Sunday the 17th we got up by 9 AM took a taxi from South Beach to the Port, it was $ 23.00. Make sure you have your luggage tags filled out & on your suitcases by now, once at the port they grab the suitcases & you’re off to the embarkation building, if your forms are all filled out you can immediately enter the start of the lines. We arrived by 12:30 & it took until 2:00 to get on to the ship, yes the lines are long, but the time went fast with the excitement getting closer.
Once onboard we went to our cabins. Hubby & I were upgraded from 8A to 8C with a balcony & great cabin. Not sure I will ever cruise without a balcony again, it was absolutely wonderful. The boys were upgraded from lower deck to our floor 8C, inside cabin. It was crowded because they had a rollaway in there, plus 3 of them I personally was very clasterphobic. After checking out the cabins we walked around for about an hour, got a drink & something to eat, got the life vests & went to the lifesaving drill, very hot & crowded. Then back to our balcony, from there we watched the ship leave Miami. From that moment on I knew we were going to have a good time Once we set sail we walked around getting to know the different locations. The ship is beautiful, I loved all of the different colors used throughout & the many designs. Some of the food was delicious, some not as good, but the way I looked at it, it was great, since I didn’t have to cook.LOL The shows were entertaining & I’m glad I attended them all. We don’t gamble so didn’t spend any time in the casino. We spent a lot of time in the piano bar, although the regular host, Bobby(seemed to drink to much) was not as entertaining or as fun as one of the passengers who jumped in & took over a few times, It got alittle crazy in there at times. Some nights we would go to the Disco & when we had enough of the loud music would get a late night pizza snack & return to the balcony to do whatever. LOL In the morning we would order room service & go to the balcony for about an hour as we wake up, WHOW.Life was good, beware though, even though the balconies seemed private, certain times of the day you could see the reflection through the plexiglass into your neighbors balcony, HUMMM. LOL I loved the days at sea,never did get bored.
The 1st day at sea is also the 1st Formal night, this was when I met some of my CC friends,Hi everyone, Sherie, Al, Nathan & Ashley,(my boys still can’t believe you are only 17) Mel, Freddie & Shortstuf, Looney & the Judge (Don). It was so nice to see familiar faces around the ship after the meeting & I was still looking for the rest of the group from descriptions I had gotten, before the cruise had ended I had also met Valroy & hubby & Ms. B & family, sorry I missed the rest of you. The next day was our 1st stop at San Juan & was, as most have said, a waste of time, although I had read & gotten recommendations for the Bioluminence Kayak Tour,So I did sign up, not knowing anything about what I had gotten myself into. So words of advise research & ask ??? about the excursions. I figured we would be on a large kayak with a guide, WRONG. You & one other person(my hubby) get into a kayak all by yourselves & off you go into the dark, cold, ocean, through the waves!!! to a lagoon, if you get the kayak sideways at all over you go, you need to keep up with a guide who takes off in the dark through a narrow channel to the lagoon about a 4 mile trek, well 1st of all I don’t like the water, I’ve never even been close to a Kayak nor do I understand the 1st thing about using one. So hubby basically told me to sit still & do nothing! Yea right!!! I was in the front having to tell him when another kayak or a tree branch was going to wipe us out !!!!Anyway we are still married, but I will probably never get in or near another Kayak as long as I live, had we known what the excursion was, we would have never gone.
The boys opted to stay in San Juan & went to a club called Lazer, they had a great time, while we were freezing & riding in an old bus for 1 ½ hrs.each way to & from the excursion.What an experience I have so many stories about this, but will move on. The next day we went to St. Croix. You stop at Fredrickstad, which is the smaller of the 2 cities, so we taxied to Christianstad, better shopping, about 40 min. away. We got into a taxi van, 11 of us total,so it was $5 apiece. Once there we took a ferry $ 3. RT to a small island, Hotel on the Cay. This place is still alittle run down from the last hurricane.
The guys all rented snorkeling equipment & saw a few fish the waters were rough here, but other passengers who stayed near the Victory stop at Fredrickstad, who snorkelled said they saw lots of fish there. So depends on the weather conditions. St.Croix has a festival called Harbor Nights, with lots of tables, venders, music & stilt walkers that are very entertaining. Here is where we bought a lot of souvenirs. The last stop St. Thomas is the most beautiful. We got off the ship right away & went to Havensight Mall right near the port & did our shopping, also took the Paradise Tram(within walking distance)to the top of a hillside overlooking the whole area, just breathtaking & a great place to take pictures. Then back to the ship in time for the Kon Tiki Party Boat Tour, unlimited rum punch, makes your tongue & lips a bright red, lots of music, limbo, dancing etc. you go to a beach relax for about an hour,while still drinking the rum, then back on the party boat, hoping everyone can still walk. We then attempted to do some more shopping. LOL The Victory left at 5:30 so not a whole lot of time here to do everything. The last time I was in St. Thomas we took the tour to St. John to snorkel & would probably do that again over the Kon Tiki since the island is so beautiful & once on the party boat you miss everything else, but it was an experience. LOL We found liquor prices to be the cheapest at Al Cohens near the mall & had no problem getting a couple of bottles onto the ship. I had purchased the drink coupons & also not one problem with them, used them everywhere & for all the mixed drinks,except drink of the day in the souvenir glass, but OK without the fancy glass. Found them to be a great savings with less hassle, plus saved adding up the sail & sign card.
My only complaint is the photo gallery, It is almost impossible to find your pictures, then if you don’t buy them right away they move them around to make room for new ones. People can’t help but to paw through them messing everything up & they take so many 8X10’s that you have to order that size, you can not get that picture in a 5X7, well I don’t need all 8X10’s, so didn’t buy as many as I would have if I could of gotten smaller prints, plus just got frustrated looking for the pictures after awhile, so really think they need to improve this area.
Never had a big problem finding deck chairs, would take the ones with just towels on them, no one ever asked me leave. Spent some time in the Black & Sea Lounge for Kareoke, but fills up fast so if you want a seat be sure to get there early. Read your Carnival Caper as soon as you get it to help you plan out your day,I took a highlighter & marked the things I wanted to do. there are so many things that only happen 1 time, so if you miss it you will lose out. I did go to the salon & had my hair done for 2nd formal night.It was $41.00 plus tip & I could have done better myself, not real happy with the 30 minute quickie.

Disembarkation was so much better, we put our luggage out at night. The loud speakers start sounding by 8AM, went & had breakfast & back to the room to finish gathering up the last minute items. Then to the Lido deck & waited for our color tags to be called, exited the ship around 10:30, allot faster than entering. The nightmare begins when you get to customs. There are rows & rows of luggage that you need to search through & if you get lucky you will find yours. You look for the color of the tags, so don’t forget that, We had tied bright red yarn on the handles & helped to identify ours, since they all look alike, so you might want to try something like that. After going up & down the rows grabbing & pulling to get all your luggage gathered you go through the customs lines, this part was smooth, have the paperwork filled out & you are on your way back to the real world We flagged down a taxi van, paid $60.00 to take 5 of us with all of our luggage to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Made our connecting flights. I would be glad to answer any ???? Remember your vacation is what you make it. Mine was a Blast. Sorry this is so long, but didn’t want to leave anything out.

Kirbi