When I initially booked this cruise, it was not with the intent to renew our vows. After reading about the opportunity on board it sounded like a meaningful ceremony for us. We choose cruises for the ship experience, the ports are secondary. I will offer my opinion on various portions of the trip:

PRE-CRUISE STAY AT EMBASSY SUITES/ FT. LAUDERDALE: The hotel was tropical, clean and pleasant. There is a beautiful courtyard in the center where they serve a very generous breakfast buffet each morning. They also have a manager's cocktail reception each evening for 2 hours. These are both included in the room price. The rooms were suites with a nice living room and separate bedroom. I would suggest not taking a room across from the elevator. The elevator door opens and you can see directly into the suite. These rooms are also very dark. You can see the ships from this hotel, and that is very important to me.

MINI SUITE. CATEGORY AA: I was concerned about the balconies on this deck. They jut out further than the deck above, and the neighbors upstairs can look right down at you. There is NO privacy. Actually it was nice. We had pleasant people upstairs to chit chat with, and the openess above was amazing for stargazing at night. The room was a bit narrow, but had plenty of room overall. THE CROWN GRILL: I was a bit disappointed in the steak. It was average at best. It was tasteless and not grilled. I expected better. My meal last year on the Carnival Valor steak house was outstanding. SABATINI'S: I had a very squeeky chair and did ask to be moved to another table because my back was to the tray that they loudly scraped the dirty dishes. They almost gave me a hard time, and then did move us 1 table over. They make me feel like I was unbalancing the dining room. Despite that, the meal was very good.They give you lots of small tastes of almost everything on the menu. It was actually too much food for us. BOTTICELLI DINING ROOM: The service and meals were all very nice. We chose the early traditional dining. The food in general was outstanding,but I thought some of the deserts were a bit tasteless..specifically the bananas foster which was bland and carrot cake which tasted too floury. Read more