Background: I decided at the very last minute to book a cruise for my family's vacation in August 2008, so I called a cruise consolidator, who managed to find me adjacent inside cabins on the Carnival Victory to fit my family of five. As many cruisers out there know, families of five are hard to fit into one cabin unless they book a large suite, and those are awfully expensive. Although we we have taken a total of four cruises, we have only taken two (including the one I'm reviewing now) with three kids. Our last cruise was RCL on the Enchantment of the Seas, and we had adjacent connecting cabin. We were able to put all three kids in one cabin, and my wife and I stayed in the other cabin with easy access to the kids through the connecting door. There are very few inside connecting cabins on the Carnival Victory, so we were lucky to get the next best thing at this very late date. I called the cruise consolidator on Monday, and the cruise left from New York City on Saturday.

Since we live in Maryland (suburbs of DC), we opted to drive up to New York City to save on the cost of the flight or train, which ran anywhere from $1200 to $1600 depending on the mode of transportation and time of departure. Our family of five costs a lot to transport, so driving was the cheapest, though not necessarily the fastest, way to get to NYC. We drove up Friday afternoon, and stayed at the Fairfield Inn in East Rutherford, NJ, which across the river from NYC by way of the Lincoln Tunnel. We decided to stay at the Fairfield Inn because it was close, and the price was right: free. I used my Marriott points to wrangle a free room (and we overstuffed the room with the five of us, even though the room was made for four, but my kids are 8, 4, and 4 (twins), so they don't take up that much room), and there was the bonus of a free continental breakfast! But I digress.

Arrival and Preliminaries: We left the hotel at around 9:45, and we were at the cruise port in about 30 minutes - that gave us a LOT of time to wait. We parked our car at Pier 92, which is where the Victory was docked. There isn't that much parking available, so if you want a decent spot, get there early. The daily rate at the time of this writing is $30 per day, and you have to pay all of it up front ($150 - 5 day cruise). We were a little confused as to where you go down from the parking deck (which is on top of the cruise terminal) to the terminal itself, and we drove around the parking pier for a little bit before we figured out that it's best to park near the entrance, as that's where the elevators are located. That way, when you come back, you don't have a long walk to the end of the pier to get your car. Here's a tip that we learned though at the end of the cruise: The Victory doesn't necessary come back to the same pier that you leave from. I don't know if it's possible, but see if you can find out where the Victory will dock when coming back so you can park at that dock, rather than parking at the embarkation dock. We came back to Pier 88, so we had a very long walk back to retrieve our car. Read more