This cruise was the first cruise for myself and the fourth for my husband. We found the ship to be in good condition.

We had an outside stateroom which I found to be roomier than what I had expected. We met our cabin steward shortly after arriving in our stateroom. He was polite for the most part but seemed to lack in the personality department. Our stateroom was always kept clean. We did have to make a point that he needed to knock before entering our stateroom. So overall the service in this area was okay.

We ate every night in the Spirit Dining Room. Our servers were wonderful. They were always willing to go above and beyond in order to make sure we had everything that we needed. Our waiter was very quiet for the most part but was personable and very willing to make suggestions if you were unsure of what to order. Everyone at our table enjoyed the service we received. The first night the food in the dining room was top notch. Everyone at the table was very impressed with both the presentation as well as the flavor of our choices. Unfortunately, it did seem that as time went on the quality of the food went downhill. The food was never bad but it never was as good as the first nights dinner.

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For breakfast and lunch we normally ate at the buffet, burger bar or had pizza. The pizzas were everything I had been told to expect and more. The staff were also more than happy to make any pizza you wanted. My husband and I looked forward to trying new pizza's whenever we wanted lunch or a snack. The first time we went to the burger bar, the burgers were among the best I have ever had. However, we later discovered when you went to get a burger would determine how good it would be. They would store the burgers in a warmer when it wasn't so busy and those were just not that good at all. On a couple of occasions we were told that the burgers were not fully cooked which was very surprising. We however did not experience this.

On our first sea day we went to some of the scheduled events that were set up by the entertainment staff. We quickly discovered that the cruise director was not as entertaining as her associates were. I never heard the name of the guy that I thought was the best. He organized and ran the Hairy Chest contest on the Lido Deck the last day at sea. He was hysterical and fun to watch. He was also able to get the guys participating to come out of their shells and put on a great show for everyone watching. Carnival really needs to look at promoting this guy as he is wonderful.

We had two ports of call on our cruise. We first went to Grand Cayman. Having grown up in Florida it was very sad to see all of the remaining damage from Ivan the Terrible. What was very inspiring was to see the locals positive attitude, despite all of the work still ahead of them in the rebuilding process. While in Grand Cayman we visited the Turtle farm which was very educational. We also did a quick stop at the Tortuga Rum Factory and sampled some of their rum cakes which were wonderful. We could have sampled some of the rum, but it was just a bit early in the day for our systems. After that we drove out to Hell to send some postcards home. When we got back onto our tour bus, we were due to go out to Stingray City. We were informed that the waters were very rough and given the option of not going. None of us took them up on that. We had a nice boat ride out to the sandbar, where we donned our life vests, masks and snorkels and jumped into the water. When they told us the waters were rough they were not kidding but it didn't stop any of us from having a great experience.

The next day we were in Ocho Rios. There we took the Cool Runnings, Dunn's River Falls tour. The crew on Cool Runnings were wonderful. They got everyone up and dancing on our way to the Falls. They also pointed out some neat points of interest. When we arrived at the Falls, we were introduced to our guides that would be taking us up the Falls. These guys were great. They we very patient with those that were having trouble maneuvering their way up the falls, they were also right there whenever someone needed help. They made a few stops on the way up the falls to allow us to slide down a small area of the falls or just play around a bit. After our trip up the falls we then headed back to Cool Runnings for our trip back. We were then served with Rum Punch which they were not stingy with the punch many of us actually choose to remix the drinks in order to add more punch.

The last day at sea was calmer than the previous days had been. We somehow managed to get one of the highly sought after pool chairs right by the pool on the Lido deck. We spent most of the day soaking in the sun and listening to the Calypso Bank that spent the afternoon entertaining everyone. It was a wonderful day at sea.

There were a couple of ship employee's that really made our cruise special. First was "Sushi" a bar server that mostly worked by the pool on the Lido deck. He met us the first day of the cruise and knew our names right away. In the evenings he would go inside and work where he was needed. No matter where he was if he saw us, he immediately greeted us by name and told us what was going on the evening that he thought we would enjoy. He quickly learned our likes and dislikes and was able to suggest drinks to try. By the time the cruise was half over Kevin swore I was going to pack him into my suitcase and bring him home. (Not a bad idea) The other person that made our cruise was Miguel our Maitre'd. He made a point of stopping by our table every night and talking with all of us. He was very helpful in suggesting wines for dinner for everyone at our table. He was much more visible than the Maitre'D from the other dining room.

All in all we truly enjoyed our cruise and I am now addicted.