My family wanted to have a special family trip, and were very excited about trying this type of vacation. Galveston was a convenient port for us. I had checked the website about parking, and also asked the travel agent for advice on the embarkation process. When we drove up a porter took our 5 bags that we had tagged, and we tipped $5. My husband went to park the car. The line was a little long. We waited outside near the entrance line for him. When we were all together, the process was very quick. We showed our boarding passes, entered the building, went to a security line showed passports, went through a metal detector, and bag scanner. We kept shoes and belts on. We had no problems. Just before entering the ship they scanned our passports again to make sure our picture was in the system. Our cabin was ready on arrival. We boarded around 130. We had 2 cabins, one with a balcony and one interior. On the second day I went to guest services and requested extra keys, so that I could get into our kids cabin, and they could get into ours. Our party was 2 parents, 3 children, ages 19, 17 and 8. The kids were in the interior and the 8 year old loved the bed that came down from the ceiling. The balcony was a really nice feature. I had brought a power strip for both cabins. This was so we could charge our devices.

Best advice is to download the Carnival Hub App! This is so valuable in helping you know what is going on on the ship! Then put your phone in airplane mode. We bought the Chat feature for $5 per phone. ($20 for us) this helped us communicate throughout the ship. Highly recommend it. We do not drink , and my kids like lemonade and hot chocolate and water more than soda, so we did not purchase a drink plan, and we were fine with these options. I had 12 pack of water delivered to our rooms, in case we wanted it.

If you have a Lanyard , bring it to attach your key cards to. I had forgot mine and spent the trip making sure I had a pocket. I didnt feel like spending $8 for one from the gift shop. The buffet was very good, my 8 year old loved Guy's Burgers and had this option often. The Mongolian Wok is good, but a long wait as they make it individually. If you want it, be prepared to commit to the line.We ate in the Washington dinning room. Our wait staff Roberto, Buatang, and Basil were attentive and patient. We wanted to try everything, and so we often ordered more than one appetizer, entree and dessert, and then would share with each other. Our favorite dessert was the Molten Chocolate cake. We always had that. We ate in the dining room every night and it was a great way to come together every evening. The staff put on a short dance show which was fun. Read more