We drove down to Tampa and stayed at the Hyatt Place/Tampa Busch Gardens hotel before embarkation. We booked at a great rate thru Hotwire and would strongly recommend this hotel! Really nice room with a huge flat screen TV. The ship's TV seemed less than l/4 the size of the hotel one.

Parking at the port was a surprise price increase of $70 for the 5 night cruise. We had been told it was $l2 a day/$60 for the 5 nights.

Embarkation was not a problem as this was my l0th Carnival cruise so we were VIP. We were taken to a sofa to sit down until someone at a desk became available. Then we were seated at the desk to go over paperwork avoiding the lines after that to get on the ship! Read more