Couple of things that are not always obvious to the first time cruiser.
Look at the size of the ship and compare with the passenger load + crew. This will tell you about the density of the ship. Some are better than others but one complaint I hear from experienced Carnival and other class cruises is that the Carnival ship is more crowded, entertainment is second rate and food is second rate. Also, Carnival has had its share of food poisoning problems. Thats what I hear as I have not personally gone on a Carnival cruise. I have done several with Princess and Royal Caribbean. RC has better entertainment and more daytime activities. Princess is better suited for art lovers with their art displays and auction daily. Food is better on Princess and I liked the Princess minisuites better as they were bigger than RCC for the same $. Room service is better on Princess. Internet activity sucks on both but on RCC you can get a dialup in your room at 56K for $100 per week. On Princess you go to the library or Cafe and connect via wifi. It is very slow and very expensive on Princess. They also make it difficult because you have to buy connect time for 1 hour for an obscene price and it is biulled whether you get to the www or not. Your credits purchased will start being used the moment you type in your access PW. That sucks. I know because in one week I got 15 e-mails processed for a total cost of $120. Obviously I filed a big time complaint about that. RCC was super! It went down twice in a week and I paid $100 for the week unlimited and was able to upload a video and many pics to my ftp site for the AVS guys to see. If Princess would have spent 10% of what they spent decorating the Internet Cafe on their network connect, it would have been a better experience. The place was very nicely decorated, however.
If you are planning to go anywhere for a week on a cruise ship, be sure to get a minisuite with a balcony. Princess and RCC are known for having the most of these in their ship's design. This makes balconies a better bargain on these cruise lines.
In the Caribbean there are basically two routes, Eastern and Western.
For shore adventures I recommend the Western. For shopping and restaurants I recommend the Eastern. There is one more which are the winward islands but these are mostly 10 day cruises from P.R.
On the west coast, the best is the Mexican Riviera. I was on this in October. Very nice, but the cost for us in FL is another grand due to the need for airtravel but for you it may not make a difference. It was a good experience and I had never been to baja CA so I liked that. However, for sights and activities, I prefer my own back yard to the south.
Main recommendation is to get a minisuite with balcony.
Second is to not rely on Ships internet.
Third, you need a passport now. Don't think a drivers license will work. Be sure that is up to date.
Warning- There are lots of cruise bargains but all have gotchas so be careful if shopping for price.
And yes, David Bott is an expert. Trust his recommendations. It is not his nature to steer anyone wrong. he has had his share of good and bad experiences with the booking end of this business. But, on two cruises we went with him he and his wife have put on quite a wonderful vacation for us.
