i have just returned from the carnival victory sailing from july 26 - july 31, 2003 to st. john and halifax canada. i took this cruise with a friend who had never cruised before, and for me this was my first cruise on carnival. i have previously cruised royal caribbean, princess, dolphin and home lines.
embarkation: we took the train from nj to penn station, and then got a cab to the pier. we got in the cab at approx. 11am and didn't€™ get to the pier until 11:40! the traffic was a mess because there were turns that were blocked off, plus there were two other ships (both celebrity) in port that day. once we were dropped off, things went rather quickly. we gave our larger bags to the porter, then proceeded inside. we put our carryon bags thru the xray machine and went thru the metal detectors. there was a carnival rep walking with us up to this point, ripping out the appropriate docs from our folder. after going thru security, we got our embarkation picture taken, then were directed to the lines to have our docs checked and get our sail and sign cards. after that, were proceeded on board, and were in our cabin by 12:15pm. this was the fastest embarkation i've experienced!
cabin: we were on deck 2 (main) with an oceanview cabin on the port side. our cabin was ready, so we unpacked our carryons and relaxed a while before heading up to the buffet for lunch. the cabin was very spacious. we had drawers and shelves that we never used. there is a closet with 3 sections, one with shelves (one shelf held the safe that was operated with a credit card or any other card with a magnetic strip other than your sail & sign card), and two sections with hangers. we didn't have any skirt/pants hangers with clips so i was glad i brought some from home. there were 3 large drawers on one side of the vanity, and a section with small shelves behind doors on the other side. other furniture besides the beds were 2 nightstands that had storage space, a vanity stool, a pull out sofabed and a table and chair. also, placed on the sofa were 2 thick terry cloth robes and our carnival pool towels. very nice.