This was our first Carnival cruise (Royal Caribbean and Norwegian previously). We booked this cruise because of a great military discount that could be combined with my credit card rewards and FF miles for the flight from NY to Tampa. Couldn't pass up the opportunity for the low price and had no expectations. What a pleasant surprise! I have very few complaints about the cruise and will probably sound petty with the ones I mention since they are so minor.
We paid $25 for a cab from the Tampa airport to the cruise terminal; however we learned later that we could have taken the Thrifty/Dollar rental car shuttle for free because since we had reservations for a car post-cruise.
Here are a few comments and observations -