My family (husband, 15 year old daughter and 12 year old son) recently returned from a 5 day Spring Break cruise which left on 3/16/09. This was our first time on a Carnival Cruise...we'd been on 2 previous Disney cruises and I was afraid everyone would be disappointed with this cruise. I'm happy to say we were NOT. Sure Disney cruises are magical, but for half the cost, we had every bit as much fun on Carnival.

Embarkation - We arrived around 11:15 even though our paper work said to not be there until 12:30. We knew better from the boards! As you approach the terminal, stay in the left hand lane to bypass the line for the parking garage. You can drop your luggage off down further and then loop around and get back in line for the garage parking. We actually checked in a soft-sided cooler that was 12x10x16 that we had filled with water bottles. Had no problems. We sat in line for maybe 10 minutes and paid our $70 to park. We then found out you could also drop your luggage off in the garage as well. However, I think the drop off we used is closer to the boat so your luggage doesn't travel as much to get to the boat. So we bypassed the luggage drop off in the parking deck and parked our car. Looked to be very secure.

The lines were already long and backed up out the door to get through security, but the line moved constantly. I'd say that line took 15 minutes max. There was a huge sign as we got in line saying 'NO food or drinks past this point' so we were worried about our snacks we had packed in our backpacks as well as the 6-packs of soda's three of us had in our back packs. We quickly saw numerous people carrying cases of water, refrigerator packs of soda's, etc. Not a word was said to anyone that I know of. After getting through security, there were different lines for each deck and the wait was minimal. We had our credit card swiped and our Fun Pass cards issued, our pictures taken and on the boat we went. Read more