Hey guys,
Back from my Carnival Girls' Cruise, which must admit enjoyed thoroughly - however it wasn't Disney. Embarkation was painless - we had done all the paper work on line, so could go through a much shorter line. Terminal was boring and uninteresting - sort of like a big warehouse. The sail away party was pitiful - a few dances but that was it, and very poorly attended. There was no special horn - actually no horn at all! The food was great, and we had lovely table mates - all women, three groups of us in all. Our servers were nice, however did not interact with us hardly at all - focused on their job. The assistant server was a little more animated. The dinner shows consisted of the waiters singing and/or doing a conga line - okay, but nothing special. Several buffets - the chocolate was complete gluttony! Noticed when I ordered tea for after supper that did not get the box of teas to select from, just a lipton tea bag.
Much more people were dressed up for both formal nights. Not many kids noticable on board - although did overhear one man complaining about the number of kids this cruise! Heaven help him if he ever does a
Disney cruise. Must admit, despite best intentions, did not check out the kids club on board, but the shows and games were definitely adult oriented - G-rated, but certainly adult. Nothing seemed geared towards kids or families - unless it was advertised through the kids club and therefore we did not see it. Regular games on the lido deck, some got a little racy - ie: women ended up topless to give up their bikini tops for the scavenger hunt. Don't think there was much there that would have interested my two boys - other than the awesome water slide that the adults could also enjoy.
The room was good for three women. Did not miss the split bathroom because there were two separate mirror areas in the cabin. Our cabin steward was excellent, always speaking to us when he saw us around the ship - including pointing out when we were going the wrong way - "Where are you going? Your cabin is on the other side." He did keep the sofa bed made up as a bed all week - it worked okay for us, and wasn't enough of a bother to ask him to change it.
Ship was clean and neat. We were on the Valor. But it did not seem to have the polish that the Magic did. A lot of cigarette smoking on board - very noticable. Could even occasionally smell other substances!
DID NOT like how they do the picture thing. No packages available. No switching photos if liked another one later in the week. Could not stack as they took pictures down throughout the week. And if you wanted reprints, you had to buy the 8X10 at $21.95 - you don't want a whole lot of 8X10's of you and your friends, so we ended up buying very few pictures, and didn't pose for many shots because we knew they would only be printed as 8X10's. They did have a lot of variety in picture backgrounds, and even a few dress up sets - including a pirate scene! If could have bought 5X7s, they would have made much more money off of us.
Disembarking - we did the self assist, and walked off slugging our luggage to make sure that we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Just waited in our cabin until they called our floor for self disembark. When we left, they still didn't have the rest of the ship cleared from customs. Don't know how they do it on Disney - but Carnival reports to Customs purchases and winnings on the ship. One of our tablemates got held up there when she didn't declare everything she had purchased.
Think that's just about it. If think of anything else, will let you know. Glad to answer any questions. Came back glad we have this one booked for next year. Must admit, did entertain/price some
RCCL and Carnival cruises, but although a little cheaper, not what we want to do yet with the kids. But with the Canadian dollar pretty much on par with the US dollar, did cancel our booking for this cruise today - but rebooked it at the same time. Because the value of the dollar has risen so much since we originally booked in February, cancelling and rebooking saved us almost $700
Carnival over, can now focus on Disney!!! DH going "Oh No!"
Valerie
) biased towards Disney. 
