General Info- Me, 23 years old, done with school, work at a hospital. Sister, 15 years old, looks maybe deceiving but one of the more well behaved kids on board. Mom, 43 and Dad 48 who recently suffered a stroke in January. Since he is so young he has recovered quickly but still needs a walker or cane to get around. We are from Charlotte, NC. This was my 6th cruise all with Carnival. My parents have cruised RCCL when I was younger but we all prefer Carnival. We chose this cruise for it's itinerary, my sister is home schooled so school wasn't an issue.

Pre Cruise- We drove down Friday to Florida. It took about 11 hours. We stayed in the Extended Stay America Hotel. It was nice but it wasn't worth the $170 a night.....Friday, beginning of spring break, Florida, yeah hotels are gonna be pricey. There is a great little whole in the wall pizza place right down the street on 17th street, great...Mario's Pizza I think. Woke up around 7, ate breakfast at Denny's (also same street) Headed to port about 10:30.

Embarkation- We have cruised out of Port Canaveral (the best!), Tampa and San Juan. Fort Lauderdale was new to us and is the worst. I knew we were in terminal 19 from my research here on Cruise Critic but when we got there there weren't enough signs. We found terminal 19 not problem but once there we took a wrong turn into the parking deck. Oh no, theres no way we can carry all the this especially with my dads situation. So we circled and searched for the exit, told the cashier yeah we're the lost tourist, she directed us towards the drop off area. There was a traffic officer and she told us to park over there....over where?? too late she already moved on the to next car. Chaos stood before us. Taxis, buses, luggage everywhere, so we just drove to a some what open spot. Started to unload, all the porters were busy, looked over and a bus was trying to squeeze through. We needed to move our car, man I need a Fun Ship Special. Finally got all of our luggage to a porter. Instead of trying to drive back through the chaos, we drove out of the terminal and circled around back to the parking deck, Hey! we knew where that is! parked and walked through the drop of area. Very rocky and a lot of pot holes, not easy for a walker. Watch out for the luggage fork lift things (nice description huh?) they come very close to hitting you. Saw two lines...one VIP? asked one line, nope. then asked they other nope, ok good so we just picked a line. By this time it was 11:00. We kept an eye out for the handicapped line but no luck. at about 11:15 they opened the first doors. We walked into a main lobby, oh theres the handicapped line over there, too late now, oh well, there were only about 50 people ahead of us, we can manage. about 5 minutes later the opened the next door to a room where chairs lined up to make the lines. A carnival Rep saw my dad and immediately moved the chairs around and told us to come up to the front of the line! wow! nevermind I love this port! but I felt kinda bad skipping everyone, ok maybe not THAT bad hehehe. then those doors opened to the check-in desks. It was weird to be the first ones walking up to all the smiling faces. Checked in, went through security and X-ray (my mom brought a cooler with diet coke and water with NO PROBLEMS! they just asked if we had any ice in there. So they new we had soda and didn't care!) took picture for Sign and Sail card, took another picture for Embarkation photo, cheese... Then on to the gangway. The gangway is VERY STEEP! my dad had a little struggle, my mom kinda pushed him up it. Then ahhhhh first steps on board, welcome home. We were on board by 11:45. Headed up to Lido Deck for food and drinks. Ok headed up to lido deck....First Smiling face a saw with those beautiful pink glasses, Savio. He became my official Lido drink man on the lido deck for the whole cruise, always around....Jenny need another, not right now thanks : ) . Room was ready at 1:30. This was the first time we got a balcony. Loved it. Muster Drill at 4:30. Sail away at 5. A lot of other ships in port, fun to watch them all leave. unpacked, got ready for dinner. My sister and I were in room 6233 and parents across the hall in balcony 6225. My room was directly above the Venetian Lounge..the main theatre and I could hear everything, singing, music, a strange cranking sound I assume was from the set moving on stage. But since it everything happened during the day, it didn't affect my sleep so I didn't care. Room stewards were great, no problems there Read more