We sailed on the Carnival Valor on April 13, 2008 traveling to Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel. This was our 8th cruise, 2nd on Carnival. In fact our other Carnival cruise was also on the Valor to these same ports in 2005. My wife and I are around 40 and we travelled with our two children 11 & 13.

The embarkation was busy but smooth. I like that they give you a group number and you don't have to get in line until they call your group. It was really busy but I believe we made it through in 30 - 45 minutes.

We were travelling in a group of 8 (3 reservations). Despite numerous calls from us to Carnival to confirm the 8 of us would be eating together we arrived to find we were not at the same table or even dining room for that matter. Luckily we checked this right away. We went to the Lincoln dining room where the Maitre' De put us 2nd on the list of people to fix. We had to eat separately the first night but he fixed us up for the rest of the week. He put us in a great table. We were happy with the solution just frustrated that there was an issue in the first place and my wife spent half a day worrying about it. There is obviously a communication breakdown in Carnival's process as the Maitre' De told us he had no way to know we were wanting to eat together. Read more