This may be a little lengthy but I wanted to offer as much detail as possible. I scoured this site before our cruise and am so appreciative of all the information I gathered here.

This was our first Carnival cruise and a first cruise for my children. I purchased this vacation as a surprise for my husband's 50th birthday and my son's 16th birthday. Gave it to all of them on Christmas Day - needless to say we were all very excited and very much in need of a vacation! We flew into Tampa on the 19th - didn't arrive until very late - about 1am. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott as I had rewards and the hotel stay was free. It was adequate and certainly close to the port. Breakfast was horrible - I would not recommend staying here unless it is was free! Had a beautiful day Monday to head out to see - about 75 and sunny. We headed to the port around noon and when all was said and done we were on board by 1pm. Very easy! We were told our rooms would be ready around 1:30. We immediately headed to the pool area to lounge and have our first cocktail! Kids were pretty excited to see the size of the ship. We explored, played ping pong for a bit, grabbed lunch and then headed to our room. Muster was at 3:30 and then we headed to the front of the ship for sail away. It was incredible - going under that bridge! I got some great pix. We had all intentions of going to the dining room that evening but everyone was having a good time and not hungry for 6pm dinner so we skipped it. Wound up eating at the buffet later that night. After the sail away we headed back to our rooms to unpack. I had mentioned on John Heald's FB page that we were cruising to celebrate birthday milestones and he sent us some champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, 2 ships on a stick and Paradise medals. Nice surprise!

My son met up with some kids in Club O2 and had a great time that night. My daughter who is 10 was still leery of going to the kids club. We let her stay with us that night but told her the next night Dad and I were going dancing! LOL! Tuesday was a sea day so after breakfast I headed to the pool. It was packed! But the smaller kid pool up at the front of the boat had a few empty chairs - so we moved things around and made ourselves comfortable. The boys didn't stay long and went exploring. My daughter swam and then we headed to one of the activities at the kids club so she could see what it was all about. Beautiful day over all. Formal night Tuesday night - that was fun and dinner was great. The bread pudding is to die for! I wanted it every night but unfortunately they only had it on Tuesday! Read more