Island Hoppers Rule

I have been on 7 different Carnival ships. Some newer some smaller. I love to cruise and leave port ready to have a great time.

1st. The ship itself. A bit older but very clean. We were in an Empress Balcony. Our cabin was great with no complaints at all. Our cabin steward Pete was fantastic. Cleaned our room twice a day without asking & always had fresh ice for us in there.

2. Entertainment- Fantastic. There shows Rock legends & 80's Rock were great fun. Flick their new show was Brilliant. We like to participate in the ship activities such as the various trivia and deck parties. Comedians were fantastic too. We were usually up by 8 and didn't go to sleep until 2. There never seemed enough time to get everything in.

3. Food. Lido was so so. Typical buffet food you find anywhere. Blue Iguana was fantastic for burritos. Pizza Pirate Excellent. Vijay knew to have a whole pizza ready for me at 1:00am every night. MDR was actually pretty good. Peter are server in YTD was fantastic. A few times we had to wait 10 to 15 minutes to get in because we wanted to wait for him. If we had a show to get to he made sure we were out on time. Our food was hot & quite good. Many great appetizers. There wasn't a lot of options like the Magnolian Wok though.

4. Casio- Casino Bar was a favorite meeting place for all of us. We played a few machines but only for fun. We heard from the serious players they weren't paying out though. It was not as busy as we usually see on other cruises. Smokey more by the bar than at the machines.

5. Pools- Plenty of room & poolside service was great especially up on Deck 10 smoking area. A favorite place to gather after breakfast. Plenty of open chairs at Lido.

6. Hayley the new cruise director scores a 10. Genuine, down to earth and a lot of fun. We looking forward to cruising with her again.

7. Ports. Fantastic as usual. GT we are always at Jacks, DR was rainy so we only walked in the small port area a bit. Curacao's Brilliant time. We wander the port area & shops for a few hours the took the Island Hopping tour bus. Loved this port. Aruba. Local bus down to Eagle's Beach and then back to port area & Native Flea market. Not enough time here.

8. Embarking-Easy On the ship within 40 minutes. Luggage to our room by 4. Disembarking- We are never in a hurry to get off. Got off about 11. Almost 1 1/2 hours in customs. There were 6 ships that all were in. I'm a TA & never knew this but this is the largest cruise port. Advice for those that fly-check how many ships will be coming in that morning & plan accordingly. If you have an Iphone there is an apt & you'll get thru in 20 to 30 minutes.

Ask you can see I had a great time. I saw some of the previous cruise & was a bit surprised in some of the comments. Any staff we encountered was excellent. I did see some people during the week acting snooty and guess what they got the service their demeanor suggested. We get involved and have fun. We had guest on the week before, loved it so much they booked it again for April. We had guest get off today some thought there were to many kid activities. It was the same itinerary as our so I don't know what they are referring to. Cruising is what you make of it. If you want luxury this isn't the cruise for you. If you want fun & to meet a bunch of new people this is it.