We had a group of 9 people (ranging in ages from 21 to 80) for a family cruise leaving Dec. 12th. We had been contacted by Carnival a few weeks before the cruise and given an option of upgrading our cabins to grand suites (from ocean views) for a cost of about $250.00 per person. Only my husband and I chose to do this and so glad we did!! We had Cabin U90 - a Grand Suite with a balcony - and it was huge. We used it as a meeting place and had seating for 9, we bought in chairs from the balcony. We had a fridge, a walk in closet, tons of storage space, a jacuzzi tub and a very comfortable bed. There is also a couch that makes into a bed. Our room steward was Angel and he was fantastic. He bought us a wine bucket and always extra ice when he found out we had all bought a bottle of wine (had 9 bottles in our room) and made sure we always had wine glasses.

The upgrade include VIP boarding - we were on the ship in 5 minutes! The rest of our group did regular boarding though, and were on within 15 or 20 minutes. It was a breeze. Luggage was placed at our room promptly and we sailed away. First day was Fun Day at Sea. We laid in the sun (my husband did the water slide - he's 67 and loved it), watched the trivia games, shopped, ate, etc. The Cruise Director was Skip and his shows were hilarious - the married couples game especially. We also loved the piano bar with Dana (i won the trivia contest in there) and spent a couple of nights in there until it closed. We went to Cozumel and Key West. We did the Mayan Ruins/Beach tour (which was actually kind of boring)in Cozumel and then the water got really rough. There were sick people everywhere and they had to modify the shows to protect the dancers. We did fine and went onto Key West and visited the Hemmingway House and rented an electric car. It was fun, but not so fun finding a place to park it (we had a six seater) everytime we wanted to stop. Next time, i will probably just do the trolley hop on/hop off thing.

I have read reviews that talked about rude employees and bad food, but that was not our experience. Our servers (Yeoman!) were the best and we had great food at dinner every night. My husband ate more than I have ever seen him eat - two or three appetizers every night and usually two entrees!!!! We loved the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer they offered every night, the onion au gratin soup and the cream of broccoli soup. The buffet foods were great too - we really liked the pizzaria and deli. The shows we attended were fun and every employee we encountered was more than friendly. The ship was very, very clean and even the night with all the sick people, the crew was constantly cleaning. Disembarking was also pretty painless - i remember the days when you went into a big warehouse and found your luggage - now it comes off on a baggage turnstile like the airports and it's quite easy. The only thing that we didn't like was having to go thru immigration process in key west - it took a while to get off the boat, but staff and officials were very nice and helpful. One good thing - we all won in the casino!! we are not huge gamblers (except for my 80 year old father) but i won 140.00 on the penny slots and he won over 300.00. Several in our party won 40.00 or more on the quarter slots.