Travelled with DH, DD, 2-DS, one DS friend, one DS-girlfriend, and DN(Dear Niece!) 8 altogether-3cabins. Flew into Tampa the day before and stayed at a family member's place in St. Pete the night before. Rented a car at the airport, and returned it at the Budget drop off site on Adamo Drive the morning of the cruise. Since we had a van full, (8 of us), the girl at the location closed up a little early to drive us over since every other drop off was accounted for and that way we didn't have to transfer any luggage. BTW-when I called Budget they told me that this location wasn't open on the weekends...obviously not true! Anytime you have a question call the location directly!
Got to the port about 12:30, later than usual, checked our bags no problem. We didn't think the lines were long until we got upstairs. I told the VIP guy that I thought he looked lonely, but he wasn't biting, so we kept our place in line, and in about 20 minutes we were doing our doc thing...not dance thing! and 15 minutes later we were on board!
As soon as we entered the lobby we stepped up to the bar and grabbed our soda cards for the teens (well worth it for my crew) and the foo foo of the day, and watched the newbies with us take it all in and phone home to the people back in the snow to share their excitement. After a bit we went to our cabins to drop our carry ons and check out the view from our balcony. Met our stewards...John from St. Vincent had 2 cabins and Citi had 1 cabin, they were the best! If we could take the best of each of our cruises and combine them, they would be included. As a matter of fact, I had read about John on CC, and I wrote down his name realizing that our cabin was in the same vicinity and we might have him as well. When I told him that I had read about him on the internet and showed him that I had his name written down,(My family says I'm anal!) he thought that I worked for Carnival! (John will be on the Victory soon, not sure where Citi will be after her vacation). Then we went to the Lido for some lunch, more foo foos and waited for the famous "mustard" drill as DH would call it! First night skipped dinner in the dining room to watch the sail under the Sunshine Skyway, as we can see the bridge from family residence in St. Pete so we thought that would be very cool and it was! Went to the CC sign up for DD that night, did some Karaoke with Peter the Karaoke host in Mad Hatters, and had a few more drinks at Frankie and Johnnies before it was time to put some of my family to bed for the evening!