First let me warn you...I tend to write my reviews long and detailed and like a diary so I can read them in the future and relive my vacations!

Prelude: We have previously cruised three times with Royal Caribbean and twice with NCL. We took some friends on RCL in December 2007 aboard the Majesty of the Seas and all they could do is compare it to Carnival! They have only been on Carnival. We decided to give it a try for ourselves! I had already booked the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan but cancelled and booked the Glory for much less (and no airfare). Myself and wife and two daughters (22 & 18). DD's have been on all the cruises except the Majesty with us. This would be DD18's first "adult" cruise! This cruise is her senior trip, so to speak. A graduation gift that we can all enjoy! (Just another excuse to cruise!) She's loved the teen clubs on NCL & RCL. This time she gets to spend more time with us and DD22 (they get along great!). We drove down from NW Georgia on Friday. I'm originally from Central Florida and my parents have had a place on Cocoa Beach since 1983 so that's where we headed. Didn't get in until 8:30pm. A 615 mile drive! Boy I was glad to finally get there!

Embarkation - we arrived at the port at 10:15. After dropping off the luggage and my wife and daughters, I pulled around and parked. Parking is $105 for the week. While paying I noticed an advertisement on the booth that said the NCL Sun is coming to Port Canaveral. The Sun is the former Pride of Aloha that we sailed on in 2005 in Hawaii so it caught my attention. The first lot (not covered) was really full but I was lucky enough to find one parking space very close to the entrance. We breezed through the metal detector and headed up the escalator. We were directed to fill out a medical questionnaire (took 2 minutes) and headed over to the desk to register. There was only one couple ahead of us. After that we were sitting down in the waiting area by 10:40am ready to start our first Carnival cruise! There was a wedding party of about 40 people across from us. Seems that they all were getting on the ship for the 1:30 wedding then everyone except the bride and groom would exit the ship by 3pm! Before we knew it there was an announcement saying people were still disembarking the ship and it would be a while before we boarded! So much for getting on early! We felt sorry for the bride to be as she needed time to get ready for her wedding! But she was a trooper, walking around spending time and joking with her family and friends and us! We had a few conversations with members of the wedding party. I mentioned that this was our first Carnival cruise and a couple started telling us how much fun we'd have! They'd been on 3 Carnival cruises and loved them all. To kill the time, a Carnival crew member had us playing with a beach ball! It was funny to see it hit unsuspecting folks and watch their reaction. DD's both tired of this fast! I didn't!! Announcements were also made for people who were celebrated anniversaries or birthdays. This was something neither NCL nor RCL had done before. We could tell right away that Carnival was all about fun! After all, "isn't fun the best thing to have"? A quote from a favorite movie..... Read more