We are a couple in our early 60's, this was our 18th cruise, our 3rd with Carnival. We arrived in Tampa the day before sailing and stayed at the Hampton Inn in Ybor City, making use of their cruise stay/parking package. The weather was miserable as it was during the cold spell, but the hotel had a nice warm shuttle that got us wherever we needed to go! We particularly enjoyed the Tampa Bay Brewing Company.

Embarkation weather wasn't much better, but the cruiseline can't control that. They CAN, however, control the embarkation process and this one was chaotic. When we arrived around 12:30 p.m. the line snaked around outside the terminal, the security checkpoints were not working properly and had to be stopped every so often. This contributed to the time standing in line to check in and our wait to do so was over an hour and a half. Once on board we explored the ship while we waited for the cabins to be opened - that did not happen until after 2:00 p.m.!

Overall, we found the ship to be a bit gaudy and chopped up, but clean and well-maintained. The staff were rather impersonal and many had difficulties communicating in English. The one bright spot was the gentlemen monitoring the Internet cafe - he was very helpful and most always on duty. Read more