A few words about packing: As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I traveled with only carry on luggage for this vacation. I had to transfer planes in both directions and didn’t want to risk it that my bags might not get to my final destination at the same time I did. I used a large backpack with several sections and a standard rolling carry on bag. I actually found that I was able to bring everything that I would have wanted. Perhaps I would have enjoyed one extra pair of shoes to wear at night, but I really didn’t feel that I was missing everything. I was able to fit 6 bathing suits, 6 pairs of shoes (beach flip flops, nicer flip flops, flat sandals for casual nights, dress heels for formal night, aqua socks, plus an old pair of sneakers which I wore on the plane), casual dresses as cover ups or shorts and tshirts for every day, casual or formal dresses for every night, all of my toiletries and electronics (iPhone, waterproof camera, regular camera, iPad, and their respective chargers), and even my snorkel mask! The only thing I didn’t fit was my big bottle of suntan lotion which I bought at CVS in San Juan when I arrived (and that would have physically fit in the bag, but TSA wouldn’t approve of such a big bottle… oh well!).

I had read all the threads that recommended people pack duct tape, over the door shoe organizers, bungee cords, and tons of other things. Since I was so tight on space, I didn’t bring any of these things and I didn’t really need them! There was plenty of storage in the cabinet in the bathroom, so no need to waste luggage space on that. The one thing I did bring was a small dry-erase board that I found at the dollar store. This proved very handy for leaving notes to our steward when we wanted extra ice or towels, or just wanted to wish him a good day! We also used it to write ourselves reminders on things we needed to pack or take care of. I suppose a pad and paper would have worked just as well, but it was convenient to just erase the message and re-write on the board. I left the board in the room on the last day with a note that I hoped the steward would have some use for it (I also left behind the two paperback books I brought, since I use a Nook to read at home and only brought the paperbacks so I could leave them on the beach while I went in the ocean without worrying about them being stolen. And we left behind half the bottle of vodka we brought on, some granola bars, and a few other things which I didn’t want to waste space with on the trip home and which might have been handy for the steward to use).

Overall, it was a great trip. I had fairly low expectations for my time spent on the ship, knowing that it was an older ship in need of some renovations and knowing that Carnival has a bad reputation for their food. With that said, I tried not to let the negative things impact my vacation, and I put most of my effort into making the most out of every minute we had in port. Would I sail on Carnival again? Possibly, but only if I couldn’t find the same itinerary on another cruise line, and only if Carnival’s prices were significantly cheaper than the other cruise lines making it hard to resist booking the trip! I do tend to prefer port-intensive cruises, so the actual ship and cruise line isn’t as much of a priority for me as things like itinerary and cost. I hope you enjoyed reading my review. Please let me know if you have any questions!