I thought I would get this out right away and not procrastinate this time.

Background: This was my 18th Carnival cruise and the 5th time on the Triumph. 30th cruise overall. Other lines were RCL, Princess, HAL and NCL. Needless to say, I am a cruisaholic! I was traveling with a friend...her FIRST! We are 2 women, single and 50+ but young at heart. We found many other singles in our age group on this ship....nice benefit. There was an Eastern Kentucky Country radio station promotion cruise with more than 200 cabins booked. Broke a Carnival group booking record according to the station manager. Great group of folks!

Embarkation: We were in the new terminal. This was the first time I was ever turned away and told I was too early. It was about 10:45am. Took a little ride up A1A, missed the turn going back to the pier, took a little tour of downtown and dropped our luggage. Much more organized that in the past when it was TOTAL CHAOS! There is a "turn in-drop off" area; you veer to the right of a median so you can get out of the way of traffic and cabs...very organized and no stress. Then you have to take your car on another tour to find the assigned parking garage...REMEMBER WHICH GARAGE...you don't come back to the same terminal...More info in the Disembarkation section. The garage is not right there...there is a shuttle bus to take you to the terminal. Since I am Platinum, it was smooth sailing from there. I checked out the regular lines and they were not too bad and seemed to be moving quickly. Read more