In an effort to make this easier to read, I've broken this down into categories. I hope this helps. Enjoy !

Pre-cruise -- To set the scene, myself and a friend decided to take a cruise vacation together. Neither of us had ever gone on a cruise before. We chose this particular cruise since we figured a lot of kids would be in school, the location sounded nice, the ship sounded like it had a lot of activities for 2 single girls in their late 20's/early 30's, and the shore excursions offered by carnival really appealed to us. We booked through an on-line travel agency that was really good. I called carnival once to get info and the sales folks there were so pushy. I found this to be a major turn off and it was then we made the decision to book through an alternate source. Our booking experience was great - our agent did everything we told her to and everything was correct upon arriving on the ship.

Getting on -- We flew down to Miami a day before which was nice. We had time to sight-see Miami. If a friend hadn't driven us around and showed us how pretty the city is, I wouldn't have had a very good impression of Miami. So, I recommend arriving a day early - particularly if you're taking a cruise during the winter & you live in a location that gets snow or ice. Read more