After hours and hours of research, reviews, and videos our cruise has come and gone; now its time for my take on this 5 day adventure. My wife and I have been on a NCL 7 day Caribbean cruise before but this was the first time we have taken our teenage boys. We live in Texas so a cruise liner that uses Galveston as a port was best for us, although it does leave you limited to either Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Based off of price, we chose Carnival and because one of my boys is still in HS, we limited it to a 5 day cruise. Since we had our boys we also decided to get a cabin with a balcony.

Our 5 day cruise has us on board in the afternoon, we had a full day at sea the following day, followed by day in Cozumel and day in Yucatan, followed by another day at sea and we pull into port of Galveston the next morning.

As for the balcony room, it was much more spacious for us four than I thought it would be. The queen bed is just two fulls put together. There is a sofa that turns into a sleeper and above the sofa, a bed comes out of the ceiling and the room is already set up before you arrive to your cabin. Each day the room steward makes an animal out of the bath towels which is a nice surprise. Read more