We left on the Spirit out of Miami on Feb. 4, 2003. It was an eight-day cruise to St. Maarten, Barbados, and Martinique. We flew to Miami the day before in case of bad weather as we were coming from Massachusetts. Tuesday we went back to the airport to catch the Carnival shuttle bus to the port.....Miami is a beautiful port to leave from. Out of 9 cruises this was the first one out of Miami. Embarkation was pretty quick until we got upstairs and into the long corridor which was FULL of people waiting to get on! Finally a Carnival rep came and told those who did not want their picture taken by the ship's photographer to go to the left side of the line. That made things go a little faster.
We found our cabin quite easily.....it was on Deck 7 aft....a balcony. The cabin was very nice with plenty of storage room. The suitcases all fit under the bed which is a good thing....there would be no room for them elsewhere.
We had the first seating for dinner so only had a snack for lunch. The ship left port shortly after 4 (closer to 5 PM) and I had all I could do to get my husband off of the balcony to go to dinner for 5:45! Leaving port you see all the lovely hotels, houses, boats along the waterfront.