For our second cruise to the Bahamas we chose to again sail from Charleston SC because it is convenient to our golf condo.

it is easy to get to the port in Charleston and the procedure for embarking is rather straightforward and simple. Our ship was the Carnival Ecstasy. Once on board the ship we learned that we should have very carefully read all the fine print on-line and noticed what was missing as compared to our cruise on the Carnival Fantasy the year prior. But we will get to that.

Carnival assigned us a boarding time of 12:30 pm which worked well for our travel schedule. My wife and I each had a backpack, a small carryon suitcase and a cloth bag for miscellaneous items. We quickly boarded and made it to our assigned deck before 1 pm where we found the deck closed and with a notice that cabins would not be available until 1:30 pm. Read more