Introduction: First time cruisers, my husband(53) and I(52) stayed in Texas City the night before the cruise. We had driven down to Galveston the day before. It is 10 hours from where we live. Not bad and saved the air fare.

Embarkation:Arrived early because we were so ready to start this vacation , it had been a life long dream of mine to take a cruise. Got to the port around 9:00am. Could not check until 10:00am. They came around and took our bags , we kept the carry ons. Had to drive around Galveston Island for an hour before we could park the car and go back to the port. We had pre-paid at the Port of Galveston to park there, it was okay because we were able to get covered parking which is first come first serve. Parked and the bus took us over to where we check in. You go into a room and sit down , a lady comes around and checks to see if you have your paper work done and everything filled out. Then we were put in a line for about an hour. Went from one room to the next where we got our sign and sail cards, and then were set aside in another area for another couple of hours. This all seems really long at the time but, when I saw the line behind us , it all seems like it went pretty fast now. If you have trouble standing up for long periods they are very nice and will get you a chair. We were on board and up on deck 9 having lunch by 12:30 so I am glad we got there early. After lunch we went to find our cabin. Deck 1 with picture window. It was ready. Dropped off our carry ons and went exploring the ship. Our bags arrived by our dinner time which was supposed to be 6:15 and was changed to 5:45, not a big deal we were told we could show up any where in between. Service was very good and the food was good. Except for the last night, they all seemed to be very busy and didn't take our drink order until we ask to see a wine list, then it was not until our food came that we were able to get their attention to get them to bring our drinks. We enjoyed our waiters very much , very friendly and talkitive except the last night and it was a frenzy it seemed like . They did stop and pose for a picture for us though. I have to stop here and say that because we had read several reviews on cruise critic , we went as soon as we got on board and made a reservation for the Supper Club for one night. A must do for $30 extra per person. The food was excellent!!! The service unmatched and a real treat.

Jamaica: Didn't even leave the ship at this port. After reading what had happened on one cruise tour in June it really lost it's interest for us. A lot of people did get off and after we talked to them when they got back on board that day, we were glad we had stayed on board. They told of shop owners being to pushy and one guy said he had at least 5 people offer him drugs. We just enjoyed our day on the ship and didn't feel like we had missed out on anything. I do wish Carnival would drop this port. A second day in Grand Cayman would be great. Read more