We, my husband and I, sailed the Carnival Legend on October 18, 2009. We have sailed this same ship and itinerary before, as well as a very similar itinerary on a Holland ship. This was our 15th cruise, our 10th on Carnival. It was nice to be Platinum!

We drove to Tampa a day ahead and stayed in a hotel the night before embarkation. It is worth the piece of mind to not travel and embark on the same day. When we arrived at the terminal we were able to drop off our luggage and paid just a bit more for valet parking. Someone there drove our car over to the parking garage and gave us a claim check to pick it up when we returned. Nice!

Since we are now Platinum guests, we enjoyed priority embarkation. This did not apply to the security line, however. Mr. Cruise Cat was irritated about that, but it wasn't that long of a line. Once we cleared security, we proceeded directly to the Platinum lounge, where we sat at a desk and were checked in. From there someone escorted us to designated Platinum stations where we completed the embarkation process. That part took less than five minutes and it is a wonderful perk! Read more