Port Arrival/Embarkation: As usual we arrived into Tampa the day before our cruise. We have always gone a day earlier than the cruise departure to eliminate stress and delays. That way the morning of the cruise we just go straight to the ship and enjoy the vacation.

We arrived The Port of Tampa via the hotel shuttle and were immediately queued up into the security line. We noticed that things at the Tampa port were a little disorganized at first with all the arriving passengers. If you do go out of Tampa be sure to grab one of the porters immediately to get the correct baggage tags for all your bags. Fill them out and give them directly to the porter so you can get in line right away. Carnival does NOT supply the usual baggage tags anymore prior to the cruise. They only send paper tags in your package which you make copies of and fold/staple onto your bags. It's crazy because while the bags are being stacked and transported to the ship anything could happen to those paper tags. So just wait until you get to the port and get the regular tags from the porter.

Once we got through security we immediately found the VIP desk for check-in. We were in our usual suite accommodations which gives you expedited check-in privileges which literally took seconds and we were on the ship and in our cabin. So overall, the check-in process was uneventful. Read more