We are not new to cruising. This is our 6th overall and our 5th on Carnival. This cruise was very last minute as we got a "deal" from the Players Club in mid-December and booked on New Year's Eve to sail on January 13. Part of the deal was an upgrade to a balcony....more about that later.

Arrived in Galveston on Sunday evening and stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites at 61st and Seawall. Very clean and they had a good breakfast the next morning. There were a few quirks with our check-in but all was taken care of fairly quickly. We ate supper at the Tortuga Mexican Kitchen (basically the same parking lot) which was great as usual.

Arrival and embarkation was very, very smooth. We left the motel at 9:30 am to head to Lighthouse Parking. There was a shuttle waiting for us and we were at the port in no time. We gave our bags to a porter and headed to check-in. We were through security and up the escalator and getting our sign and sail cards by 10:30 am. Very, very easy. We only had about a 30 minute wait before they started boarding. On the ship, we help a few newbies about where we were and where to go and headed to the Lido. We tried Guys Burgers for lunch and I must say they were wonderful as was the Red Frog Beer. Not big beer drinkers but wanted to give the new stuff a try. I really liked it. We wandered a bit and went to cabin at 1:30. Bags were not there so we wandered around some more looking into shops. At that time we found the maître de and switched to early dining (late was all that was available since we booked last minute). Read more