About us - early 50's - many cruises between the two of us. THis was my Platinum Cruise with Carnival.

Our Dream vacation started off on Thanksgiving Day. We left Reno early in the morning via Delta Airlines to Orlando. We had arranged transportation through Laura's Shuttle from MCO to Port Canaveral to the Radisson at the Port. We chose this hotel as they have Sleep Number beds and we love ours at home. Radisson at the Port offers a package that includes tickets and transportation to the Kennedy Space Center. Since we arrived a few days early, we thought this would be a great side trip. Kennedy was incredible and I highly recommend that you come in a day or two early so you can make this a part of your vacation! Food and service at the hotel was good and they also provided transportation to the ship. This was a bit hectic -- but we assumed as much since there were four ships in port that day.

We left the hotel by 10:30 am and by the time we checked in and had our keys -- they had started boarding the ship. We went to the aft pool bar next to the deli station and ordered up a Rueben. The sandwich was good and hot -- but not a Rueben! This is the second ship where the staff at the deli thinks a Rueben is made with ham. Still tasty, but wish I had gotten what I had ordered. We had great bar staff at this location -- Mario was attentive without being pushy, and in no time we had our DOD in hand. Our traveling companions found us and we all had a nice lunch while we waited for our cabins to be available. Our Meet and Greet was scheduled for this same area at 2:00 so off we went to our cabins to drop off our carry-ons. Back up to the aft pool bar to meet up with a great group of folks! What friendly people -- many of us had conversed here on the boards prior to the sailing so it was quite fun to put a face to a screen name! Surprisingly, this ship is so large we rarely ran into anyone after this. Read more