Embarkation:
Went smoothly. We had arrived in FL on the Friday night prior to cruising and spent the weekend at The Best Western Marina and Yacht Harbor. The hotel is in a great location! I wasn't 100% thrilled with their front desk staff but the rooms were clean and there was a shuttle to port.

We got to Port everglades by 12pm and proceeded to make our way through the lines for signing in. Over all this went smoothly. One couple in our group did not have sail and sign cards printed ahead of time and this was a slight issue but Carnival handled it well. Also we were carrying two cases of wine and champagne. The first went through with no issue. The second case was stopped and some Carnival employee tried to tell me that wine and champagne was not allowed on board! After arguing with him for a minute I pulled out my boarding pass and read to him where it says they are allowed on board. He argued with me a little longer and then just let me go. Since the number of bottles did not come up in argument I believe that he was hoping I would give in and that case would be his! He picked the wrong person!

After we got our pictures taken and had gone through security we were held in a large room with plenty of seating. We were not sitting long when they started letting people on to the ship. I must say that everyone RUSHED the entry way and it was a big mess. Plus as more people got through the prior lines they would try and cut in to the boarding line. Needless to say people were not happy.

Ship & Room:
Once on the ship we proceeded to our rooms. Mine was 6331, which is an aft balcony. The room was great! And the balcony was LARGE! I didn't feel any more movement in our room compared to other places in the ship. There were two nights where we moved a bit more than usual but I was not bothered by it. Two people in the group were however and they took meds and were fine. I have some great pictures of the room and the balcony and ill be posting them on my website ASAP. The only bad thing we came up with on these rooms is the fact that the top deck on the ship can look over and see the first 1 & ½ feet of the balcony. This can be a problem because if people decide to throw things off the deck they could land on your balcony…think cigarettes.

The ship itself is decorated to the hilt. A lot of gold and brown, not my favorite colors but it was ok. Many, many pictures of Greek scenes, we had a good time trying to identify them. Got most of them but there were a few that stumped us! Yes there are urns everywhere! And yes you get over counting them pretty quick.

We didn't have any trouble with finding chairs up on deck. Did see some saving by the pools but you could normally find a chair. The pools were great; they had a lip of about 3 feet where there was an inch or two of water before the deeper sections. This was nice since you could sit on the edge and dangle your feet it. We did encounter some rather rude people in the pools. Like the one woman who insisted on wearing fins and doing laps in a 9ft long pool! Needless to say she continued to run in to people and it wasn't very comfortable! Also there were the people doing cannon balls and splashing up a storm just to get the people sitting on the edges wet. You would think these antics were by younger individuals but they were always by the 50 year olds and up! When asked to keep the splashing down they would reply with "you're in a pool you're bound to get wet" this may be true but being splashed non-stop was rather irritating. Anyway we didn't let it ruin our fun!

Satchmos lounge was the best! Definitely hit that place since it was always hopping on our cruise. Medusa's lair was hit or miss and the upper floor allows a lot of "watchers". That and the officers were usually in attendance at medusas. We thought that they should have walled in the cigar bar as it is right before the 2nd floor entranceway to the dining room and really is just an area. And lastly they played Rocket Man WAY TOO MANY TIMES!

The spa was nice, usually there was space in that hot tub if you didn't want to fight for a spot on deck. The only issue we had here was people cutting in line to sign up for "treatments" on the first day! Wow!! Those women were rude. We laughed it off and figured that somewhere there would be a terrible review because of all the "16 year olds" on the ship. Figuring that most of the passengers would see us as years and years younger than we are! Also they did have some great classes for yoga lovers, yes it is an additional 10$ but the guy was great!

Let's see and lastly we couldn't hear the announcements in our room. This I actually like the majority of the time. They did pipe in the customs and debarkation info in to our rooms though so you won't miss that! Oh yes and before I forget make sure to have the brownies from room service they were GREAT!

Dining Room:
Our two tables of 8 had different waiter teams. With that said, it was apparent just how important the teams can be! At my table were Voichek (spelling) and Erik and they were AWESOME! Couldn't do enough, personable, told great stories, and helped us play some practical jokes plus plan a birthday. I can't say enough about them!!! However at the other table they didn't have the same. In fact they had pretty poor service and speaking with the maiter'd only helped for the night following. They had bottles of wine that were never opened (regardless of a corkage fee), water glasses that were never filled. Etc. etc. luckily they had such great table mates that they were able to over look this!

Speaking of special requests, the Maiter'd and our waiters were great! On the first formal night we had a member of our group "request" that a lobster shell be filled with rice or mashed potatoes and delivered instead of the real thing to another one of our members. (This was done because last year the member was sick and couldn't eat at formal night. He is still complaining about it J so we thought we would have some fun with him) the tail came full of mashed potatoes and it was the best thing to see the receiving members face! We have some great pictures! The staff was awesome about the whole thing! Also my brother had his 21st b-day on the ship. We went and ordered a special occasion cake from the café and our waiter picked it up. Plus we had our waiter bring him gifts and the maiter'd came over to sing. It was great. The cake was awesome as well. We got the chocolate one and it was SO RICH! Yum! Much better than the complimentary cake!

As to the food; we thought it was good. Most nights there was something on the menu for everyone. Although we did have some picky eaters with us and they found cause to complain on a few nights. The pumpkin soup was YUMMY! And the warm flourless chocolate cake was to die for! Definitely order two.

Golden Fleece:
Ken and I went to the Golden Fleece on one night and found it to be wonderful! The food was even better than the dining room and the service was great. In fact every time Ken and I got up to dance we would come back to our table and our napkin was folded. J I never did catch them in the act! We both had the French onion soup and it was great! As well as the fillet and nothing beats the deserts.

The dancing was good there as well. Both ken and I ballroom dance and we found that the music in the Golden Fleece was the best for this type of dancing. We danced the major dances, waltz, rumba, cha-cha, and swing. We opted not to tango due to the floor size.

Ports of Call:
First off let me say that none of these ports of call are anywhere near as dangerous as carnival would have you believe!!!! They like to keep you trapped in the "tourist" areas so that you spend money in stores that kick back to you! Both Limon Costa Rica and colon panama have obvious signs around the city to not "mess with" the tourists. These cities need the tourist money and definitely do not want visitors to have bad times!
Also Carnival changed the itinerary and then the times of one of the ports. This was problematic for us, as we had booked two private tours. But more on this later.

Colon, Panama:
Definitely go to the locks!!!! I was amazed at just how cool they were! We did the Kayaking tour through Carnival and included in this tour was a trip to the North side of the locks. Very cool took a whole roll of film! The kayaking was ok, we went during the middle of the day and not a lot of animals are out then. The Gatun Lake was awesome though.
OK on to the shopping, yes there is a shopping village full of stuff. But the real deals are over in the free zone. Except for alcohol!!! Definitely check out the alcohol store right as you get off the ship it had the best prices and the biggest selection and yes it almost always beat the ships price! Ok now for the free zone, the free zone is open to cruise passengers and can be walked to. If you were to go left out of the tourist village and follow the street around to the right you would see a little gate where you are allowed to go into the free zone.
Now many of the shops only sell wholesale so they really aren't much help to us tourists. BUT many of them do sell by the piece. The amount of Gold and silver was amazing! Plus I also got a great price on 0.4-carat diamond earrings. We had to search for them though since the biggest seller was gold chains etc. The other thing to look for in colon is audiovisual equipment. They had great prices in the few places that sold by the piece! We also found good prices on printer cartridges, laptops, monitors and hard drives.
Over all this is a pretty cool place and the port is shaping up. Still has a long way to go compared to places like St. Thomas. But it has it's own charm.

Limon Costa Rica:
OK first things first, carnival changed the time of this port from afternoon to morning. This was a problem for us since we had booked with Paradise Tours for a canopy tour (harnesses and ziplines etc.) in the afternoon. Unfortunately the time change was never understood by paradise tours and so forth our tour never went off. This was highly disappointing to us! We have had some difficulties with paradise tours in that they want additional money from each person who had put a Non-refundable deposit down!!! There is no way any of our group will be paying additional money because we were not responsible for missing this tour. Make sure when you book independent tours that you know all the agreements and money issues. We were aware of the non-refundable deposit but not that we would then be asked for more money! It also turns out that the purser's desk would have helped us reschedule or contact this tour company had we thought to go to them before it was too late!!! At least this is what we heard on the ship. So for those of you that this happens to make sure to check in with the desk to see if they can help you with arrangements after they change an itinerary!
Needless to say this was a serious bummer as we were all looking forward to this trip!!! Especially since carnival didn't have anything like it in their excursions. So after shaking off that disappointed and frustrated feeling we booked a taxi and had a personal tour of the island. For 35$ he took us to tortugeu canal, a banana plantation, a tour of the area and then brought us to a grocery store where we bought coffee for 1.85$ a bag! It was a great tour and we ended up spending the same money that we would have if we had gone on the canopy tour. Granted I am still bristling over the whole deal but our day in Costa Rica was great.
Also don't be afraid to book a tour once getting off the ship. There are independent companies that are regulated in port and you can book with them for less than carnival. You will see them as you are leaving the pier. Almost all of them will be wearing red shirts and there is a big wooden sign with prices for all the different areas. I would caution using paradise tours however!
For the shopping in this port I would have to say that they had the best assortment of wooden items I have ever seen. Lots of boxes and trays and canes and wine holders. Plenty of local crafts like feather painting, flutes, art, carving etc. That and the vanilla is a great price. And yes it is real vanilla not the extract of a different plant. In fact if you can go to a grocery store and you can get coffee and vanilla for cheaper that in the open-air market. This market takes American dollars and gives change in American dollars. In fact we had difficulty obtaining the native currency for a souvenir!!
People we very nice as well! Don't be afraid of this port! Oh and one more thing if you are interested in buying coffee but don't want to carry it home, the ship runs a deal through café brit. On board you fill out a form indicating what you want and carnival processes it through cafebrit. The deal is this: 20, 12oz bags of coffee for 89$ fedexed to your home. You can also get 20, 5oz bags of macadamia nuts or bags or chocolate covered beans (can't remember the oz). You can mix and match these bags as well. I will let you know how long it takes for our coffee to arrive since we did this seeing as we were running our of room to bring things home!

Belize:
Belize I think is my favorite port! What a great place. Much cleaner than the other two …although both other ports were filled with wonderful people. Belize is a little more built up than Limon or Colon. In Belize we went cave tubing with Reggie! What a blast! Everything went according to plan even with our itinerary change from Tuesday to sat!!! Didn't break Reggie's stride and he was MUCH easier to get in touch with than paradise tours.
We tendered in to this port but it wasn't a problem. We got on the first tender (in line 20 minutes prior than they told us to be) but probably could have been on the 4th tender and there wouldn't have been a problem. They use really big fast boats and it went very smoothly.
Reggie was waiting for the 24 of us who had booked through him and once we were all accounted for it went smoothly. We stopped on the way to the caves at JB's for a bathroom break and here we decided to stop again on the way back for lunch. It was an additional 5$ per person for lunch including either a beer or soda and was very good.
The hike to the cave was very easy! My step dad whom has some trouble with his hip did not find it difficult. It was dry while we were there so we didn't experience and mud. However they have obviously brought in a lot of rock and sand fill to the trail plus added wooden stairs and bridges over areas where there has been erosion from so many feet passing over. The trail was well marked and all elevation changes were well graded.
Once we got to the put in spot we were all so excited because we had been catching glimpses of the river for a bit. One word: Beautiful! The place where you put has deep water and if you are so inclined you can jump in. Being that the majority of our group was 35 and under most of us choose to jump in, including one very talented flip. However, for those of you not inclined to jump from rock promontories, there is a water level area with an easy put in.
Then it was off down the river and into the caves. Reggie and his wife and other staff member were great ant keeping our group together and away from any area where it was possible to injure our selves! They definitely know these caves forwards and back wards! They would let us know which side of the river we should be on at all times and make sure to help any one who had difficulty in paddling on their tubes.
The caves were magnificent! Awesome formations! It was pretty loud in there with all of us clamoring at the different sights so be prepared for some sound wave rebound! It was also a good stomach work out! When Reggie or his wife tell you to get your buts up they mean it and if you don't want to get your bottom hit by a rock you work those stomach muscles! No one in our group had any difficulty avoiding the rocks and there were a few places where it was fairly shallow.
The water wasn't horribly cold but it wasn't warm either. I found that I stayed warm the entire time however if you spend the majority of your time floating or being pulled by someone you won't work as much and might be colder. That and if you have no body fat you will be colder J

Also in Belize:
Four of our group opted to go on a different tour. Reggie agreed to arrange a tour to both the Baboon Sanctuary and the Belize zoo for this group of four. My mother and sister were part of this group and they had a GREAT time. The sanctuary is just what it sounds like and allows the howlers there own space. The guide (also named Reggie) brought the 4 to visit the locals of the sanctuary and they talked to my mom and sister etc. about the place. Plus the guide then asked the locals where the monkeys were and then led our 4 to go see them all the while giving a running commentary about the local floral and funa.
After the sanctuary they went to the zoo, which the group raved about. This zoo is actually run by a man whom people would bring wounded animals to. Since these animals are handicapped in some way and cannot be released in to nature they stay at the "zoo" to help with costs they allow visitors. My sister talked about how the monkeys could have gotten out had they chosen to but didn't also if you went to leave they would act for you and try to get your attention by posing etc.
A bit of advice if going to these places is to wear bug repellent. There were lots of bugs and all thought all four wore repellent our deet was accidentally left at home and the repellent that was bought (think off) was not strong enough.
Belize was great and I actually am looking forward to taking a trip there for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the shopping since I did not have time to peruse the tourist village. It looked like your typical shops though and I do believe that in there were your alcohol shops and coffee and jewelry etc.

Disembarkation:
Ok so for all of you who do not know, the monetary limit on this cruise is 800.00$ a person and 1 liter of alcohol, plus a carton of cigarettes (not 100% sure on tobacco since I don't smoke) anyway my name was on the "black" list since all of my, ken's and one of our friends purchases were on the one account. So down I went with ken to the customs guys and we told them how the two pieces of jewelry were split between us etc and it was no big deal. My brother did declare his additional 5 bottles of alcohol and he was not charged a duty. However another person in our group declared her alcohol and was charged the duty. It was inconsequential amount though. For those of you who don't know the duty is actually based on the alcohol content. Anyway a bunch of us didn't declare all of our alcohol and it wasn't an issue.
Actually we gave our customs declaration forms to the agents BEFORE we picked up our checked luggage. So they were even checking! They do "sniff" the bags though so don't think you can get anything through! Then it was off to find our luggage in that pile and then out to the curb where we just picked up the carnival transfer. It was 10$ to take the bus and roughly 8$ to get a taxi. We went with the bus because Taxis were hard to come by and for 2$ we didn't care all that much! Besides the bus had lots of room for luggage!

Well that's it I think I have given a pretty thorough review but if you have any questions let me know!