My partner (38) and I (28) travel once (sometimes twice) a year on vacation. I am a hotel Asst. GM and he is a Marketing Officer for a tour company. We live in Barbados and as Carnival Victory now home ports in Barbados as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico we thought we would take advantage of boarding straight from home - no flights necessary :o). This is my third Carnival Cruise and his second.

We arrived at the Bridgetown Cruise Terminal at approx. 10:30am. Dropped our checked bags at the Carnival Desk to the west end of the Terminal Building and proceeded to the ship's gangway (a 3 minute walk). From the gangway we were directed to Deck 3, Lobby where we were met by a rep. from Guests Services as we got off the elevator and were escorted to the Atlantic Dining room. Free rum punches were served while we waited :o). We were the first to arrive in the dining room and the first to be checked in. Check in started at approx. 11: 15am and was quick. Have your passports, completed immigration form and credit card ready. We were given a copy of the Fun Times daily news, a map of the ship and our sail and sign cards. On our way out of the dining room we had our picture taken and our sail and sign cards activated. By 11:30am we were on Deck 9, Lido and having lunch.

Our cabin was ready at 2:00pm. We booked an Ocean View cabin on Deck 1, Riviera. It was starboard, near to the forward stairs and was clean & spacious. The CC boards did accurately report that there is no fridge in the room and yes, the bathroom is pink but neither of these bothered us. Janthai, our room steward, always kept the ice bucket full and the bathroom was clean, well stocked with towels and had space for all our toiletries. Our bed was very comfortable, large with space underneath to store your luggage and of course we had the turndown every evening with a towel animal :o). Read more