All of the important parts of this cruise were great: embarkation and debarkation were fast and easy, weather was hot and mostly sunny, all the ports were open, the food was nice as always, and the service was excellent. We had an aft balcony cabin (#7465 - worth the small added cost for the extra space) and our steward was attentive and genuinely friendly. The new shows are wonderful, the double chocolate frappe at the coffee bar is amazing and, of course, the omelettes in the Lido at 7am make the whole voyage worthwhile. Also, the excursion to Merida (Progreo) was a treat. And, clearly, this ship had been scrubbed while it was out of service: everything was sparkling clean, from the windows to the closets. Overall, we loved the trip and are glad we went.

Only one complaint: (gotta have one of those): Carnival has eliminated some basic services and instead hopes you will drag your cell phone around on vacation. The over-reliance on rickety onboard "wifi" and the requirement to charge, carry and use your own phone for all basic ship information were the only things about this trip that did not work at all. No one answered calls at Customer Service ("Just use the Carnival Hub on your phone!") No paper menus were available at dinner. ("Just use the Carnival Hub on your phone!") Excursion tickets were not delivered to the room. ("Just use the Carnival Hub on your phone!") And - no more paper event schedule (Fun Times) delivered to your room each night. ("Just use the Carnival Hub on your phone!") I'm willing to pay extra to get the paper Fun Times again, in order to have venue times, drink specials, events going on, movies playing, times for different restaurants, even the local contact info and weather details.- in my back pocket, with NO phone needed. You can almost hear someone in the Carnival marketing department saying, "Oh, no one reads those old paper things any more. Just make them use their own cell phones. It will be great!" Yeah, no.

I love Carnival and we sail twice a year - but - bring those paper FunTimes back. I don't want to use my cell phone on vacation. Leaving my phone off is why I am on your ship! Please- I am willing to pay a small fee to have the paper version back - and I know for a fact my dining room companions would have borrowed a paper dinner menu if they could have found one! :-) Read more