A little background-we have been on 4 cruises-this was our 2nd with Carnival (we sailed on the Liberty several years back-before we had our daughter). The other lines we've sailed include RCI and NCL.

This cruise started off horribly, but that was mostly before we got on the ship. Hurricane Isaac whipped through Miami the day before the day we were supposed to embark. Instead of boarding on the morning of Sunday, 8/26, we boarded on Monday 8/27 at 10PM. YES, 10PM! And this was after standing in line for almost 6 hours at the port of Miami. We arrived at the port at 4:15, were told by the Carnival folks that there would be buses taking us to a nearby hotel for dinner, since debarkation was taking longer than expected. Well, the buses never came for us! They must have taken some passengers, because the line moved for awhile, but then just stopped moving at about 6:30pm. The line did not move again until 9:00. Luckily I packed snacks for my family or we would have had nothing to eat except for what was in the vending machine (which I heard later had nothing left in it...). Can you imagine about 1000 people standing in line with only 2 bathrooms and one vending machine? We were lucky to have made it inside for the evening hours. Other folks were still outside in drissly, humid, Miami heat.

Something obviously went terribly awry here, as I called Carnival before we left for the port (we were at my folks about 1.25 hours away). And by the time we got to port they no longer had plans to board at 4:00, as I was just told by the rep that they would. SO, I was not a happy person after the misinformation, standing in line that long with my 3 year old, then having to put her to bed at 11pm (very late for a young child). Read more