Carnival Cruise - Day 1 - Port of Miami

Good morning, Miami.. We got up real early today and drove down to see our friend who generously (with no choice) agreed to let us park our car at their house and drove us to the port. Once we got to their house, we spent about an hour talking and catching up. Then off we went.

We got to the port right around 10:30am. The security check-in was painless. We got through within 10 mins. Then we went up to the terminal and checked-in at the Carnival counter. I already did all my paperwork online (Fun Pass and register for Sail & Sign). So basically, I just handed them our passports and 2 minutes later we were done. We got our boarding group # at number 4. Mr. Rojo thought we should have been here earlier and we might get group #1. Oh! well, I think it's good enough.

We waited around in the terminal for about an hour. The kids were running around and enjoyed the excitement of the cruise. By 11:45am, they started to board the VIP and wedding group. Then the boarding continued. I have to say it was fairly easy and I'm glad we decided to follow one of Mr. Rojo's coworker to get there early. We boarded the ship by noon. Perfect time for lunch!!!

Once we got on the ship, we headed to our stateroom just to see where it is and see if we will be in luck to put our carry-on there. We found it but no such luck on the room to be ready yet. No problem. We were on Verandah deck just one floor down from the Lido deck which is the restaurant and pool deck. What a perfect location! We headed there and found a table by the window. A quick lunch and our vacation was officially begun.

After lunch, we just wandered around to get a hang of the ship and location of different places like Children playroom aka Camp Carnival. My first impression was not good. The room looks much smaller than Disney. But I promised myself that I won't compare the cruise. Otherwise, it will ruin my fun. So I gave it a benefit of the doubt and would wait and see how the kids took it.

Before we could sail, everyone had to attend the drill. Our room was assigned to Muster Station G. Note to any future cruisers, looked at the sign on the boat. It will point you to which direction you have to go for your Muster Station. Well, we didn't. So we walked all the way to the front of the ship and found that our station was in the back right on top of our room. Duh!!

After the drill, we headed back and went up to the Lido deck for the sail away.. Woo hoo!! Bye bye Miami.. See you in a few days..

Then we just enjoyed the view at the back of the ship. This soon would be our favorite spot to just sit there and relax. Our luggages hadn't arrived yet and it was time for dinner already. So we just headed there without changing.

We had early sitting in Pacific Dining room. Our servers were from Indonesia and Phillippines. They were very nice. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about.. Really.. I'm not a picky person. I can pretty much eat everything. But these are not something that are memorable in my opinion. But on the flip side, if you don't like what you have, just ask for different dish. That's the beauty of cruising. I always ordered a couple starters to try it out.

By the time we got to our room after dinner, the luggages were there. So I started to unpack and put everything away. After shower, we were too tired to even wander out. We went to bed at 9pm!!! We asked our steward to setup the room with 2 twin beds and 2 bunks. But we quickly found that it wasn't a good setting. So the next day we asked him to change it to one king bed. By the way, the bed does feel comfortable here.

OH.. as far as the ship itself. I will have a separate review later on what my thoughts are on this ship.. To be continued...