This was our second cruise, and a first with Carnival. We live in Northern VA and drove to NY last year for a cruise on Norwegian Gem. This year we figured we avoid the long drive and cruise out of Baltimore instead. Our group of 2 families have 4 kids and 4 adults.

Parking at the port terminal was a breeze. However, there was a down pour and we got very wet while running from the car to the terminal entrance. After you drop of the luggage, you can park faster if you pay by cash since the number of cars in the credit card line is longer. Because of the thunderstorm, the main plank was shutdown and they had a shuttle to take passengers about 100 yards to the front of the ship to enter through that entrance...weird, it would have been faster to walk down to that entrance instead of waiting for the shuttle.

Overall the cruise was great. The food was fantastic with so much varieties, our group of 8 have early seating. Our waiters, Natt and Roy from Thailand and Phillipine, did such a great job we decided on giving them additional tip at the last dinner. Read more