Let me start off by saying this was my first cruise.
Myself, my fiance, and my mother left Memphis by train to New Orleans. I LOVE New Orleans. We stayed at the Marriott Convention Center across from the port. After spending a wonderful day in the big easy we headed off to the port. It was a bit disorganized, but seemed to work there. Once inside is where the fun began. I am a police officer in the Memphis area, however I was wearing a New Orleans Police t-shirt that I had gotten from visiting a N.O.P.D. precinct in the quarter the night before...didn't think much about it. We had just arrived in the first of (what was to be) several long lines. I didn't mind, I had read that this was part of it. However, after getting in line, a Carnival employee approached me, and took all 3 of us in our party to the front of the line! "We take care of police officers here" he said (glad someone does). I just nodded and said "thank you". Same story with the next line (passports, sign and sail cards)..front of the line. Then one more time with boarding..we were instantly issued a "zone card" with a number already called. Long story short(ish), from baggage drop off to boarding the ship was around 10 minutes!
Ok, now we're on the ship. They told us our room would be ready around 1:30 (we boarded around 11:45), so we did what I was looking forward to doing: we ate. :) I have read MANY reviews about long lines at the buffet. While the lines were somewhat long, they moved quickly. We ate, we were happy. Walked around the ship, life was good. At 1:30 exactly, we went to our room (1223/Riviera deck), and sure enough it was ready. Took a picture of the little towel animal (walrus), and settled in for a bit. Room was clean and large. (My first cruise so I didn't know, but mom, who has cruised on several higher end cruise lines, said it was the biggest room she'd been in)
Alot of sounds in that room...maybe doors slamming from other rooms??