Carnival needs improvement on crowd control -- the lines were out of control when we got on the ship. They didn't know where the lines were going and really had a mess. We had early check in on the Queen Mary, they opened at 9am, we were second in line. It worked out great to check in early. You have to grab a porter for your bags though, they are so busy with people ready to get off, they kind of ignore you getting on. We paid a porter $10.00 for our 4 bags, then went to the Queen Mary. Came back and waited for the time to get on. Watched a lot of people, and hung out around the Zone 1 sign. The lines started forming about 11am. People were cutting in line, and didn't know what to do or go. We in the early check in line were behind the late people, so their line was winding around us. Finally they had us cut through the other lines and we waited at the doors to go through security. It went pretty fast after that. The people that cut in front of us, I just walked over them. They gave us dirty looks and spoke in Spanish, but I didn't care, we were their at 9 am they weren't.

After security, and your picture, we were on the ship. That part took about 5-10 min. (its a long walk) but my poor husband had to keep up with me, I wasn't going to let some cheaters get on before us.

Lunch was great. The cabin was ready after we had lunch. Our bags arrived shortly after that (within an hour). Unpacked and away we were. Had the drill, and off we were. Read more