My first time cruising on Carnival. Previously cruised 3 times on Norwegian and 1 time on Royal Caribbean.
Our family met in the LIncoln Dining room every evening for early dining. Our waiter was excellent and very attentive. However, the food he was given to deliver to us was never hot, not even warm in many cases. The only really hot dish I ever had was the baked onion soup. Now, this is not his fault. The food needs to be kept longer in warming ovens once plated. Each entree came with ready made sides, so that shouldn't be an issue.
On the plus side, the desserts were consistently very good - except for the pies - not great pies.
Even though it looked small at first, it had an amazing amount of storage, and was well-equipped. I wish there was ice buckets that were filled. The cabin was a bit warmer than I would like. The steward was very nice and did a great job on keeping it tidied several times a day.
Getting on and off were easy.
My son rented a jeep and we drove all over. I hadn't been to Cozumel in 12 years, and oh my - the area around the port has really grown - so many shops now. We stopped at 3 beaches, finishing up at Chakanaab - the place I was heading on cruise 2 when an accident prevented arrival there. Chakanaab is just a beautiful as I had hoped it would be. Definitely recommend it for a wonderful beach.
My first time in Progreso - and with my son's past experience, he retained a private driver and van for the day. Roberto with Yucantantours was AWESOME. He took us straight to Dzilbilcachun (sp) and it was a small, but lovely Mayan site. The cenote was large, clean and fun to swim in. After that we went into Merida. I was so amazed at how modern, clean and large it is. I had looked in the past at buying property there, and now I definitely am thinking of spending an extended time there. Merida is beautiful, cosmopolitan and very, very reasonable price-wise.