This was my husband's 40th birthday and it was during our 17yr old son's spring break so we decided to take a cruise. We already knew it would be different compared to other cruises we have taken just because it was spring break. I also planned several excursions which I will go into detail later.

Embarkation in Miami was a pleasant surprise. We live in Florida north of Miami so we drove down that morning. It was very easy to find and dropping our luggage off to the porters was a breeze. Make sure you tip these guys! I always tip $1 per bag. We arrived at 10:30am and were on board and eating at 11:30am. I think getting there early was the key.

Cabins- We were on the Main deck towards the back of the ship. My husband and I had an ocean view #2450 and my son and his friend had an inside #2452. We were able to settle down in them at 1:30pm. Our luggage arrived soon after. The cabins are pretty spacious. Especially the ocean view. Our cabin steward Kitcha was great! Our cabins were always clean and ice buckets filled. He always smiled an greeted us in the hall. He was really good at making those cute towel animals. The ship- Decor on the ship was patriotic and a lot of art honoring women from history in the labor and service field. Very colorful like all Carnival ships. Fun atmosphere and very clean. Everywhere we turned we saw the crew cleaning something. For the most part the crew were friendly but you could tell this was a challenging week for them. With so many kids on board things like the ice cream machine would run out before someone like my husband would have to tell them the machine was making a horrible noise cause it was running on empty. The pools and hot tubs were inidated with kids. Carnival's pools are pretty small to begin with so you can imagine the overflow. The slide was hardly open. Probably due to high winds. On sea days the deck was pretty full but we still found a place to park ourselves. Read more