This was our first Carnival cruise and our sons' first cruise. We cruised with RC before. Our sons are 15 & 18.

We booked parking online with EZ cruise parking. If you book online its $50 for the week or $55 if you drive up. Either way, it's cheaper than Carnival's lot. They give you a numbered ticket when you arrive and that's the number you use to board your bus over to the terminal so there's no use trying to hurry in front of the slow pokes to get on board the bus first. We arrived at 1:00 and there were already a lot of people waiting to board. Don't try to walk to the terminal, it's several blocks away. It took about 90 min. to get thru the line to get to the check-in desk.

We went straight to our cabin. My cheapo hubby said we'd do fine without a balcony room and he was exactly right! We had an outside cabin with a large, but dirty, window. Our cabin had a king bed, a twin bed and a drop from the ceiling twin bed. Our son loved it up there, said it was his own space. There are three large closets, lots of drawers and storage space. Take an extension cord or power strip because there's only one outlet. The cabin was comfortable and clean. Read more