Before I begin I should put in a disclaimer that I did not really care so much about what cruise I was sailing on this time as my main intent was to meet up with some very good friends we hadn't seen in a while and friends of whom had booked it first and they were first time cruisers and we later joined in. This cruise is my 3rd. I first cruised on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas to Jamaica and Haiti from Miami, and the second one and the best one was an Alaskan itinerary on the Silverseas Silver Shadow. So it was a no brainer that after the last intimate luxury ship experience in the breathtakingly gorgeous Alaskan itinerary, I would not be leaving good reviews for a loud and totally unrelaxing Carnival cruise. However I still swear I went on board with an unbiased and open minded attitude thinking it was a big ship, more activities on board, more bars and could be a great time. My husband was much more pessimistic right from the beginning. However to make things smoother for us, I had booked a verandah suite, with priority access to embarkation and got the Cheers beverage package; not because we wanted to get blacked out drunk but just so we didn't have to deal with the hassle of paying every time for a drink.

First thing we noted: there were annoying and intrusive photographers literally every step of embarkation into the ship, or when you would try to step out on a port. For example, not one, or two, there were at least 6 at Cozumel. Some of these were ridiculously dumb photo backgrounds- a weird white towel elephant character, or a part of a railing of the gangway, etc. and of course you pay a fortune to buy them (if stupid enough to buy) . I was sucked into buying a few of our "cruise elegant" portraits- which were at least with a nice canvas art background, and we had a few good ones together with friends.

Enough about the photographers. I should also say that our embarkation with the priority access was relatively easy - although the whole boarding process was delayed by 2 hours; at least they emailed us in advance about it. Next on board; staff members with glasses of rum punch standing around and shoving them toward you - and as soon as you pick it up they make you sign a 9 dollar check - and again I had the Cheers package so it was included - but it just made it feel like a trashy type of thing instead of feeling welcomed with a welcome drink as they would do on a classy cruise. But hey, I don't blame the cruise line either because most of the people I could see around were not the classiest and they were there to have a cheap getaway with unlimited food and booze and loud music. So they pretty much got what they wanted. Read more