I will preface this with my history. We have completed six cruises of which four have been with Carnival. That said, we flew in the day prior and stayed at the LaQuinta near Hobby. We did this so we could take advantage of Carnival transportation. Also keep in mind that this was a short get away with no expectations or desires to do anything special. Just my wife of 33 years and myself. Now for the trip to the port, the ladies at the airport were wonderful and we only had a short wait before getting on the bus and heading for Galveston. Bus was full but it was very pleasant and absolutely no drama. Once at the port a Carnival rep met us and told us to stay on the bus until the bags were unloaded to make sure that they were still there. The porters were right there so I gave them my bag and a tip then left for the terminal. We did not do FTTF or have any special status so we went to the normal process. Everyone in the terminal was pleasant and I would say the entire process to the ship took about 45 min to 1 hour because of the security line wait. No big deal, just a lot of people. Carnival has this down.

Once on the ship we noticed the theme was Old World cities and a copper and brown pallet. We went to the dining room for the brunch to avoid the buffet lines. We also ate breakfast here each morning for the relaxed atmosphere. Rooms were ready about 1 pm and our bags were already there. I have to say that the balcony room 8398 was small compared to other ships I have been on or that was my impression. Beds were hard as a rock and very uncomfortable for me. My wife travels with a twin air mattress for her back and she slept fine. I'm still recovering. AC was ok but we never really got it COLD as we like it, but it wasn't hot either.

We hung out at the rear pool area as it was more relaxed and tended to play music from the 70's. My only complaint was the pool was out of service for two days of which one was a sea day. Hot tubs were actually hot which I liked instead of the luke warm tubs that HA had. People in this area were more reserved although the age range was the full spectrum. The main area is more the uncontrolled area, more entertainment and games. Always crowded and people seemed to have fun. Music was more to the 20 something crowd and too loud. Bars in the main pool area put too much alcohol so the drinks were too strong and tasteless. If I wanted a shot I would have asked for one. This is also where they show the movies at night. This seemed to be very popular. The only down side was in the middle of the movie, Hi Kurt, came on the PA to tell us of the activities and the movie did not stop. By the way this is the first time that I could say that the cruise director was a great asset to the ship. He was really good and could work the crowd. Kurt, remember that when you get the magic coin out of your pocket that God is watching (a joke from the cruise). Seemed to take a long time to find it. Read more