ali6879

If you are returning to the Budget that's code is P2E or something like that then yes they have a shuttle. Keep in mind - gas stations are a little hard to find in the immediate vicinity so try to fuel up a little way out from there.

10:30 should be fine for Miami.

Gonna be on her in July. Do you have the "funtimes" available?

I only have the last day. We don't keep them anymore.

10:30 should be a good time for you. Once they start calling zones, it goes very quickly, it's not a long wait time at all in between each number. :) Have fun on your cruise!

We booked this cruise as a getaway for my husband and I. We've been cruising with Carnival for 10 years and have been on the smaller as well as larger ships.

We flew in and spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriott. It was fine, nothing spectacular but what I expect and like about Marriott. We went to the port the next morning and arrived there around 10:30AM. We dropped bags off to the baggage area right next to the port entrance and walked in. It was actually a very quick process to get in and go through all the embarkation process. We waited in the waiting area til about 11:15 (we were group #4).

The ship itself is very nice, and easy to navigate if you've been on Carnival ships before. We had a cabin on the Lido deck, in the same location we stayed on the Freedom. It was very close to Lido, but still pretty quiet in the room which is what we wanted.

Muster Drill - This was in the lounge and SO much better when it's indoors, vs outside when it's hot and you have a ton of people standing in close proximity to each other.

Dining - we were in the Blush Dining Room at 6PM. Service - I loved our waitress. She was absolutely the nicest. However, the changes in the dining room have made service slower. The main server is also taking drink orders, getting the orders, getting the drink orders from the bar, and bringing the food out from the kitchen. This has slowed the dining process considerably.

Food - it was ok. Nothing spectacular and that makes me sad because when we first started sailing with Carnival, it was excellent. Quality and variety has definitely been on a decline for some time now and I don't really care for the new American Table Menu.

Cucina Del Capitano - this was our first experience with Cucina. Again, I thought it was just ok. I wasn't blown away. We likely will not dine here again for the fee. In addition, it's right near the basketball court and all you could hear the entire time was the basketball being thrown against the wall.

Ports - We enjoyed them. Falmouth, we did the Secrets All Inclusive excursion. I had been to this resort previously on a business trip and have wanted to go there for a vacation so it gave my husband a chance to check it out (we will be booking it).

Grand Cayman - we just wandered around, having been here a few times before

Cozumel - we did the waverunner/snorkeling. We really enjoyed this one and the location it was at was just gorgeous.

Entertainment -

Comedy Clubs are always something we love with Carnival. However, they absolutely need to be in a different location. When there were multiple shows a night, they made everyone leave and get in line to come back in. It was a ridiculous way to handle getting everyone in there and there were a few that were too full for everyone. Knowing the popularity of these clubs, Carnival needs a better system.

Production shows - we enjoy Playlist Productions shows so we were happy with the ones we saw.

We had a magician - Bobby Borgia - and a juggler and both were quite good.

The highlight of the entertainment for us was Dr. E as a cruise director. He was absolutely wonderful. He was fun, engaging, and everywhere he was, there was a crowd. People loved him and he was having a great time and it showed. The 80s music trivia was a highlight for me - absolutely would book a cruise with him as cruise director again.

Disembarkation - this was not as smooth as embarkation. It was a long process and the baggage claim in Miami is ridiculous compared to other ports we've cruised out of. This isn't Carnival's fault specifically but there are much better ways to collect bags and Miami really could take a lesson from them (i.e. putting the bags in the location of the zone number, not all crowded on a carousel like at an airport).

A few overall thoughts:

-I've posted before but they are now having people swipe their card each time they get a soda with the soda card. This generates a receipt and we weren't sure if a gratuity was expected each time since it is charged at the time of purchasing the program. If they are trying to do this for inventory control or checking the card to make sure the correct person is getting it, maybe not generating a receipt would be a good idea.

-Food - sadly, was not a highlight anywhere. It was ok. Breakfast was the same each day. My husband has had Guy's Burgers on other ships and said these were not good. He only went twice this trip, vs every day on other cruises (thinking maybe the first time was just a bad day). I understand they are trying to cut costs but when it comes at the expense of the experience of cruising, it's time to rethink the strategy.

Service - overall, outstanding. We never came across a cranky staff member and that's saying a lot :) There were some concerns with the dining staff but our waitress herself was great, it was just that the overall demands placed on her made the time of service take much longer than it normally does.

Entertainment - I know I mentioned this above but please Carnival - figure something else out for the comedy clubs. Put them in the main lounge if you need to but it is absolutely ridiculous to make everyone stand in a line and wait to get in, and then empty the club and go back in line to come back in for the next one. This needs some attention as the comedy clubs are among the most popular entertainment features on the ship.

Overall, the cruise was good. It was relaxing, we enjoyed ourselves. We liked the Breeze as a ship but we prefer the Conquest class ships for deck space - the Breeze had limited seating and we found ourselves wandering all over looking for open deck chairs. We do understand some of that is just the design of the ship deck layout. We will likely sail Carnival again as we have many times over the past 10 years but I'm sad to see some of the changes away from what we liked about them in the beginning.

We just had him on the Breeze. He is hands-down the best cruise director we have ever come across. Whatever he is hosting - go there. You're in for a great cruise :)

Thanks for the replies. It just caught me off guard and I feel really bad about putting a $0 down for a tip - past waitress in me I guess. They did tell us that you are only able to get 1 soda every 5 minutes so maybe that's their way of controlling that?

isaiahsnana, that's a great story! Good for your grandson - such a sweet gesture!

We cruise with Carnival around once a year or so. We just got back from the Breeze and the one thing that has changed is that they run your card every time you order a soda. They give you a receipt to sign with a place to tip.

Now, I am in no way against tipping, and probably tip more than normal, but this one kind of bothers me. There is a tip when you purchase the card - are we now expected to tip every time we go to get a soda? I'm not talking about the lido drink servers (I totally agree that's a service to have them bring you a drink there, or in the show lounge, etc) but for someone going up to the bar and the bartender just pouring it out of a can into a glass - is that now an expected gratuity on top of paying the gratuity at the time of purchasing the soda card?

We did eat in the main dining room, they had the old menus.

We didn't visit either...we aren't big drinkers so we didn't stop by either one.

We are me, my husband, and my daughter who is 17. We have cruised Carnival more than a few times and we booked this cruise as both a celebration for my birthday as well as my daughter's graduation gift.

We flew in the night before, as we live in AZ, and stayed at the Comfort Suites Port Everglades. We called a cab in the morning to take us to the port (shuttle from the hotel charged more than a cab did) and arrived at the port around 10:45.

Check in was seamless, which is high praise in Port Everglades. We have had some cruises from there that were just awful for embarkation, so this one was nice and easy. We were on the ship by 11:45. The ship is one of my favorites in terms of deck plans - we've been on the Liberty before which is the sister ship, so we knew what the layout would be. Lots of open deck space, never fighting for a chair.

We had lunch on Lido, which was ok. That would be the theme of Lido dining unfortunately throughout the cruise. Nothing was great there. That was especially disappointing, as I feel Carnival has gone downhill on the food front.

Nassau was our first stop and it poured just about the entire time we were there. The next day was Half Moon Cay which we liked for location, but the food was not good. Burgers were burned, no real selection for anyone who does not eat meat (I don't). The beach area was nice though and we had hoped to have a nice beach day. Unfortunately, the weather turned quickly to a thunderstorm after lunch, and by thunderstorm, I mean lightning striking the water. This is a tender port, so we went into line for the tender boats to go back. The organization of the lines to go back on the boats was terrible. We were in line for one, it filled up, and they directed us to then go into the line on the other side for the other boat. Well, the majority of the people very far behind us chose to cut us off and go to that line too. It was an absolute mess from an organization point of view. This needs to be addressed and fixed.

On the way back to the ship, it was pouring and, as I said, a severe storm was over us. Being on a metal tender boat in the middle of the ocean was probably not the best of ideas. I don't blame Carnival for the weather (at all) but I do think that perhaps this stop should have been cancelled. This was an absolute safety issue and when I asked the crew if they normally allow passengers off in a storm such as this, all of them said no. The gangway to the tender boat actually became dislodged about halfway through our tendering back on the ship, and all of the passengers of the tender boat were standing waiting while they repaired it with the lightning striking not far from us.

Grand Turk was a nice day and we just walked around the port area, went to the beach, and relaxed.

On board entertainment -- Macio, the comedian, was absolutely the best part of this cruise. The other comedian was ok, but Macio packed the comedy club full every single night. It was standing room only. The production shows were fantastic. The past few cruises we have been on, production shows have just been ok. On the Freedom, they were very well-done, and I enjoyed all of them. Love and Marriage show was also fun as always.

The new areas of the ship were done nicely.

Teen Club - this is one of my daughter's favorite parts of cruising and, unfortunately, the last time she will be able to participate in the kids groups as she will be 18 later this year. The Teen Club was not well organized. There was no mention in the capers about the times that it would be open, no mention of even where to go to sign them up. We passed by Club O2 after we were on board the first day and no notice on the door as to where to go to sign her up. Not as well put together as past cruises we have been on.

Our waiters and cabin steward were great, we were called by name every time we met them in the hallways or around the ship, which was nice, since it's been many years since that has happened on Carnival.

The ship arrived back in port on time, and we walked off. The lines in customs were LONG. There were only 2 people working for most of the time we were in line. Again, not the fault of Carnival, but something to be aware of if people had early flights.

Overall, the cruise was good, but not fantastic. We have seen things be better handled on other Carnival ships so some things were disappointing and didn't live up to what we expected. Other things, such as the production shows, were excellent and above expectations. We won't stop cruising with Carnival over it but we do hope that these items that were below expectation can be fixed.

We are doing a 4 day in March and got a mini-suite for $399 a person. I'm pretty happy with the pricing :D

And they were fantastic with the most recent price drop - I'm happy to have Princess on the West Coast but truth be told, I'd rather sail to the Caribbean and get the warmer weather. But for a quick getaway local to home, I'll take it.

There are plenty of cabs right outside the baggage area in the airport (was there last month for a convention).It is a FAR drive from the airport, about 30 minutes or more depending on traffic. I would NOT rent a car. Between the parking fees on all the hotels, the pain in the neck of driving through the French Quarter, and the fact that anything you want to see as a tourist in NOLA is in walking distance from the French Quarter, it isn't worth it IMHO. Enjoy, I am already dying for April 2008 when I can go back there to get more beignets!!

Celebration (he just got there for my cruise) = Placido Tumminello