And Curacao. You either love it or hate it (as you can tell from the replies). We always get a balcony now and spend a lot of time there. I won't get into the arguments of whether cruising is good or bad... I'm sure others will take care of that (especially those that hate it). We started cruising when I was a teen and tried carnival first then royal Caribbean. When it came time for the 3rd cruise we went back with carnival because at the time it was more "fun". That said, cruise ships have changed a ton since then and have so much to do. The main reason we stuck with carnival is for the points you earn for upgrades. I feel like once you take that route, your stuck with it. I wouldn't mind doing RC next time, but I'm at "gold" status and it has really good perks and discounts, so it would be hard to pay more and "" start over " if I changed now. I will say the bigger ships have gotten and the more people they hold, then (clearly) they're more crowded. Most shows had long lines and were full by the time you got there. The 24hr pizza seemed to always have a line (that said, I stopped by at least 4 times myself... Especially if the line was short or non existent). That said, I don't think you can go wrong with either RC or Carnival.