We sailed on the Carnival Valor 5.16.10 from Miami. This would be my 4th cruise and my buddy that came with his first. We flew in the day before to see a little bit of Miami prior to the amazing vacation we were about to embark on. Stayed on the Marriott Biscayne Bay as I nabbed it on Priceline for a great deal, couldn't go wrong with saving a few bucks and the cab ride would be quick in the morning. Arrived to the POM at around 11am to start getting checked in. Process had changed some since I was last there in they had the kiosk setup, and I have to say if the prior group hadn't been delayed in debarkation, we would have probably made it through the whole process in no time. The delay was a little bummer, but gave my buddy time to do a little research on the layout of the ship. I sailed prior so the layouts are all fairly similar but different so I just listened to my iPod as he read.

Found our way to the Lido deck around 12:30 to nab some lunch and explore a little bit before our rooms were ready, found our way to the rooms at around 2 o'clock to drop off our stuff and finish exploring before the ship was going to set sail. Ship started moving right on schedule it seemed, music cranked up and the vacation was under way!

Found our way to the Washington Dining room at 6 as we had assigned seating and would meet up with two ladies traveling together that fit our personalities well. Went to the show that evening as it was the welcome aboard and then explored the ship some, decided as a group we'd hang out in the disco for the evening and added a few more people to our group that would have a great time for the next 7 days. Read more