A little background. I am 59, my wife is 53. This is our 6th cruise, 2nd on Carnival. We live in South Carolina and drove to Port Canaveral.

Embarkation. Arrived at terminal at 11:15. Dropped off wife, who checked bags, while I parked car. At 11:30 we entered terminal for check-in. We received our cruise documents in 20 minutes, we stood in line for another 35 minutes to get onto the ship. A lot of VIPs? kept being put into the line ahead of us. The people behind us had a suite and they were not VIPs. Suggestion to Carnival, have a second gangway so us peasants don't become unruly.

We wandered around the ship until 1:30 exploring the ship. The most important Decks are 5 (Promenade) and 9 (Lido). 5 has the shops, Casino, some clubs and other stuff. On 5 you can pretty much go from one end of ship to the other. This is important because Decks 3 and 4 are where the Main Dinning Rooms are. By using deck 5 you can walk to either a stairway or elevator then down to your restaurant. Deck 9 is the pool deck. It is also there where the buffet dining (Red Sail) is. You can also transit the length of the ship on Deck 9. Read more