This cruise was an unexpected getaway by my 21 yr old son and me (mom). He had recently gotten his scuba certification and we decided to treat him to a trip to Cozumel to celebrate good grades at college! This was my 5th cruise, 4th on Carnival and his 3rd cruise. We drove from our home in north Houston and arrived in Galveston at 12:00. We parked across the street from the terminal at Galveston Park and Cruise. We paid for indoor parking which consisted of parking inside an old storage facility. When all the cars are in, they lock the door until the cruise is over. We walked across the street to the terminal, dropped our bags off with a porter and started the embarkation process. It was a painless 25 minute process. Our cabin was on the Lido deck so knowing that's where we'd end up, we took a chance that our cabin would be ready for us. The door was open and I could tell they were almost finished with it. We dropped off our carry on bags, met our room steward, Mohammad and headed out to the Lido deck. We were drinking rum punch by 1:00. Seriously, one hour to park, check in and get to our cabin. I was totally impressed! We spent the next couple of hours sitting inside near the pizza station in the back of the ship, waiting to sail.

Friday was Sea day and we didn't do a thing except rest and enjoy the sun. I picked out our loungers early, around 9:00 A.M. before it got crowded. As mentioned in other reviews, the chair hogs come out early, dump their towels and never come back. This is really a problem Carnival needs to address. Another thing that put a damper on our 2nd sea day was the group of men smoking cigars near us. This group of guys looked like they would put up a fight if I asked them to go to the smoking section, so I just sat there all day, breathing their nasty smoke. There wasn't another place in the sun to move to, or I would have. If it had been just a couple of minutes, it wouldn't have been so bad. But it was ALL DAY LONG! Rude!!

In Cozumel, we booked the 2 tank dive thru Carnival. I would normally book independently, but all of the local dive shops excursions left before our ship docked on Saturday. Turns out, my son had a wonderful time! He said the dive masters were very careful with the new divers, the equipment was good and it was an experience he'll never forget. Except for the pouring rain all morning, it was a perfect day! Read more