I was on sabbatical for the month of September and after my first cruise in April (4-day Carnival Liberty) I decided to go on a 7-day cruise on a larger ship. My mom and sister joined me and my daughter and 3 of us had a blast; one was a downer.

We drove in from Atlanta the night before and unfortunately I stayed up until 6AM playing on my phone so I started our trip off tired (big mistake, never again). My mom wanted to go last minute shopping in the morning so we got to the terminal around 2pm. We had to take our luggage onboard which was a PAIN because we had sodas in tow but the upside was our room was ready when we boarded. When we boarded we thought our fridge was broken but we later learned that when they dock they power down the boat so it sometimes takes a few hours for everything to cool down again. Because we were so late getting on the taco place was closed but Guy's Burgers was open and we loved their fries. There was no line at the terminal 2pm so if you want to ensure you can get into your cabin upon arrival and have a short line, arrive at 2pm.

The ship was really nice. During my early morning runs I saw the employees doing maintenance like painting, mopping, and fixing other random things. The layout of the ship was hard to get used to, the maps by the elevators were life savers, although I didn't mind the walk as I was eating every 15 minutes. Read more