Embarkation This was my 23rd cruise on Carnival. We chose the Liberty as we had not sailed on her previously. Our embarkation date was November 14, 2008. We sailed the Eastern Caribbean, sailing to San Juan PR, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

Embarkation was Miami, FL. After dropping off the rest of my party at the check-in building, I entered the parking garage at approximately 1pm - big problem. The parking garage was very full and many, many passengers had to drive around waiting for someone to depart from their space. Unfortunately, I had the honor of parking our vehicle on this trip. I ended up parking in a very tight spot for which I was not very comfortable, however, was not happy with the thought of continuing to navigate the parking garage. For $140.00 per week one would think that a worker or workers from the port would direct you to overflow parking, but on this particular day it was not to be. The price to park at the port is ridiculous!

Embarkation was extremely smooth, mostly because we are all Platinum members and received the VIP treatment upon boarding - a special lounge with very few checking in at our particular time. Literally, it took us from me parking the vehicle to being on the ship no more than 30 minutes. Great job Carnival! Read more