As our first cruise, it started badly. The ship before us had a man jump overboard (wifes fault), so we got a call from Carnival the day we were to leave that instead of a 3:00pm boarding we were to arrive after 8pm, due to a search and rescue mission they were involved in. We were also informed that the ports of call were changed because of the shortened time at sea. Instead of Tortola we were going to Grand Turk and the times of the other two (San Juan and St. Thomas) had the time slots changed.
We arrived at 8:45pm and didn't get into our room until 2:00am. The lines were unbearable and it seemed more like cattle herding then anything else; we were shifted from room to room, line to line without much information. Some employees said we would board in 30 minutes, some said 2 hours. We were given tickets with priority numbers (for boarding) but that priority was overridden each time we were carted into a new line. Guests were getting tired, hungry and agitated. It felt like I was in the SuperDome during hurricane Katrina. The highlight was after waiting for 4 hours, some thugs decided to blast gangsta rap while waiting on line. I dont think this is the experience the majority of you will have, but it shows how Carnival treats its customers and how un-organized the staff is in unexpected situations. I would have much rather come at 10:00pm than to kill time standing in lines.
When we finally boarded, everyone was hungry and all went to the same place, the upstairs dining room (Lido deck) which was another unending line. We were greeted by overly excited staff that didnt really seem to understand all we wanted was to be left alone to eat and go to bed. This was also the worst possible time for the photography staff to start there spiel, which, of course, they did.