I've been meaning to write this since we (me, my wife, three teenaged children and my parents) got back on 7/22/07 from our Eastern Caribbean cruise but alas life intrudes. Nevertheless I feel strongly enough about what I want relate that I'm carving out a little time so that the readers on this fine site can be a little more informed about what they are getting for their vacation dollars and perhaps just as importantly their valuable time.

Embarkation

It seems that many writers touch on the embarkation process in their reviews and I guess I'll start there as well. All in all it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. Yes there was some waiting around (we arrived about an hour early), and there were lines to stand on. We observed a number of chairs in a large seating area in the middle of the cavernous pier but found that we couldn't sit there as the seats were reserved for VIPs. And let me tell you there were quite a few of them. No, we had to stand in line against the wall while Carnival staff assigned to the pier repeatedly asked us to move closer together so that more people could enter the roped off area that we were in. Despite being treated like cattle, the wait wasn't terribly long (we were near the beginning of the herd) and the boarding process wound up going pretty smoothly once the VIPs were settled in. Note that it was during the boarding process on the pier that we were first accosted by Carnival photographers. Maybe it's me, but I just didn't feel like posing for a photo at that point. I was a good deal more interested in finishing the boarding process and getting on the darn boat. Read more