My husband, myself and 4 other friends booked our cruise through Carnival for our anniversary trip. We had cruised with them before and decided to try a longer cruise with different ports.
We flew to Tampa the day before and spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express at RJ Stadium. The hotel was very nice and they transported us to the pier for $5.00 a person and picked us up at the airport for free.
Embarkation was very easy. Everyone one was very helpful and we were on the ship within 45 minutes of check in.