My wife and myself and in the 30yo range with an 11yo son. We live in GA and this will be our 2nd cruise. We live close enough so we can drive to the port and take advantage of last minute deals since we can avoid air fare. This is our 1st on CCL and the prior cruise was last spring on the RCCL Explorer of the Seas. I booked a OV 6A guarantee on the Victory for a Eastern Caribbean cruise. Approximately 40 days prior to embarkation I was assigned 2401 which was a starboard aft 6b. We drove down from GA the night before the cruise. I chose to park our vehicle away from the port because the $20 per day fee is outrageous. I ended up reserving a spot at CBM on 25th street where I parked for $87 for the week including taxes. We arrived there the morning of the cruise and checked in. The offer a free shuttle to and from the port which we had to wait about 30 minutes for because their vans only run on the hour. The ride to the port was about 10 minutes and we were dropped off in front of the terminal a few minutes after 11am. The porters took our luggage and we were off to the terminal.

Inside I saw a long line for the security screening. It was pleased to find it moved quickly and within 10 minutes we were through security and off to the reservation desk. There we found numerous short lines with around a 5 minute wait. The nice lady checked our identification documents, set up the CC for purchases and issued our Sign and Sail cards. She told us the cabins would not be ready until at least 1:30 and suggested we have lunch prior. We were off to the ship where we walked right on. We went to the Lido deck for lunch and found it was packed which was expected. We grabbed a sandwich from the deli and had a couple drinks.

We noticed the rooms were open around 1pm so we went to drop our luggage off. We stored our carry ons and wandered around the ship for a bit. I found the layout odd because many floors were divided and you could not travel the length of the ship. I picked up a pocket map from the Purser desk and quickly found deck 5 was the main artery. We mingled around the ship until finally around 3:30 it was announced the Muster drill would be in 15 minutes. We headed back to our cabin and retrieved our life jackets. The drill was short and too the point which was pleasant. We dropped our jackets off and made our way to one of the open decks for sail off. The views out of the harbor were gorgeous. We watched until land was a speck on the horizon. Read more