This was our fifth cruise. It was the first cruise where the airline lost our luggage. We did not get any of our bags until after midnight on Wednesday (The third day). Carnival was real good about it. They gave us each a toiletry kit and a t-shirt. They also gave us a $100 shipboard credit and said we could use the Formalities Tuxedo rental place if there were any Tuxedos that fit.
The weather was perfect. It was nice and warm. This was also the smoothest cruise yet. I am not sure if that was because of the size of the ship or the smooth seas.
The food and service was O.K. in the dining room. The Sun and Slop restaurant was another story. Most lunches and dinners were disgusting. We were also disappointed in the Chinese and Italian 'Restaurants'. All they were were a couple of extra buffet trays for a couple hours each day around 5:00 pm.
Since we did not have any of our luggage and there is just so much shopping on the ship we were rather casual at dinner, even on the formal night. Everyone seemed to understand. It seemed there were more people dressed formally on this ship than on any of our Princess cruises. We were lucky to have packed our bathing suits, my wife's makeup and hair dryer in our carry on. That was all we had besides the clothes we wore on the plane.
We had visited all of the ports of call on previous cruises. The only one that was reasonably new was San Juan. We had left from San Juan but never stopped there.
In St. Thomas we took a boat over to St. John for snorkeling. We had never been to St. John before. We had a good time but the coral and fish just were not that colorful.
In San Juan we hired a taxi and had a tour of the Old and New parts of San Juan. I can't believe the taxi driver made it through some of those streets. He was definitely proud of his country. He was constantly pointing out how clean everything was. It was like he though there were no areas in the United States that were free of trash and graffiti. I imagine Puerto Rico is like any other place and has good areas and bad areas.
In St Croix we hired a taxi just like in San Juan and had a tour of the island. It was at least as good as the tour we had been on previously when we stopped there in 1995.
The ship was definitely big. There was just a little too much neon for my tastes. I prefer the subtle wood and brass on Princess. It was easy enough to get around on the ship and there were an adequate number of elevators. Our room was larger than any room we had on Princess. The bathroom shower was as large as a standard stand up shower in a house. We had a cabin with a balcony and as usual enjoyed the balcony.
One thing we miss that the Regal Princess had was a dedicated movie theatre. There were some nights we would have liked to watch the movie that played that day instead of the nightly entertainment. Most newer ships do not have a dedicated movie theatre and I think that is a flaw.
I still do not understand how Delta could lose our luggage on a direct flight from Atlanta to Miami. They kept saying it must have missed a connecting flight. I told them it was a direct flight and they responded by saying they lost a lot of luggage that day. I guess that made it O.K.
When we got back to Atlanta we stopped by the baggage services and got another run around. We were told to go to a pay phone and call the 1-800 number for baggage services to get them to authorize a payment. We tried for 30 minutes to get through before we finally got a person. She sympathized with us and claimed to have authorized the whole payment but when we went back to the counter she had only authorized $75.00. We had spent $375.00 buying clothes for the 3 days. They wanted us to go back to the pay phone and try again. We refused and after 30 more minutes of arguing they gave in and tried to call for us. After 10 minutes of busy signals they gave up again and wrote us a check. They could have done that an hour ago.
Overall I thing we may try Carnival again. The ship was not as polished as Princess but we had a good time.