My fiancé and I are getting married on a Carnival ship in September. Neither one of us had sailed with Carnival before, so we figured we would give them a try and take a relaxing cruise before the stress of the wedding hit. We had a week off, airline credits from a previously-cancelled trip, and the last minutes for this cruise were very reasonable, so we went for it.

We booked an inside guarantee and were assigned an inside cabin on deck 6. We were happy. The day before we left, Carnival called and offered us a balcony cabin on the Lido deck for a great price. We took it and absolutely loved our Lido balcony. Carnival earned major cool points with us early on.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and took SAS Transportation to the port. We highly recommend SAS; they are half the price of Carnival's bus and excellent. Even though we were notified that there was a Coast Guard inspection and not to arrive at the port until 1, they were checking people in. Although while I was pulling my passport out to show the security guard, I was practically knocked over by a "lady" who thought she was God's gift because she had FTTF, we quickly checked in were on the ship by 12:30 (not much longer after her. HA HA). I get the whole FTTF thing, but there is no need to push and shove over it, or you might find yourself eating your lobster with a straw. Just sayin' Anyway, the cabins weren't accessible until 1:30. The buffet and Guy's Burgers were open. I had a burger, which was good but not awe inspiring as I had read. We then took a nap and had the buffet for dinner because we were exhausted. The food on the buffet was delicious (the ribs really stood out). Read more