Our party consisted of our son and new wife for their honeymoon, along with my husband and myself who are cruisers (23 for me and 18 for DH); it was our son's third cruise and his wife's second (first on Carnival for both of them). Cabin was Balcony 8215 located below the Lido Deck, One could hear rolling carts across the floor in the Mermaid's Grille above us from time to time since parts of it are open 24 hrs. and continental breakfast was available at 6 am.

I had made purchases online prior to embarkation for the newlyweds and a case of bottled water. All items were in the cabin upon arrival or delivered at the specified time. The previous cruise was late arriving back to Baltimore and our original time frame to arrive requested by Carnival via email was 1-2 pm but it was changed to 2-3 pm. We had a 5+ hour drive from north of Pittsburgh to the port of Baltimore and arrived in the parking area around 1:30. Lot employees and porters operate very proficiently at this port which we had sailed from previously on Royal Caribbean. Apparently, all embarkation was delayed significantly as we had a 45 minute wait in line to check in, with only Diamond/Platinum level enjoying a short line or FTTF passengers who had a separate check-in point. There were about 28 agents checking people in.

We were able to go directly to our cabin upon arrival which was great since we had brought soda and wine that is allowed to be brought on and we all had multiple carry-on items. We had received all but one piece of luggage within 30 minutes. We then went to the Mermaid's Grille for lunch and the final bag had arrived when we returned. Read more