My family booked this cruise as a last minute summer vacation. This was my 10th cruise (3rd with Carnival). We cruised last summer out of New Orleans on the Carnival Triumph and had a great time, so we thought we'd go out of Mobile this summer.

We drove to Mobile and spent the night at the Renaissance with the drive/park cruise package. I believe parking at the port for a week is $125. Our room for the night with parking included for the week was $149 and they shuttled us to and from the port. It was handy. The Renaissance is a lovely hotel and we had a high room on the port side, so we got to watch the ship dock in the morning. A great start to our vacation. Had dinner at Wintzell's and it was tasty.

After being shuttled to the port with our bags, we went through the embarkation process which was somewhat chaotic, but we were on the ship in about an hour. Read more