The most vital thing is choosing a cruise liner. You have to select a liner which fits with your personality. For example, nonstop party and fun: go for Carnival, Expensive relaxation: go for Windstar, Romance: go for another line. In fact, you can find romance in festivals and parties on Windstar; still every liner specializes to a certain crowd. The average age of a Cruise festival is about 25-30 years old!

Honeymooners especially love to take Carnival liners. Carnival liners have mediocre service i.e. you can not sit on deck and wait for a drink every 5 minutes or wine waiter may be 10-15 minutes. The room service consists of sandwiches and booze. But when you and your friends have been at the bow of the ship until 4 am, a BLT never tastes so good. At the end of the tour, if you want to order room service from your cable, you can fail asleep before the order finally came!

SUMMARY:

Good overall experience for the money. The Carnival excursions are for first timers to get a safe and sound feel for Mexico. But the next around, you might prefer to book your own tours to get a better value. Even if you want to give 3 stars, you have to believe that they will do something about the engine rattle and poor drinks. It may seem Carnival is just out to make as much income as they can on an old ship with premium drinks, photos and excursions that they organize.