I am 27 and my husband is 28. The only other cruise I have taken was 19 years ago on the S/S Royal so it was basically my first cruise too. We booked through a local travel agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here is my review for the Carnival Triumph...

Saturday October 9th, 2004 Embarkation --After not much sleep, we were up at 3:15 am. The cab was arriving at about 4:15. We got to the airport in plenty of time for the 7:00 flight. The TA told us to be there 2 hours early, but we really did not need to be. A representative from the agency met us at the Minneapolis airport and flew down with us. At the Miami airport, she directed us (about 27 of us) to baggage claim and then to the bus we took to get to the pier. Arriving at the pier, we were the only ship there that day. We stood in line for about an hour total. The line moved but it does take a long time, so be prepared. We got our S&S cards and went to the Purser's desk because we put down cash instead of a CC.

We went to our room and dropped off our carryon and decided to explore and eat lunch. We were starving. We ate lunch in the South Beach Club-My husband had not gotten much sleep the night before so he went back to take a nap while I decided to explore. We got maps of the ship that were very helpful. After my own tour, I came back to the room to find our luggage was delivered-though we were still missing 1 piece. My husband later found it in front of room 6207-we were in 6307 on the Upper deck. Dinner that night was great-but we were very tired. Too tired to go to any shows or anything, we decided to go to bed early. Read more