Being a Carnival Platinum cruiser, I admit that I have a soft spot for the funships. Each fall we organize a pre-holiday friends and family cruise and this year our group was 17 plus 2. Seventeen of us from all points converged on Orlando, where we met two new friends from Idaho that my wife Diane met on cruise critic. In all the 19 of us embarked on what we thought would be just another great cruise vacation. We were not disappointed.

To start things off, our cruise planner in Miami, was amazing. She worked so hard to get us all together even though the reservations came in one at a time over the course of several months. We kept making changes in both dining and staterooms and she was both professional and friendly at every change or addition.

Upon boarding we probably spent less than a half hour from the time we got to the terminal to the time we had our first margarita on board. The ground crew at the terminal was terrific. With five large ships in port that day, it could have been a nightmare. Read more