This was our seventh Carnival cruise - Parents 47 and 46, sons 16, 11 and 7 (turned 8 during the cruise).

Day 1 pre-cruise: Welcome to - Atlanta?

I know it's best to fly early in the day; however, last year we took the kids out of school for a day prior to our cruise so we could do so, and never heard the end of it from our high schooler who was convinced that our taking him out of school for a day was the sole reason for his poor (by his standards) third quarter math grade. This year we decided to fly later in the day (Friday for a Sunday cruise) so the kids could get in a half day of school. We allowed 1 1/2 hours to change planes in Atlanta, with arrival in Miami scheduled for late Friday night. Unfortunately, our flight from Newburgh left 2 hours late; our connecting flight was long gone by the time we reached Atlanta. The airline put us up in a Holiday Inn for the night - apparently the same hotel that became the last resort for the numerous other souls whose travels for the evening had ended abruptly at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. DH had already called our hotel in South Beach to make sure we could have the room when we arrived in Miami the next morning. I had had the forethought to pack extra tops and underwear in a carry-on bag. Oldest son unfortunately had packed his contact lens case and his glasses in his checked bag (happily spending the night at Hartsfield), so I told him to put his contacts in a cup with the solution I had also thoughtfully packed in one of the quart-sized plastic bags the TSA requires for fluids in carry-on bags (by the end of the week, I knew what I wanted to tell the TSA to do with their #$@&* quart-size zip-top plastic bags). That would work.... Read more