I decided late last year I would take my wife on our first cruise for her 30th birthday. I chose Carnival Destiny because we really liked their 5-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary and the prices for an 8E stateroom were great (after all the taxes and port fees, the cruise price was only $1600 for the two of us!!). Just for background, my wife and I are in our early 30's, conservative Okies, who are on the active side, but not over-the-top Lance Armstrong in the Michelob Ultra commercials active.

We got to Miami a couple days early and then boarded the ship on August 9th after taking a taxi into the Port of Miami. The Embarkation process was great. It was pouring rain, but we had cover immediately where we were dropped off. Our porter picked an argument with the cabbie on our behalf so the cabbie would get wet retrieving our bags, not us. He got an extra couple bucks for that. A thing to know: August and September is the real rainy season for Miami and the Caribbean, but it was only an occassional 20-minute shower blowing through once, maybe twice a day. The occasional rain never got in the way of our fun.

Once inside the Terminal, things went very smoothly. It took about 45 minutes from Taxi Cab to being fully boarded on the ship with our "Sign and Sail" card in hand (for the first-timers, your Sign and Sail card is your room key and also the means by which you spend money on the ship). Read more