Monday - Arrival The Port at Miami is owned by Carnival Cruise lines, so it's state of the art - they have a lot of their people working there - getting on board was really fast and really easy - their people are great at getting people in and out as quickly as possible so you can get on the ship. Even though boarding time was 12:00 pm, the rooms weren't actually ready until 1:30 (or so their letter said) - we got on at around 1:00 pm and went to our room anyways, it was done, although I know some people were waiting around the lobby for their rooms to finish. Our family of 5 got 2 rooms - the first cruise with Carnival last summer, the 5 of us got one room because we had no idea how small or big the room was going to be. The rooms are a nice size (considering you're on a boat with thousands of other people) and as 5 people in 1 room, there were 2 bunk beds and 1 cot right in the middle, so basically there was nowhere to walk. But they only pull out the cot at nighttime during their turn down service, so it's not always there in your way. Depending on how much time you spend in your room, it wasn't that big of a deal for us. This time, we had 2 rooms for the 5 in our family - it was MUCH more comfortable. Originally we had one room for the 5 of us because it's about 500-600 more expensive for 2 rooms, but then a few days before we were going to leave, Carnival upgraded us to 2 rooms right next door to one another! So ask your travel planner to notify you if that is a possibility, they try to accommodate as best they can. My parents had their own room next door and us three kids got our own room - 2 single beds and one pulled down "bunk" bed. It was plenty of room for the three of us. They upgraded the tvs from our last ship, so they were flat screen about 20" and they play different movies (on rerun) every day on cruise, so that was nice - and they were recent movies, too, not old ones. You also get regular cable channels so you can watch the news, and even MTV. In the bathroom, they provided body wash, shampoo, razors for girls and guys (bic), and toothpaste if you need it. There are also plenty of towels so you don't need to bring your own. We just spent our time walking around the ship, it's considerably smaller than our first one (Carnival Victory), so it's pretty easy to navigate yourself around the ship since there aren't that many places to go. The water "park" is BEAUTIFUL - it's new! - and it includes a tube water slide that swirls around (and gets to be pretty fast, actually) and two water slides that go straight down, as well as some cute fountains that spray water for the smaller kids. I would recommend going on these if you come back early or leave later at one of the stops because there are always tons of small children running around there and lines can get long. They close at 5, though, so if you're planning on going when you get back early from one of the stops, keep that in mind - my sister and I were only able to go on the slide about 4-5 times before they told us it was closing. The sun decks are really nice, there's an adult serenity deck where children aren't allowed so it's more peaceful up there than by the pool. The pool is small and there is only one and there is a jacuzzi (two maybe? I forget). They had a couple of activities, nothing amazing. We had our dinner time at 8pm (the late seating) - and the staff was wonderful, as always, our waiter did magic tricks for us every night. We shared a table with another family, if you don't want to do this make sure you let your vacation planner KNOW otherwise you won't have an option. Our first trip we sat at our own table and while it's nice to meet other families, it can get awkward and you aren't able to relax as much because you feel like you need to have a conversation with them. It depends on what kind of personality you are though and what kind of vacation you're looking for. They had shows at night, the shows are nice - nothing amazing - but fun, colorful, and loud all the same. Our cruise director, George (Jorge), was AMAZINGLY WONDERFULLY FANTASTIC - so funny, he used to be a stand up comedian, and if you go to show only for him, it's worth it. Oh and don't let them fool you when you are arriving to check in, you don't HAVE TO check your luggage - but they tell you that so that you'll tip them. We didn't have to the first time, but then this time they confused us by telling us we had to - then later on we saw people carrying on their own luggage onto the ship.
Tuesday - Day at Sea Nothing special. Look below for past carnival cruisers. They had activities throughout the day. My family loves their steam and sauna in the spa carnival so we went there usually before dinner and then showered in the spa because the stalls are bigger so it's more comfortable. This steam and sauna room was different from our first cruise - it was about half a size smaller and there were no windows looking out into the ocean. But it was fine, nonetheless, not many people used it so it was peaceful. If you're traveling with children, a good way to save money on soda (which is extra) is to buy your child a fountain card (I think it's about 10-15 less than adults) and they can get endless amounts of fountain drinks, so you can all just share. We did that with our family and it worked fine. They have sushi bar night every night for an hour, a ping pong table, the Carnival Spa which has a spa/steam/sauna room, a small gym, some fitness classes (which you have to pay for - usually $10 per class), some "free" consultation classes about weight less and what not but they usually try to sell you some product and it gets annoying. For people who want to use the spa, the first day of the cruise you can enter a raffle for free spa services - I would recommend that, they give away some fantastic things! it takes some time out of your day to go and put your name in, then you have to go back at the designated time for the drawing - if you aren't there then you don't get it. But they gave away maybe 15 spa services for free. So it was pretty nice.
Wednesday - Grand Turks This is the smaller of the Bahama islands, there's actually not much to do or see there but if you do want to do some sightseeing, I would go with something from Carnival because the taxi drivers there charge about $35 per person for a tour of the island and I think you can get something cheaper through Carnival excursions. I would do an excursion this day - one of the snorkeling or scuba diving, apparently there is a lot to see (we didn't do anything this day) - we did take a taxi into "town" but there wasn't anything great to see and we were charged $5 per person for the small ride one way and then another $5 per person on the way back. It's a very poor, developing area - a lot of run down houses, etc. but there is very very little crime - so no need to be worried. The people there are very friendly. Some of the past reviews said you can go and find a scuba rental area on your own - if you are to do this - you NEED to take a taxi there, there isn't anywhere (at least from what we saw and tried to look for) ON the beach where you're docked to look for somewhere to rent equipment from if you don't want to go through Carnival. There is one famous location, if you want to go scuba/snorkeling, you should just go up to the taxi drivers and ask them to take you there - I forgot what it's called, but they all know what it is because there is only one major company on the island who provides it. It was a nice beach, a lot of seaweed so it was kinda gross. If you hate sun, make SURE you rent one of those clam shells because there is NO shade and it gets HOT. You're going to be spending the next few days in the sun so don't try to get too much at once. You'll end up getting sick of it. Or worse, burnt.