This was a first cruise for my boyfriend and I. We've both been just about everywhere and we wanted to do something different that neither of us had done before. We're regulars in Vegas and wanted something "out of the norm" so we booked a 4 day cruise, just to see if we liked the idea of cruising. My grandma, aunt, and her two kids heard about us going and booked right along with us on the same cruise.

EMBARKATION: I didn't know what to expect being a first cruise but we arrived at 11AM, valet took the bags and we walked up to the 2nd floor check in at the Port of Tampa. Check-in took about 15 minutes. We then waited about 15 more minutes to get boarded onto the boat - on the boat by 11:30. The first thing we did was walked up to the Lido deck and had a hamburger and hot dog lunch. The food was better than I thought it would be. It was a little crowded but expected as this was really the only thing open on the boat. After the lunch we were off to explore.

ROOM: We booked straight through Carnival and did the Oceanview Guarantee. I was worried about this because I didn't know where our room was going to be. Lo and behold we ended up on the Upper deck in room U22. It was in the front of the boat. We were traveling with my grandma, my aunt, and her two kids, they were in a separate room on the same floor. We had a king bed, which was very very comfortable, a little bathroom with all the necessities and our room came with robes, which we wore a lot. Our steward was very good, providing us with turn down service and little towel animals every night - something neither of us are used too. Read more