingly large, the beds were comfortable, and the bathroom had a large shower and much more comfortable than the Royal Caribbean's shower. We also had an extra bed stored under one of the beds. My only criticism is that there is only 1 electrical plug in the room and one in the bathroom. The position of the plug in the room was just above the desk which would not allow any of our cameras or hair dryer to be able to plug in. In addition the one plug in the bathroom was unusable. The hangers in the closet were tricky and kept falling so we did not use them. Our room stewart was Norman who was very friendly. Our luggage arrived in on our door around 7 pm. All in all we were very pleased with our cabin. Read more