Gabruska

First time sailing with Carnival and from Charleston. We stayed in Mt. Pleasant at Red Roof Inn (very nice Red Roof Inn I was shocked) I searched and searched for the best deal, but not a dump and this was the best deal believe me.(call them, somehow I got better price than on-line) All the hotels with shuttles are overpriced. $25.00 for taxi to the port. We spent our morning at the Patriots point Navy Museum and it was amazing!!!! Boarded around 1 PM went through few lines nothing major, no problem. Went right into our cabin and for lunch.

We did have some really rough seas and not a great weather. Missed Half Moon Key which we were really excited to go :confused:. So some disappointments there. However we did really enjoy the cruise. We just really kept our mind open and focus on the positive things.

I DIDN'T HAVE TO COOK, CLEAN AND ENTERTAIN ANYBODY!!!!

Food was amazing in the dining room ...some of our favorites: Crab Cakes, Frogs legs, Escargots, Lobster, Basa fish fillet, steak, ALL THE DESSERTS.

Lunch Buffet in Lido was not that great except the DELI and Mongolian Wok and of course the DESSERTS!!! You can tell I like sweets lol :p I guess my boys liked the grill too...burgers, french fries etc.

Breakfast: we always ordered room service coffee to start with and then up to lido. My favorite was the Eggs Benedict, croissants and french toast. Scrambled eggs and Omelets were disappointment. But there is something for everyone, so can't really complain. We ate a lot!!!! Plenty of fruit yogurts and so much of other foods.

We had our kids with us and Camp carnival was great, they loved it there and we had to begg them to come out to play with us.

Pool area was not too crowded and we always found chairs. The music was definitely way too loud, we didn't enjoy that and try to run away to the serenity deck few time when we didn't have kids with us. Two adult only hot tubs available there was great.

At the pool one hut tub for adults only and the other one was full of the kids (ours too ;-) anyway I think that was good, they had that separated and allowed the kids have fun too. I was amazed how many parents just totally didn't watch their kids, but I will not comment more on that.

Overall great cruise, great job Carnival, fully satisfied with all services etc. Will go with Carnival again, maybe not in the winter months from Charleston, because of the weather, since we(I) like to lay by the pool and enjoy the sun.

Here is some more pointers I can think of that could help someone....

I did pretty good research before we went so I was ready, here is some think I was happy to know listed first........ but here is some things I have learned or will do next time listed "under":

*Over the door shoe hanging storage for everything in the bathroom

*Go to the casino to get your lanyard for your S&S card

*Sign up on carnival web site for fun ship forum to communicate with you family back home for free ( be prepared for very SLOW connection) I would not purchase the on ship WIFI literally loads one page in 5 minutes

*In the Casino get $5.00 play coupon if you buy drink of the night drink purchased

*Beach in Nassau Junnkano Beach perfectly fine and free walking distance

*You don't have to pose for every photographer :rolleyes:

*Bring bottle of wine and few sodas on board

*You can decorate your door to find it faster

*Bring our covered plastic cups to fill with iced tee etc.

*Call the cabin if need to get in touch with whoever just went to get something and you forgot to tell him what else lol (number of the deck and the cabin number)

Things learned:

*The towel holders/clips on the lounge chairs some people had were cool. I wish I had that, because it was so windy.

*I will bring ear plugs for the pool are music it's awfully loud if you want to relax. Serenity pool is the best to relax with no music if space available.

*Warmer clothes for the windy days

*I will bring the 5 hour energy thingy because after I took some motion sickness pills I wanted to go to bed at 9PM ;-(((

*WI-FI in Grand Turks at MargaritaVille FREE

*WI-FI free at the slushy store across from MC Donald on the way to Junnkano Beach password is "summer" and they have a good ice cones(huge if medium) lol

*Grand Turks be careful for jelly fish (tiny ones) we snorkeled there and I got stung "ouch", but nobody else in our party did.

*Comedian show is good, but not all the comedians are good ...the African American women was terrible(sorry don't remember her name starting with "W" so lesson learned sit close to the door so you can easily walk out on not sit through an awful show.

I may think of more late...or if any questions I will gladly answer

We were there too and were little disappointed by the weather and by missing HMK. Otherwise we had a great time. The food in dining room was excellent . The buffet was not really impressive, the deli or Mongolian wok is the best choice. Breakfast Eggs Benedict was my favorite and the amazing croissants are so yummy. Desert selection was the BEST!!!!

I don't think I will ever book a cruise in November again from Charleston I think it's just too cold. Next time will try to go from Fl to Western Caribbean for some warmer weather.

Very happy with Carnival though .....I was little worried. I will definitely sail with them again!

We have 8 and 10 year old boys and taking them out. It's the only time we can have a vacation due to our business. It's only 5 days out for us and we always make it educational. There is always something to learn traveling to different places and such. bringing books and math work sheets. I think family time is really important and 5 days out of school will not hurt. But just my opinion...Enjoy cruising with children!