Well I'm a "newbie" cruiser, so pardon the fact that I may not have all the "CRUISE LINGO" down pat. But I calls em the way I sees em.. as some will tell ya !

Getting on the Boat:
I flew in from Toronto.. Landed in Miami,, went smoothly from airport to luggage (luggage a little slow coming - but that meant NO waiting for the guide) the on to "follow me to the bus".. my luggage went on,,,, the bus took off - and I started making my first friends....Then to the pier, point out my luggage to the porter, and into the building. 5 minute wait in line and off I went, sail and sign card in hand, and then just walked onto the boat. It was like going into a hotel.. I don't know what I expected but I was more than impressed !!!!

No fuss No muss.. It was an hour till sailing, and I'd heard about the big lineups to get on,,, so I guess most people herd onto the ship as soon as they can. which would have been a few hours earlier, so perhaps, waiting a bit is better ? I don't know. I went down to my room right away and Sandy my friend from Houston had just gotten in.. HI HONEY I'M HOME !!

	Article continues below

The Room:
Well I really expected an oversized closet.. however even though it was a category 1 cabin.. I was more than pleased. ( we actually had a cat 8 person, with balcony come down to look and they said ours was bigger ) on the map of the deck, ours was larger, perhaps just the location, right up near the front, where the ship curves in, wider, but slightly narrower. More than enough room for the very little time we spent in it. The main thing was it had 2 CLOSETS !!! The bathroom was super clean -- shower a standup, not very large, but amply adequate --- there was soap, deodorant, tylenol (oh pray tell what do they think I'd need THEM for LOL) and a few other niceties. I have to say tho that the glasses they left in the room for our "beverages" were small, so I had to keep refilling them for myself.. causing me undue hardship I must add.. Making it totally necessary to advance myself to the buffet to refresh my strength ! I really don't know what the diff between a cat 1 and a cat 4 would be,, other than money. And actually for the amount of time we spent in the room... I didn't mind NOT spending an extra 1,000.00 US to be "upper deck"... (means I saved enuff muchachos to go again !)

Porking Out:
Food was grrreat. Breakfast was little "same every day" but them I'm not a big breakfast kinda person. Throw me some coffee (coffee was not up to my "Canadian" standards LOL-- so I put Baileys into it to perk It up !!)

Great variety on the lunch buffet. And good fresh veggies..and fruit - loved that, I do try and eat healthy so after all them brewskies , martinis and "munchies of the day" in the evening, I felt right healthy chowing down on a crunchy salad !!!! For the sitdown more "formal" type lunch we only went once, good variety too, and very great food.. however we preferred the more casual atmosphere up on the lido deck for lunch. (made dinner more special) Pizza was ok.. the Chinese food was ok... didn't try a burger, can get them anywhwere, the New York Deli ,, yummy indeed !!! and MYYYY what big PICKLES they had !!!!

For the sit down more formal dinner, we started at one table and then changed - and joined a really fun bunch of people. Now you have to remember I'm a newbie at this, so I ordered one appetizer, one salad, one entree. And thought to myself ( I'll starveeeeeeeeeeee - what is this ??? -- not realizing that the guy across from me ordered one oF EVERYTING !) wellllll tell ya what, once I got the hang of "experienced cruising dinner" I was eating EVERYTHING off the menu,, one of this, 2 of that. Oh yes and can I have some CRACKERS with my BRIE ??????? We had lobster one nite, and yes I asked for another piece of TAIL. voila I got that quicker than saying " can I buy you another drink !"

The desserts were great - I enjoyed all the food I ordered.. all 7 tons of it LOL... And it was great that the portions were small, enabling you to chow down mucho foodo.

Although I do have to say I'm a "spicey food" kinda girl and there wasn't much spicey on the menu , so next time, I'm going to take a few bottles of hot sauce. On Jamaica I did have some realllly excellent jerk chicken.. but I have to admit, I missed the POW BAM in your face kinda spice I like to do at home. NO ONE on the ship knew how to make a Bloody Caesar, which is typical of the U.S. As well (not knocking you guys, it's just a fact, it's not a common drink anywhere cept here I guess - where we need the HEAT and the WARMTH of the tabasco/clamato to warm our innards as we sit in our igloos).

The Big Sun Porch on top of the Boat:
It was tough to get a deck chair up on the sundecks.. (newbie I am, I think they are called lido decks).. Anyway, what I think people do is get a wakeup call and go put some stuff on couple chairs, saving them , which isn't fair, but then life is not a box of chocolates. So I said to Sandy, hell, lets just drop our towels on the deck and stretch out. NO PROBLEM MON. We drank and sunned ourselves quite sufficiently and to be honest it was a GREAT view as the men walked buy in their boxer style bathing suits. OH la la... ( Juan, I am in LOVE !!! )

The Big Easy (or clam bar LOL) great. This guy played piano and sang Elton John, Billy Joel, etc.. I KNEW THE WORDS.. it was great.. stuff I enjoy.. Met a lot of fun people here, and ran back into them.. hehe.

The disco.. well I didn't know some of the music, but didn't stop me from dancing, and yes they can look up from below and see under your dress. So I made sure to have my email address embroidered on my panties. I've heard from 27 men so far !! ( just kidding )

The Oxford Lounge - where they smoke cigars, little more subdued, but I can do that too, and I love the smell of a good cigar..

Rio Lounge. Had a couple of "freebie parties" there - ( to note if you are a new cruiser, check off that you have already cruised carnival before, you get invited to a "repeaters nite". free drinks ! --- suck em back and enjoy ! )

We found the canapes at the freebie parties not the greatest.. but hell not like there was nowhere else to eat !! ( 24 hrs/day )

The Wine Bar - grrrrrrrrrreat Martinis - ask Kris to make them he's great.

The Cruise Director:
John Heald.. well I know if you've cruised before you've seen the "spoon thing" but I had never so it was hilarious, and yes some of the "anecdotes" I know were probly not exactly true, but they were funny. And although I'd heard some of it before John had such a presence and a personality, that he could tell the "chicken crossed the road joke" and still get a laff. For the "getting off the boat talk" I silently applauded him when he didn't go on and on and on about tipping, he said " this is this and its up to you".. He may do some of the same "skids" on a regular basis, and maybe has some "help" from the audience, but it was "entertainment" and that is what I went for.. to Lafff and Relax. I had read about him,, and to be honest he wasn't what I had pictured.. But he was MORE than I expected. Hats Off to John !! and OHIO>>>>>>>>

Getting around the Boat:
At first seemed daunting, but decks 5 and 9 --- most of everything was there.

Picture and Videos:
They take a HORDE of pics.. but you know, they are so good at it and it's rarely that I go for a pro shot. I got some great pics of Sandy and I and some great ones of myself. I am going to be front and center on my parents PHOTO wall now !!

Other people on the Boat:
There were 3400 people on board, 850 kids, 1000 crew, but it never seemed crowded. Lot of kids, but they were never a problem in "my" opinion. John said they had people from 51 countries in the world working on the boat.

Getting off the Boat:
I had to go to Immigration at 7AM. Bummer but c'est la vie. Took bout an hour to get through it.. then we went to sit down breaky.. Then to the rome lounge for 9"15. It was an hour 10 min before we were called. Off we went. Slowly but not tooo slowly to the pier house to get our bags. It seemed like mayhem at first but cleared fast. Our bags were nowhere to be seen. Slightly panicked both Sandy and I missing our bags talked to Carnival reps, who were calm and helpful and eventually found our luggage with the VIP bags. ( ahh one day ! )

Other comments:
One thing that truly annoyed me --- Thursday was American Thanksgiving, which is fine. But singing 'GOD BLESS AMERICA" I don't think so. All the staff has to stop and sing this song, like they mean it. (one other patriotic type song, which I don't know the name of ) I honestly felt a little insulted. I'm sure they don't sing OH CANADA on July 1. Or God save the Koala Bear on October 14th.

The ATM machine never worked. I wanted to get some further US $$ but the only way I could get it without costing me an arm and a leg, was to take my Sail and Sign card to the casino cashier and say I wanted to get 300.00 worth of chips on it.. they give you a slip, you go to the crap table, get it in 50.00 chips and then take it back and cash it out. (pain in the butt, but avoided the 14% fee)

Sandy won the 2nd slot tourney 250.00 US Yippeeeeee Last night out Sandy and I hit a 500.00 US jackpot on video Poker. YIPPEEEE

I had believed that a "singles cocktail party" was supposed to happen -NOT.. didn't, disappointed in that.. really.. however I'm a kind of a social butterfly/kinda/smart ass kinda girl, so I made lotsa friends anyway.

We were on main deck, and at times there was an obnoxious kinda "sewage smell" on our floor near the elevators. Being a new ship they're probably working out the kinks, I HOPE so.

They have a great spa on board,, all up to date equipment, treadmills, steppers, bikes, free-weights, just great.. I watched it all from the hot tub - those people were really sweating ! I did however enjoy the benefits of the steam room , the sauna, the hot tubs.

We had been told we couldn't bring alcohol on board. We had alcohol in our checkin luggage, as well as pop. NO problem.

Both Sandy and I went down the big water slide couple times, hilarious, we talked to a couple of young girls, 9 and 10, they were really cool.

Towel animals, we had heard about them, but forgot about them. The third night in, we came a "wandering" ( not stumbling mind you ) in and there was this creature sitting on Sandy's bed ,,, with her GLASSES on... ohhhhhh we almost peeeed our pants... it was the best. Rudolph had done good !

All in All
Grrrrrrrrrrreat time !!!!! I'd go again in a minute. It's the kind of cruise you could go on your own. It's the kind of holiday that a family could really enjoy - no meal planning - no trip planning - no hassle.

There were so many friendly people. All the staff we had contact with were friendly and helpful and some were funny and just plain GREAT !! They made you feel like real people, not just " a guest on the boat they are working on"..

On whole..... Like I said.. give me a sail and sign card, AND SHOW ME THE GANGWAY !!!!!!!!