For background, I sailed with my husband and 6 1/2 year old daughter. This was our 4th cruise, 2nd on Carnival.

Last time we cruised on Carnival we had great food and really enjoyed the experience so we were looking forward to trying them again. Our last cruise on Norwegian Jewel was okay, not great.

Embarkation: What everyone before has said is true, the embarkation process in Seattle is very smoothe. We stayed in Seattle for 3 days to explore, but we actually stayed in a hotel near the airport and used Shuttle Express for our transportation to the pier. They were really great to work with. We arrived at the port around 11 and we only had to wait a short time after going through security before we could board the ship. We went up to the enclosed pool area and had lunch at the outdoor grill which had the usual hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. It was actually pretty good food. They had said rooms would be ready around 1. We were waiting to hear an announcement that the rooms were ready but we never did so we just went down and were able to access our room. It was ready and our luggage arrived shortly after, as well as the birthday cake I had ordered for my husband. Read more