My Mom and I only had to drive across the bay to begin our cruise and we were very excited. We have left out of Mobile twice before on the Holiday, so knew we could arrive earlier than posted and be on the ship fairly quickly. This was the first time for VIP boarding and we were very excited. We left our house at 10:30 and made a quick stop at Target and were heading down I-10 by 11:00. We exited I-10 at 11:15 and came to a complete stop!!! We were not that worried though because we knew the porters were very quick with luggage and we knew we had arrived early enough to enter the parking garage. One hour later (after moving 3 car lengths) were we sent to the off site parking at the Civic Center. By then we were irrated and becoming hot because of course the air conditioner does not work as well when sitting still, so we were happy to at least be moving.

Parking at the offsite area was not bad because the weather was clear and we did not have to worry about rain. The bus was already there to take us to the terminal so that was fine also. My only suggestion is to give the bus driver all of your luggage. I took my two carryon items with me and it was very difficult to get the onto the bus. I was worried that the bus driver would give all of our luggage to a porter and I would not be able to carry my things on. Should have known better though, the bus driver unloads the luggage and then we were responsible for finding a porter. This insures the porter will receive his tip!!! The porter was great and we were in line to enter the terminal by 12:45.

We then proceeded to the VIP boarding area. It is just a small waiting room right off the area where everyone else checks in. They only had one person working and it was taking quite awhile. I told my Mom that it looked like the people that walked in with us (going through the regular line) were moving faster than we were. Someone must have heard me and they called in another agent to check us in. We were onboard by 1:20. This is correct!!! We were in line out side the terminal at 11:15. It took 2 hours from that point to get onto the boat. This is not Carnival's fault but the fault of Mobile. I will be writing a letter to the editor because Mobile is going to have to do something to fix this situation or we could utlimately lose our cruise ship. If you are planning to travel on the elation, just build up your patience and know you will have to use it when it comes to embarkation. I really do not understand why there is a problem because the Fantasy was not a small ship and Mobile has had plenty of time to figure out how to handle the larger ships. Read more