This was our third cruise - second with Carnival. We got off the Valor on June 29th. Our first cruise with Carnival, we were married aboard the Ecstasy in the library. Our last cruise was over ten years ago pre kids. It was me, my DH, my DS (9), and my DD (11). This was our children's first cruise ever and first vacation that didn't involve Disney (we live 1 ½ hrs away) or visiting relatives. My best friend and cousin came with her family as well. There were a total of 11 of us ranging in ages of 9 to 67.

We live north of Tampa. We originally picked the Valor because it went to Honduras and the Legend out of Tampa didn't. By the time the hurricane came through Costa Maya and the schedules mirrored each other, we had a great room and didn't want to rock the boat so to speak. So, we drove to Miami. Not the most thrilling drive, but we went down one day early and stayed at the JW Marriott, one mile from the pier. A friend got us a great discount. It was very hoity toity. My kids thought it was great that they had bathrobes to use in the rooms.

We arrived at the port around 11:30 a.m., paid a porter a little too much to help with our bags, and planned to self-park when we realized my husband left his laptop at the hotel, which was a mile away. Thank goodness we stayed at a hoity toity hotel. We called and they had it for him. My kids and I waited at the terminal for him to return. Our friends arrived in the meantime. We went ahead and boarded while they self parked. We moved pretty quickly through all of the lines without too much trouble at all. Read more