We booked this cruise because it is Carnival's flag ship which we had not been on yet, and we liked the original Eastern itinerary which was switched to a Southern itinerary. The new ports were ok, but we had just been to those same ports six months ago. We didn't book any excursions through the ship. We loved the free pool at Amber Cove, so we mostly hung out at the pool, drank local beer, and bought a souvenir. In La Romana, we just wondered around the local shopping port, watched Michael Jackson in the square, and bought a bottle of Dominican Rum. In Aruba, we rode the free trolley car around a couple of times, found 6 of the blue horse statues, stopped by DI, Cariloha, and Del Sol, no purchases this time. In Curacao, we found a local tour for $15/pp for 3 hours. It was a nice couple and a small tour bus, so easy in and out for a few stops at the beach, the marina and the Curacao factory. Most everything else we saw was drive by . The husband is from the island, and she was originally from the Netherlands.

We got checked in timely onto the ship, but the elevator pre-programming for express service to eating areas was quite confusing. We are platinum, our rooms were ready by the time we boarded, and had a hard time getting carnival employees to get us to an elevator that would take us to our floor. To be fair, it doesn't help that my husband is hard of hearing, and already upset about the elevators, but typical man, wasn't reading any of the signs....(sigh). The day got a little easier. We had less room in our cabin than any other room we have booked, except perhaps the Holiday way back when. There was one less hang up closet than usual, so harder to arrange the clothes we had brought for an 8 day cruise. There weren't any lights around or above the mirror at the desk, so not practical as a makeup mirror. With 2 people sharing a cabin, that has always been a plus and present on all other ships. We did see a few small roaches and ants in the bathroom....we killed them. Yuck! On the last few cruises with Carnival, the cabin boy starts to come into the room as he is knocking and saying "housekeeping". This was no exception. You would think Carnival would train them to knock a couple of times before opening the door? Our cabin was kept clean, and the ice bucket filled. I did see a dirty diaper laying in the hallway. Noticed that on a ship last spring quite often. If a guest has to bring a baby onboard, I would appreciate that they keep the diapers to themselves, and not share with the rest of us. The two pools that can be used by all guests were full of algae almost the whole cruise. They just seemed to get worse every day, but finally cleared up on the 7th day. The theater was small for such a large ship. The shows were good, but we didn't go to all of them. We had already seen a couple of the shows Flick, and Studio VIP earlier this year on other cruises. We had also seen Edge, but went to see it again. The cruise director Swartz was memorable and had everyone saying they would miss his "Love you" signature sayings. We joined in on some of the trivia contests onboard, loved the huge sky sports bar, casino was fun, great hosts there. We loved the Comedy Club the best, even though they have cut the shows down to 30 minutes. We liked the first two comedians the best, Thomas Brown and Jason Blanchard, but the Kelly Terranova and Cee Jay Jones were great too! Our dining was changed around a bit, trying to get us at a large table. Our last table reservation card showed our time at 6:00pm but it was really for 5:30 we found out on the next to the last night. No one asked why we were late all the time. Good service mostly, except for the last formal night. It was slow getting our plates cleared away and waiting for the desert menu and coffee. Public bathrooms seemed a little messier than usual, but not too bad. Easy off the ship, but took awhile to find our luggage and a porter.