This was our first cruise ever and we chose a short cheap cruise to test the waters. As the time to sail approached I must say we were so excited it was like waiting for Christmas to arrive. We did all of our pre-cruise check in's read the Carnival website backwards and forwards and felt very prepared AND excited to try this out.

When we arrived at the port we were checking in with our passports and the lady said gosh you have already checked in. To which we replied we had just puled up in a taxi...it was about 11AM. She said they could figure that out when we were given our room key. The lines were very short and we thought things would be fine until we went to get the sign and sail card. We told her that something was up and that someone else had checked in under my name. This resulted in 45 minutes of confusion and errors and supervisors being called. All due to someone's error, not ours. We had to wait while all of our data was dumped and reentered. Only to find that the supervisor who re-entered every thing spelled my name wrong. I was terrified that someone else was charging things to my credit card on the ship while I was hung up here at check in. We finally got our cards and were told we could board. When I looked at the cards I noticed we had different dining times. When we said something to another port rep about this he just said to go to guest services on board and they could straighten it out.

We boarded and noticed the ship was rusty and old looking. Our confidence was shattered after seeing the ship and going through the check in process. We found our room and the card keys worked ok but we did go to guest services right away to ask about the dining assignment. The line was huge as everyone was going there when they boarded. We were assured everything was fine after the dining assignment as fixed. SO from there we went on deck to buy the Bubbles package. Another 30 minute line there, sticker applied to card and went right to adjacent bar to get a DIet Coke. Got the receipt and there was a !.50 charge for the drink. We had JUST bought the package. They sent us back to guest services. So we went back down, stood in another line and we once again assured everything was fine. Read more