We are a family of 4 who cruise often. Our children are ages 10 and 8. This was their 12th cruise, my husband's 13th, and my 14th. We've sailed mostly Carnival, with this being my husband's and my 10th Carnival cruise to give us platinum status. We've also sailed twice on Disney, and once on Royal Caribbean and NCL. It was another great cruise!

HOTEL

We arrived in Lake Buena Vista for two nights pre-cruise and stayed in the Spring Hill Suites in the Marriott Village about a 5 minute drive from Downtown Disney. Nice hotel, nice pool, good for a family of 5 (my mother was with us for the first night), free internet for the first 24 hours, and under an hour to the port. We stayed here because we wanted to go to Disney's Blizzard Beach the day before the cruise. We arrived at the cruise terminal around 11:15 am. There was a separate line for "VIP" which we were able to use this time due to it being our 10th Carnival sailing. The first 15-20 minutes we were stuck in the line before the security scan, not sure what that was all about, but as soon as we moved through security, we were whisked into the VIP check-in. Having this be our first time with Platinum status, it was GREAT! We were personally brought right up to the counter in front of the lines for our check-in, sign and sail cards, etc., and then allowed to by-pass the boarding zones. We were on the ship by 12 and went straight to the pool to dump our stuff and then to get food at the lido buffet. Lines for food were already long, but it wasn't terrible. Both grill by the pool and buffet were open. Read more