My daughter and I chose this cruise for the destinations of Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao, and Aruba. I had previously done the same itinerary on the Breeze. We flew in a day early to Miami in order to do a walking restaurant tour of Little Havana, which was wonderful. On Saturday, we had the 10-1030 embarkation time and had purchased Faster to the Fun. We arrived at the port a few minutes before 10 but were sent through and had an easy time getting checked in. Embarkation did not start until around 1130, so we had an hour to sit and wait. Once onboard the ship, we went to our cabin which was ready for us. We booked a spa balcony, 1106. The ship's decor has been the subject of many reviews - I will say that it is quirky but we liked it. We got a quick bite to eat and went to check for our luggage, which had been delivered while we ate. We had a quick meet and greet with our FB group in the aft bar. Service was sluggish, which I chalked up to the chaos of embarkation.

The ship, in general was not in the best repair. We booked a spa cabin so we could have free use of the thalassotherapy pool and the steam rooms and lapidarium. The cooling showers outside the steam room were out of order for the entire cruise. And every single day, there were features of the spa that did not work. One day the thalassotherapy pool was cold, other days only 1/2 the chairs in the various heated rooms were working. When I asked about it, the staff just shrugged and said it was the oldest Cloud 9 Spa on Carnival. Both my daughter and I booked 3 treatments each in the spa. On my second treatment, they forgot me in the "relaxation room" and had to rebook me. Without an apology. Then, after a bamboo massage (which I still recommend even after this experience!) I realized that they had cut my lower leg. When I reported it to the manager, she filled out an incident report and told me that they would have to look at all the bamboo, because sometimes it splinters when it gets old and causes lacerations... I would hope that they would be looking at it before using it on people, though. So, because they had forgotten me once and then cut me, I was offered a free gel manicure, which I accepted.

The cabin we had, 1106, was a port side balcony and was a nice room. It was relatively quiet and comfortable. The cabin cleanliness appeared to be okay, but several days in, we found Carnival Fun times from a July cruise still on top of the refrigerator, so don't think any in depth cleaning had been done. Our cabin steward never came to introduce himself, which I thought was unusual. He still did an adequate job of turn down, clean up, and keeping our ice bucket filled. Just not very friendly. Read more