Preliminaries

We have only been on one cruise before: a 7-day cruise on the RCL Empress of the Seas a year ago. The Empress of the Seas was only one-half the size of the Valor and only carried about 1,500 passengers (the ship has been sold to a Spanish cruiseship line). We compared the Valor to the Empress and have noted the pros and cons, below.

We flew into the Miami airport and used the Carnival transfer service (a large bus) to get to the port. The transfer folks meet you at baggage claim and you get into a line for the next available bus. This process went very well and we were at the dock by noon. Boarding had already started. We were processed within 30 minutes. Lines were long but everything seemed to move very efficiently. Read more