My husband and I are in our late twenties. We have never cruised before. I did 2 months of hardcore research on this site and it helped so much. First off I would like to say, a cruise is what you make of it! I do not understand the people who just straight bash Carnival. We could not have had a better time. It all started with our fabulous vacation planner, Seth. He helped with any and everything. We just had to drive barely 2 hours to the port in Jax. We pulled right up and got in line. Took about 40 minutes from car to ship. Was a very painless procedure. When we got on board, it was still freezing. Of course our first cruise was during a massive cold front. Right away there are people taking your pictures and offering you yummy drinks in pretty glasses. I was prepared for this and knew the drinks were not free. I never had to tell my name to the bartender after that. He knew my name the whole cruise! In fact, we were very impressed cause everyone knew our name just after seeing it once. We had an interior room on the Empress deck. It was so nice! Lots of closet space and a wonderful bed. The TV is not that great, just CNN, a looping movie channel and Cartoon Network. I was scared I was not going to be able to fit in the shower due to my size, but it was big enough for my husband and I to use at the same time. Our cabin steward was very nice and cleaned our room about twice a day. No complaints whatsoever about the room.

The food is great! Its not super wowing amazing though, but far better than what we eat on a daily basis. There is the buffet with a different theme everyday. Then outside, there's a grill with burgers, hot dogs, fries, awesome tortilla chips, meat carving stations and the Mongolian bar. It was all just great. The lines were never more than a 5 minute wait. Dinner in the main dining room was even better. Our waiter knew all our names. We only had to sit with 2 other couples. We thought we would hate dining with others, but they were cool people. Be prepared to have your pic taken all the time, even when you are eating. Lots of choices every night. The shrimp cocktail was amazing. I would have 2 appetizers every night. On the fancy night, they had lobster and everyone had 2 plates of it. I was disappointed with the oh so famous melting chocolate cake, but everyone else loved it. Very rich.

I was very impressed that there was no price gouging! I needed some lady items and they only charged a quarter for one. I was seasick and they sold me meclizine for just $3.29 for 3 days worth. Bar drinks were not as pricey as I thought. The only really expensive thing was the photos, they were $20 each, which can add up fast. I have a 14 MP camera, so I passed on the pictures for sale. Read more