This was our 3rd Carnival cruise. I'v been on so many with other lines I've lost count. This is hubby's 3rd overall. The second time was not so great aboard the Liberty. We were searching online with other lines and found a deal on Carnival's website. On top of it we are shareholders so we get even more of a discount. We decided to give it one more try and this time my parents came along. We were elated to learn that Wee Jimmy was the cruise director. He was on the our first cruise aboard Freedom and he was EXCELLENT!

We flew into Tampa the day before the cruise and met up with family. We stayed at the The Hilton Garden Inn Tampa Airport Westshore. It was very nice.

We had never gone to the port of Tampa and we found embarkation easy enough. The only issue was that our bookings were switched with my mom and dad due to us being past passengers. Mom was with me and dad was with my husband. We tried to get our sail and sign cards changed but were told we had to do this on the ship at guest services. We had no problems doing this the last two cruise. We were told that the woman helping us was new. ?? Whatever, we changed it on the ship but had to wait in line for about 30 minutes. Not a huge deal. Read more