My name is Jessica and I am from New Orleans. We (myself, my boyfriend and another couple) recently took a cruise to the Western Caribbean with the Norwegian Spirit. This was my first cruise ever, and we had all just turned 21. My boyfriend has cruised with Carnival prior, and I will compare a few things in a bit. We went through a travel agent and she was very helpful throughout it all. We live about 20 minutes away from the port so that made it extremely convenient both there and home. The ship was leaving at 5:30 and we had already registered in advance. We got there at about 2:30, went through luggage check (By the way, if anyone is trying to take alcohol or wine onto the boat... there is no one that really examines it. I was paranoid that we would get kicked off of the ship or something crazy. We emptied a shampoo bottle and filled it with alcohol. I told them that we did have bottles of wine that we planned to pay a corkage fee on...and that turned into a nightmare. (Held it on the boat...couldn't find it, but in the end we only paid 1 corkage fee for 2 bottles of wine.) After they checked everything, we walked to the desks to put our method of payment down, and then walked right onto the ship. It is a very big and Nicely decorated ship. It seriously looks like a little city on the water. It was beautiful. The reception desk was packed, along with the excursions desk...and everyone looking around. They have the workers handing out the drinks in the souvenir cup...thank goodness to a previous cruise review someone said they weren't free. Those things are too expensive. I will stick with my jack and coke for $6.00 per drink. Those others are about $10.00. (More like 8.00 PLUS THE 18% Gratuity FEE ON EVERY DRINK) Keep that in mind also. Our rooms were ready right when we got on the boat. Our luggage came within 3 hours of that...but you are so busy looking around you don't even notice its not there. After looking around, we ate the buffet. Okay, I am going to try my best to describe the food. The buffet was gross. (Except for breakfast...the omelette station was the best!) Too bland, weird dishes. They would really want to add some normal food on that boat. I mean it was like Indian, Mexican....just gross. At Windows and Raffles, you can check the menu in the hallway every day to see if you will like it. It's a five-course meal....so you have a few diff. choices. Good some nights, gross others. Now, that 24-hour place....AWESOME! I lived off of that food for the most part. We did eat at Le bistro and Cagney's. Definitely worth it to pay for it! From our point of view at our age, there weren't very many things for us to do on sailing days. We found ourselves heading to the casino a lot. I mean...if you don't like reading by the pool, or going to lectures or art auctions...you'll be at the casino too. (This is the point in time when we wish we were on Carnival.) The shows at Nighttime were so, so. The Newly Wed game was hilarious. They did have this one really cool band by the pool and they were a lot of fun. But in the galaxy of the stars....it was more like the electric slide and cheesy music. The Casino bar and nightclub were fun...but it was a much older crowd on the boat and if ten people were there...it was crowded. They did have basketball courts and a nice gym, so that kept us busy for some time. If you smoke, cigarettes are not cheaper on the islands or the cruise ship. You will pay what you normally pay at home...or more. The staff was nice, but from what I hear, nothing like Carnival. They are nice, but not overly nice or excited. The famous animals they put on your bed were there...but apparently nothing like Carnival either. The ports:

Roatan, Honduras: A very poor city with alot of work being done to it. We chose the Tabayna Beach Sunset party. It was very fun, but it rained very hard for about 30 minutes. Before the excursion, they made us all meet at in the theatre, and we had to wait about an hour…so really, it cut our excursion short about an hour also. It was pure chaos getting off of the ship going to Honduras. If you are afraid of heights, be prepared on the bus ride to this excursion. The drivers already drive crazy, but Honduras has mountains and hills…and it could be like a 200-foot drop next to you. But we got there safely. My boyfriend rented snorkeling gear from there and they saw seahorses and small colorful fish just right off of the beach. The rum punch is not strong at all…but after a few it's okay. The employees there do make sure you have a good time…it would have been nice to stay there longer. It was very pretty.

Guatemala: We chose the Day at Amatique Bay. Guatemala looks like you are pulling into an actual port and is also being built up. We took a boat to the resort and the island is very pretty. The water there looks like the Mississippi River. It's not pretty at all. But thankfully where we went, the resort was beautiful. They had pools, waterslides, and the bars in the pool…people selling things…(they did make it, however, where you have to walk past them every time to go to the bathroom). They had a buffet for us and the food was awesome! The drinks were also good! (And reasonably priced) Fun, fun day. Read more