My wife & I just got back from an 8 day trip on the Carnival Valor. For background info, this was our 7th cruise and 4th with Carnival. We usually cruise one year and do an all inclusive vacation in Mexico the following year. So we switch off from a cruise to an all inclusive vacation every year. I'm in my late 40's.

We flew from Colorado to Miami the day before our sea departure. We booked a room on priceline by naming my own price. We got the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Miami for $150 including all taxes. Nice hotel with lots of shops and restaurants nearby. Taxi cost $30 from airport to hotel. The hotel offered a shuttle to the port for $5 pp. We decided to take a taxi instead since the 11am shuttle was full. Taxi cost $10.50. Much better deal on taxi, and had a nice relaxing ride instead of being herded into a crowded van with lots of luggage.

Embarkation was a breeze. Got to the port by 10:15am and were on the ship by 10:30am. Went to the Lido deck for some breakfast. We stayed in the back of the ship by the adults only pool and had a few drinks. Went to our balcony room on the 8th deck at 1:30pm. (Room 8348) This was our first cruise with a balcony room. We usually do an outside room, but decided to splurge since this was an 8 day cruise with 4 days at sea. I liked having a balcony room and we usually got our breakfast on the lido deck and ate it on our balcony, which was very nice. Here's an idea for Carnival, why don't they assign all smoking balcony passengers to one side of the ship? (port or starboard side) That would make sense to me so non smokers could enjoy their balcony 24/7. It sucked when both of the neighboring rooms were on the deck smoking! Read more