It was our second cruise on the same ship and itinerary from Charleston, SC, over Christmas. Our first was three years ago over New Year's. Both times were family gatherings of sorts. But I hope when the next family cruise gathering comes around, our grandchildren will be old enough to travel to another port for it.

If the Charleston Port Authority is not going to fix problems with unnecessarily long line-ups and cumbersome processes for luggage drop-off, parking, shuttle to the terminal, immigration, and cruise check-in, it can easily turn Charleston into one of the least efficient (i. e., worst) cruise ports in the US. I was told that a new terminal was in the works, and so on. Hopefully, "expedite" and "simplify" would be among the leading concepts for the project.

We didn't notice this (or as much) three years ago, but the Fantasy seemed to have an inordinately large number of unhappy, under-trained, ill-mannered, poorly supervised staff in contact with customers. (I put the arbitrary estimate of 40% in the Carnival post-cruise survey.) There is clearly room for improvement in the recruitment, training, and supervision of the staff. Read more