Our cruise was awesome. This was our first cruise but I had done a lot of research into what to expect and tips of what to bring . I used a travel agent to get some advice for my first cruise and she got me a military / fire fighter upgrade that I wouldn't have known about had I not gone thru her. We also got $10 SNS credits each. Travel agents can give you more insight such as, "avoid that room, it's under a hallway" or "arrive at the MDR 5-10 minutes late to avoid waiting in lines" .

We parked at Galveston Park-N-Cruise with a prepaid outside rate of $34 for the 5 night cruise. It's right across the street and we had no problem walking our bags to the terminal. Our car was there safe, ready, and waiting when we got back.

Embarkation was a little crowded with lines that snaked around to go thru the metal detectors and then lines to get the Sign and Sail/Room card. There are a lot of stage areas where they try to get you to pose for a picture. If you know you don't want to pay $10 - $20 for a picture, tell them "no thanks" and you can avoid these stops. Once on the boat, there were staff people wearing red "ASK ME" shirts to point you in the right direction. The rooms were ready @ 1:30pm. We got to our room and met Andy our room steward who informed us of the lunch on the Lido deck, a guided ship tour, and the muster drill. Our room is a sideways room, with the door on the long side opening up directly to the sleeping area. Most rooms open to a hall with closets on one side and the bathroom on the other. Our room was smaller than the usual Carnival room. It measured 9.25 ft X 17 ft. The bathroom was moved to the shorter length side, there was no hall and we had a smaller closet. Most Carnival rooms are about 186 sq ft, ours was about 157 sq ft. But it was still big enough and felt roomie. There is a constant "white noise" as the engines roar and air is force circulated throughout the ship. I brought earplugs for sleeping but I never had to use them because the noise wasn't that bad. I would equate it to noise on an airplane. I found the bed to be extremely comfortable and the sheets were soft to compliment the very nice pillows. The Carnival Signature Towels were soft and large however the white bath towels were a bit hard and hospital like. The whole cabin was very clean. The shower has odd mechanics. There is a knob on the left and a knob on the right. The left knob operates the volume of water and the single right knob controls the temperature. I was very impressed with the vent hole above the toilet. It really sucks a lot of air which is useful to keep the bathroom smelling fresh, moisture free, and ventilate the entire cabin. It can clear a stinky bathroom in about a couple of minutes. I brought air freshener and never had to use it. There is an electronic programmable hotel safe in the closet for valuables, and I did put my wads of cash, passport, and wallet in there, but I never felt unsafe on the ship. We were midship on the 6th floor. There were 3 stairway/elevator wells but the middle one did not go to all the floors. I just told myself that when I left the room, all the way right took me to the Atrium, theater, gym, and all the way to deck 12 and all the way left took me to the eating places. I see the benefit of being a little higher up in floors. Many times you'll want to just bypass the elevator and just take the stairs. I wish there was a change in color scheme, or clearer signs on the stairs to tell you what floor you were on. Read more