We sailed out of New York in Sept 2008 on the Victory. We flew into New Jersey and took a cab to the port .. I really don't think we saved any money getting our own transportation and then the hassle of finding a trust worthy cabbie .. ( spent 40 getting there and 80 on the way back, apparently they charge you for crossing state lines) .. we made it to the boat without any problems .. leaving out of New York was a nice view... would have been a better view had I known ahead of time that on the Panorama deck has a private balcony at the front of the boat .. no one goes out there because its out of the way .. but it's great to get away from the crowd .. just go to the end of the hall and there you go .. We had an inside state room ..we were nervous about this but it was fine .. you spend very little time in the room and without a window sleeping is great .. the beds are very comfortable.

This was our first cruise so we had nothing to compare it to, however there are a lot of nasty reviews out there .. if you let yourself get all wrapped up in them your trip will be poopy before you even get there .. I have learned there are some people that cannot be pleased no matter what .. the food was great and there was never a shortage .. you want to 3 dinner entrees , go for it .. the staff was very nice and they remember your name. Our room steward was awesome, cleaned in the mornings and redone again at night with cool towel creatures waiting .. Pizzeria stays open all night and we had 1 midnight buffet with an ice sculpture ..

The ports were St Johns and Halifax .. we did not book any excursions thru Carnival. We decided to just go walking and see what we came upon. In Halifax we went to the Citadel and found a museum that has a really nice Titanic exhibit with lots of relics from the boat. We also ate at a local restaurant called Blue Plate. They have really good fresh seafood and serve breakfast all day. The prices were very reasonable. In St John we also did a lot of walking .. The City Market was interesting. It was like a huge flea market right in the middle of town. We did not find a lot to do here so I would consider booking an excursion if we went here again. One of the reasons we chose this cruise is because after reading lots of reviews it was evident this was not a booze cruise. It wasn't and we met some really nice people. There were a lot of older people on the boat. I think we were in the minority of young people. I am 29 and my husband is 30 .. There were only a handful of children on the cruise... so I have no idea how children's activities are run. We did walk thru the arcade and it seems a bit expense to play the games. A soda card was $30 but it is money well spent if you drink a lot of soda, otherwise they are $2-3 a piece... even at meals in the dining room. Entertainment was ok. There was a really good magician, and the nightly entertainment consisted of Vegas style shows. There are always 2 of everything so no matter which dinner time you choose you can still participate in the fun. The only thing we missed were the movies. They are shown every evening on the Lido deck and it was during our dinner time. Moves are shown in the room too. Read more