This was my third cruise (1 on Royal Caribbean and now 2 on Carnival). I found this cruise out of Miami to meet or exceed all of my expectations. Granted, my expectations weren't over the top due to the number of negative reviews on this forum; however, I expected a great vacation, and I was not disappointed.
My husband and I flew into Miami on the morning we started and had no problems getting to the boat early. (We booked transfers through Carnival.) The check in process went smoothly and before we knew it, we were on the boat and eating lunch. The boat looked very similar in appearance to the last Carnival ship we were on last year. Could it have been nicer? Sure! But, was it clean and nice? Absolutely! No complaints about about the overall appearance or quality of the ship.
There were plenty of activities, but since my husband and I just like to relax and read or sit out on the deck, we didn't participate in too many of them.
We had an inside room on the Verandah deck, 8th floor. It was close to the back of the ship, and I felt in the perfect location. We were right underneath the restaurant on the Lido deck and close to the casino on the 5th deck!