The embarkation went incredibly smoothly. We were there at our specified time and walked through the metal detectors and upstairs to the ship. Since we did not have our room key I turned around to the processing area but they said I was pre-registered on the internet and everything was fine. We found our room key in the mailbox. This was incredibly quick and the fastest I have every got on the ship in 15+ cruises. We got there at 1:30 so the room was already made up and ready for us. I did note the cabin steward immediately appeared to verify the correct people were in the room. This ship has a new feature where you need to put in your room key to turn on the lights and I noted several times the cabin steward must be aware when the room key has been placed in the slot so he knows the room is occupied.

Our first port was the Cayman Islands. It was a short water taxi ride to the pier. The free Wi-Fi at the pier was barely usable but I did manage to reach a few sites. The Duty Free store had an extremely powerful Wi-Fi signal which led only to their site and my phone continually grabbed their signal over the free one. We went to the seven mile beach which is highly recommended in other reviews. We found numerous vendors with glossy place cards recommending 7 mile Beach at the pier. Apparently all of them go to the Royal Palm Beach Resort. The taxi turned out to be a minivan holding about a dozen people. Our vendor flagged down one of these minivan after a short wait and we got there to pay the $2 admission chart to the beach. We found the beach filled with chairs that state it's a $12 rental fee and $15 for umbrella. Undeterred, we walked down the beach and found an open area to place our beach towel at no charge. The free internet was unusable for me and the bartenders were not attentive so I was never able to get a beer dispute being seated at the bar. On the positive side, they provided cold water and showers with a clean restroom. It was an enjoyable beach and we spent many hours there. Our ship was leaving in the early afternoon so a group of us got into the nearest taxi cab next to the entrance. The taxi immediately filled up with only two spots next the driver left. The driver place plastic sheets on all the seats so it was hot and sticky. We were parked right next to the exit so we thought would leave immediately. As our group sat in the hot minivan the driver would show up about every 8 minutes claiming she needed to fill it up. This was not true as the taxi was right at the exit and she could have gotten anybody to fill up the van. After about 25 minutes this short older taxi driver virtually had a revolt on her hands with us yelling out the windows we needed to get to our ship. Finally she relented and took up without any additional passengers. It was frustrating to watch other taxi drivers take their occupancy to the ship immediately without this long delay. I don’t understand why the Royal Palm Beach Resort allows one taxi driver to block their exit for twenty minutes while she apparently takes a break.

Our next port was Honduras and as we pulled up to the port and could see Mahogany beach within walking distance. Mahogany beach was excessively crowded as another Carnival ship was already there. All the spots on the beach were taken but we managed to place our blankets near the woods and make the best of this stop. They had a $5 all day internet service, which once you paid for it, flashed and incomprehensible code that you needed to remember. Fortunately they had a technician at the pier that quickly retrieve my code and I was able to use it all day. If you are going to use that service bring a pen and paper or stop at the internet store near the pier. They had a chair lift that would take you to the beach, however if not much faster than walking so we did not pay the $12 for the all day ticket. Read more