My wife and I sailed on the Valor on the 26th of October, our second Carnival cruise this year.

We took SAS transportation from our home in Fort Lauderdale to the port for $20 per person (each way) - a bargain as last time we spent $140 just to park the car at the port. Arriving at the port around noon, we quickly went through the security line (10 minutes) and the check-in line (15 minutes). We had a little delay in checking in due to a lack of knowledge on Carnival's part about the type of US Visa my wife possessed, but that was sorted out fairly quickly and we were on the boat and in our cabin around 1:15PM. We immediately went up to the Lido deck for some lunch. As with the freedom, the Lido food is OK, but nothing to write home about and not on a par with the main dining rooms. After lunch we relaxed a little in our forward balcony cabin #8202 - about 5 cabins away from the bridge. We could clearly see in the bridge from this location, which of course means the bridge personal could see onto our balcony too. Worth noting if you're into nude sunbathing!

The boat drill started around 4pm and we purposely delayed going for about 20 minutes. (We went when our room steward told us we needed to go!) On the Freedom we waited and waited and waited for everyone to arrive and spent a good 45 minutes with our life jacket on. This time when we arrived at our muster station and put the life jackets on - the drill was immediately over. Sweet! Read more