Chil's Point of View….

Embarkation sucked!
Cruise seemed disorganized – no one to really direct you to place where to put your luggage. We had to haul suitcase around until we found someone we could ask. We went to place for drop-off, and there wasn’t a process in place which one could easily follow. We just loaded suitcase on cart with other people’s luggage, and porter rolled it. No-one was there to direct us, and there wasn’t any signage on what to do next. Asked again, and we were told to stand in line for check-in.We waited outside (in the cold) for close to two hours waiting to check-in. There was another line which seemed to have already checked in, and proceeding to the ship. It was pretty confusing. We had already checked in on the internet, and thought that we should be checked in. But that did not help, as we continue to wait-and-wait-and-wait – and the damn line was not moving!

When we eventually checked in, progressing through other check-points was a breeze. But one thing Carnival can do better is invest in some signage with arrows which direct passengers where to go next. The cruise line assumes that all passengers have cruised before, and makes navigation harder for first time cruisers.

Checked-in, and finally found our room (stateroom).
What next? Again, we are not sure of the process. Do we just stay there?
We proceed to information desk, so that we (the first time cruisers) can get an idea of what to do next. The lady at the information desk was not too helpful. She just wanted us to believe we were already given information when checking in. We showed her the papers we got, but she insisted we should have got the information. We asked about the safety-drill, since people in line had been mussing about it, and we saw people moving with their life jackets. But again, the lady was of no help because she believed we should have received information about this. I was pretty pissed off about this since I heard the Carnival Cruise staff members were pretty helpful. With the way things were going, it was scary to think about how our Seven days would proceed.

Located eating place:
We located the restaurant with the different options – buffet style. It was on the 9^th deck (9^th floor), and very close to our room – pretty convenient. While at the table, we sat next to a mother and daughter who were originally born in Seattle. After the pair left, another couple sat next to us. Where were they from? Seattle. Actually, the guy lived pretty close to our house (he lives in Kirkland), and his sweetie was from Thailand. Is this a Seattle cruise? A couple which was a few people ahead of us, in line during embarkation, was from Seattle too.

Night events:
Broadway style dancers and singers were introduced. It looks like they will be performing every night with different themes.
A funny comedian ‘Stephen Thomas’ was also at the show. He spoke about how sprinkling’ magic wife dust’ on every situation which does not goes his wife ways. <- I don’t know how to clearly describe this one. Stephen was really funny – he had a tamed ‘all ages’ show just to showcase comedy on board, and he will be having an ‘R-Rated’ show tomorrow night. We are sold!