A little background first - this was my 5th Carnival cruise - 8th overall. I sailed on Liberty on the Western route out of Fort Lauderdale back in 2007 and was really excited about boarding her again. Travelling with me - my three daughters, 15, 13, and 9, my mother, and my sister.

We were at the port by 11am on our embarkaton day, went through security, had my mini bottles of wine (they really, seriously, only allow 1 bottle per adult now - no matter what the size - you used to be able to bring 4 mini bottles OR 1 large bottle) confiscated in the naughty room at security, and proceeded to the kiosk to scan in passports and make my cash deposit on my sail and sign card. It was a fairly simple process and we had our sail and sign cards in hand within about 20 minutes. We were group number 17 and probably were on board by noon.

One nice feature they have now is a shore excursion desk right in the check in area at the port. I was able to book my cabana right there, although I did have to go to the excursion desk on board in order to give them my drink preferences and fin sizes. It was a really nice surprise and took a lot of the stress away from boarding since my goal had been to get there a little earlier than we did to be sure we got a cabana booked. Read more