We had a group of eight people including my husband and myself age ranged from 30 - 50. On Friday January 7, 2005, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale, rented a van and drove to Miami to spend the night. We live in the Midwest and were worried about the weather, so we decided to fly down a day early. It was about $80 a person cheaper to fly into Ft. Lauderdale and rent a car than it was to fly into Miami (at the time we booked). We booked our Friday night’s stay at the Courtyard Marriott which I think was a great value, it was within walking distance of Bayside Mall and we paid $89 +taxes for each room, which included two breakfast buffets. The hotel also had a van pickup to take us to the Port of Miami on Saturday for $5 a person.

Saturday – Embarkation: We arrive at the Port of Miami and since all four of our rooms were booked as guaranteed, we needed to check with the porters for our room numbers so we could get our luggage at a reasonable time. The rooms we booked were two balcony rooms and two inside rooms, they were both very spacious and the balcony was well worth the extra $500 we paid to have one. Otherwise, your luggage goes into a holding room until they can figure out where to deliver it to… The porter was very accommodating; we tipped him very well (about $10 a couple) for his help. Embarkation was okay, we had to wait in line for about a half an hour and once we received our sign and sail cards, took our picture, we were on our way to drop off our carry-on and to the Lido Deck Pool for a couple of drinks (I was unable to drink, because I just found out I was pregnant) I had a great time anyway, thank goodness for virgin pina colada’s…

Sunday – At Sea: There were a lot of activities especially around the main pool. One of the guys in our group competed in the hairy chest contest, we thought he should of won, but he didn’t. Our dining room was the Paris Dining room early seating at 5:45; we thought that was a great time. My other cruises we had late dinner and at 8:00, it just seemed kind of late to eat dinner. Having early dinner, we still had time to take photos and shop and get a good seat in any of the bars on board.

Monday – Cozumel: My husband and another guy in our group went on the ATV excursion offered through Carnival, it was $99 each person. They thought it was very fun and worth the money. The rest of us went to Chankanaab Park because a couple of the girls wanted to Swim with the Dolphins at Dolphin Discovery. We booked that on our own because they saved about $50 a person vs. the ship prices. They booked the Royal Swim for $125 a person and said it was worth every penny. The park is very nice, it has white sand beaches and pathways through a small forest, lagoon and snorkeling. It is $12 a person to enter the park. After the park, we went back to the ship, met up with the other guys, had lunch and off shopping downtown. We shopped a little and ended up at Senor Frogs and Carlos & Charlie’s, we had such a great time there. People of all ages were there from young to old, so we didn’t feel out of place. I told our group we should leave about 11:00 pm to make sure we get back to the ship on time. We made it with no problem, but we did watch a few girls come in right at midnight, I think we were getting ready to take off, when they came running down the pier.

Tuesday – At Sea: Another day roaming around the ship during the day and formal night for dinner.

Wednesday – Grand Cayman: We knew that we wanted to go snorkeling and Stingray City. We opted to go independent and save about $30 a person vs. the ship’s prices. We tendered to Grand Cayman and signed up with Harbor Side Excursions, they first took us to Stingray City and then Snorkeling at Coral Gardens. It was great and sure worth the $35 a person. The boat even made a stop and a couple guys jumped off and pulled seven conch shells off the bottom, proceeded to kill the muscle inside and handed out the shells. Two couples we were with received shells for their kids. We wanted to do some shopping, but it was so expensive we did not buy a thing. I am assuming they have raised their prices to compensate for the loss due to the hurricane.

Thursday – Ocho Rios Jamaica: We really didn’t have any plans for Jamaica; we knew we wanted to shop. We hired a red license plate driver (government owned), he dropped us off at the shopping mall and came back about 1 ½ later to pick us up, went buy Dunn’s River Falls and then drove us around Fern Gully and up on the mountain so we could get some great pictures of our ship at the pier. The only issue we had was when we hired the taxi driver, he told us $5 a person just for Dunn’s River Falls and shopping and then when we got out of the taxi at the pier, he upped the price to $15 a person because he drove us around more. We didn’t mind the extra price, but we sure did not tip him then, because we felt scammed.

Friday – At Sea: By today we are running out of things to do on the ship, I am not a sun-bather so I did not want to lay by the pool, plus it was about 90 degrees plus humidity. So I opted to pack.

Saturday – Debarkation: Went very smoothly, this was the fastest we were ever off the ship. We were in the warehouse picking up our luggage at 9:00 am. Then picked up a taxi to take us back to Ft. Lauderdale airport (taxi ride was $15 a person + tip) to head back to Chicago.

We all had a great time, I know that other cruise lines offer better food and higher standard of service, but we just wanted a cruise line that we could be casual and was in our price range. Carnival fits right into our specifications.