I am so glad I took all the negative reviews with a grain salt. My husband and I booked this cruise for our honeymoon and we're hooked!

Day of Embarkation
Based on past reviews, I was expecting the absolute worst. Much to our satisfaction, we arrived at the pier around 4:30 and was in our cabin within 45 minutes (luggage beat us there), and that's after stopping off at the liquor store. I have no complaints about embarkation. I would, however, suggest getting your FunPass online. We were able to bypass a very long line. If you can carry your own luggage through the terminal, do so. I saw porters hounding guests. (at the end of our cruise, we needed a cab and we got swindled by a porter who represented himself as a cab driver. He carried/scooted our luggage a mere car length. We don't need a porter for that! We had already carried it out of the ship and down the terminal ourselves! I was pretty annoyed by the porters. Note - they are not affiliated with Carnival)

The muster drill was a bit uncomfortable. It was very muggy and hot. BUT, it's for our safety, the whole thing took about 30 minutes.

We pulled away from the pier and began our journey. You hear different stories about seasickness and the movement of the ship. I would have to say I felt 1/2 drunk the entire week. It wasn't a bad feeling, but I could definitely feel the soft rocking of the ship. One lady on the Lido deck had a harder time adjusting as she about tackled me when she lost her balance. Let me say though, it was the best sleep I've ever experienced in my entire life. I guess that's what it means to be rocked like a baby.

St Thomas - we booked an excursion to St John through Carnival. I had heard St John was beautiful and it was. Trunk Bay is a must see! Before the excursion we did some shopping near the pier for some things we forgot to bring. I hear the shopping is great but we didn't take a whole lot of time to do it.

Dominica - I had heard this island was very poor and it is, but not what I expected. It's a beatiful green, lush island. We walked the streets and soaked in the culture. We passed a school for girls, no windows, all the girls wore green uniforms, nice kids, a lot of them greeted us. The catholic church is a must see, very pretty. We took a river tubing excursion. The drive to the river took about 20 minutes, which gave us a chance to see a lot more of the island. The tubing adventure was not too adventurous, but the landscape was beautiful. The boys who escorted us down the river kept splashing us. That annoyed me. They kept saying, "no wet, no fun". When we got to the end of the river where it met the ocean, there was a family bathing in the river, another sign of Dominica's poor economics. A read a lot of reviews and talked to a couple on the ship who said they felt afraid for their safety on the island, but I didn't sense that when we walked around. However, my husband was offered "riefer" (sp?) by a young man. That was comical.

Barbados - in the morning we took a cab to "The Boatyard" for some beachtime. It was like a little club. You pay $12 to enter and $8 of it is redeemable for non motor watersports or drinks, etc. We ended up getting 2 drinks each. They had water trampolines and rock climbing. The trampolines were good for laying out in the sun. It was fun and the water was beautiful. The only thing that bothered me about this place were the people walking by trying to sell stuff. For the 4th time, no I don't want to rent a jet ski and, no, I don't want to see your jewelry. I want to relax and get some sun! Back to the ship for a quick lunch before our island tour. The tour was nice. We visited a plantation house, an old catholic church, and Gun Hill, an old sight tower. Tony, our tour guide, was comical. The tour got a little boring from time to time, but learning about the island and capturing some awesome photos was worth it.

1st Day at Sea - sunbathed on the deck, ate, rested, ate, enjoyed the nightly entertainment, ate. (Note, you will NOT go hungry on cruises!)

Aruba - Very beautiful island, the most properous of them all. A full day on the ship left me a little shaky. I could still feel the remnants of the ship movement and was lightheaded all day. However, it didn't deter from the fun. We shopped for a couple of hours, had lunch at the main plaza (food at this restaurant was not noteworthy) and headed back to the pier to snag a tour which took us to an old gold mining structure and the Natural bridge. It was definitely a must do! The Atlantic side of the island was breathtaking. The waves crashed against the rocks. We, of course, made our own little wishing rock formation. You'll see if you take a tour. Very interesting. We had the tour guide drop us off at Palm Island for some beach time (where many of the resorts were) and had a great time. Beautiful sunset! We took a city bus back near the pier for just a couple of bucks. We had dinner at the Old Fisherman restaurant. Pretty good food. The shrimp and calamari was awesome. During our tour, we saw a LOT of rented jeeps. Looked like a lot of fun and something we'll definitely do next time.

2nd Day at Sea - same as 1st Day at Sea.

Suggestions - I would suggest booking your excursions online directly with the companies, or getting them on your own at each port as you disembark for the day. We only did this in Aruba and paid MUCH less on our own than through Carnival.

I would NOT suggest renting scooters. Driving habits in these islands are scary and it looked extremely dangerous to me to be on a scooter. (also, I had a friend get killed in Taiwan while touring on a scooter). Don't put yourself in that danger.

Do yourself a favor and get a cabin with a balcony. At the very least with a window. I had never been on a cruise before, but I don't know what I would've done had I not been able to look out of a window in our cabin. You would miss out on a lot.

Disembarkation - Go to "disembarkation talk". Jorge makes a boring subject very entertaining. You need to know what to expect on the last day. It will seem like chaos if you don't know what's going on. Be patient, this is a long process!

Additional notes - Jorge (George), the cruise director was hilarious. I always enjoyed his entertainment. There were two comics on the cruise, one was funny and the other wasn't. Hit and miss. Overall, the entertainment on the ship met our needs. Nothing spectacular, but entertaining nonetheless. Our cabin #6332 was right above the Criterion Lounge so we were entertained by the band even in our cabin. I went with a totally open attitude so I didn't let it bother me. However, I could see it bothering someone else. It was LOUD, the band was clearly a Santana cover band, we could hear the music VERY clearly.

Piset, our cabin steward was fantastic, we had only one problem with our drains not draining and he had it fixed within minutes. Samuel and Nery our waitstaff in the Galaxy dining room were so nice. We gave each of them extra tips for treating us so well. If you have the same experience, be so kind as to give them extra tips. The staff works hard and puts up with a lot and they are on those ships for months at a time. I think you'll find they deserve it. My husband gave an extra tip to the maitre d (sp?) Babu. I personally never met him nor did he come to our table, but my husband felt it to be the right thing to do.

Carnival was a hit with us, and we look forward to future cruises!