We have cruised with many different cruise lines, but never with Carnival. We were a bit concerned about it reputation as a "party boat", but we were very pleased with what we encountered. Very family oriented, friendly staff, and excellent service. It was not to the caliber of some of the other cruise lines we have travelled with, but a delightful trip nonetheless. The food was quite good, but again not to the level of other lines.

For Grand Cayman, we had chosen an excursion to Stingray CIty and the Coral Garden. When we tendered off the ship and arrived in Georgetown, however, we were informed that the excursion had been cancelled due to weather. Carnival tried to find other excursions for us, but we chose to go with a local company that was still going to Stingray City. Anchor Touring Company was phenomenal! For half the cost of Carnival's excursion, we were taken to the marina and boarded a boat which took us to Stingray City. Having been there before, we found the waves to be a bit choppy, but couldn't be sure why Carnival had cancelled their excursion. The guys from Anchor Touring Company were excellent and we would recommend them highly!!

In Cozumel, we signed up for the Underground River and 5th Avenue Shopping excursion. The ferry from Cozumel to Playa de Carmen (the mainland) was very rough, but we had been warned about that from previous reviews. We were met by Rodrigo with Explora-Tours. Rigo was awesome! Very informative and caring for kids as well as some of our group who couldn't swim. He swam with us on a tour through the caves. It was the highlight of our entire trip. This is definitely the excursion to take in Cozumel!!!