Embarkation Day
Ok, the big day has arrived! Get all your stuff. I suggest you board as early as possible. The lines won't be as long and you can relax and explore the ship while you are waiting to leave.
We drove from League City (near Houston) and drove to the Galveston cruise ship terminal. Here was our first challenge. There were many signs and young people with flags directing us to the "official" cruise parking lots. It was obvious to me that this was not run by the city -- they were too aggressive. I ignored them and drove on. You want to drive to 22nd/Kempner and turn left. Follow the signs for Cruise Pax (passengers). You'll wind up right in front of the terminal. Stop and give your bags to the porters (tip them a buck a bag, or so). Be sure to keep the bag with your tickets and documents in it.
Now you can drive on and get into the real official lot. These lots have 24 hour port police security and for a short cruise, you'll pay $40 (in cash) to park (here is a coupon to save you $5 or more). I heard that the phony official lots were $45. However, they take credit cards and also carry your luggage to the terminal. However, I don't know how secure these lots are -- I would use the official lot. If the other lot was such a good deal, they wouldn't need to fool people into thinking they were the city lot (which it is obvious they are trying to do). In fact, on the way back, many people were on the city bus incorrectly.
Make any phone calls now. On board, phone calls cost a fortune. You can use your cell phone for awhile, but soon you'll be too far from the shore and dependent on the ship's phones.
Assuming you park in the city lot, a bus will take you back to the terminal. Get in line. When you get to the head of the line, they will want to see your documents and your credit card that you provided for your onboard credit card (a Sail and Sign card). They will issue you a room key (this is just a hotel room keycard with holes in it -- you've seen them a million times) and a Sail and Sign card. Then you get in a short line where the photographer will take your picture (you'll be able to buy this picture later onboard). Finally, you'll go to a security guard. They will insert your Sign and Sail card into a machine and tell you to look down (and remove your glasses if you are wearing any). The machine will take a picture of your face. This is important. When you leave or return to the ship, you will provide your card and they will be able to match your face with this picture.
Once onboard, you probably want to find your cabin. There are three stairwells each with 4 elevators in the ship. In each stairwell is a map of the ship so you can find your way. When they are handling luggage, two elevators are "reserved" for luggage handling. In practice, you can get on these elevators, but they may be delayed. There are many helpful people who will help you find your cabin if you need it.
Some or all of your luggage may be already outside your door. If not, don't sweat it. Just drop your carry on bags, pick up the "Carnival Caper" (the ship's newspaper) and head back out. There is a safe in your closet. Leave your wallet and documents in there. The safe was just large enough for my wife's purse with my PDA and wallet stuffed into the cracks.
If you need the restroom, try out the one in your cabin. The Carnival's public restrooms were clean, but many are Unisex (which means they lock and one person at a time uses them). There is often a line at the public restrooms. One thing to watch for: The toilets onboard work with a pump system. When you push the button the first time, you'll think a tornado is forming. Very loud. You probably don't want to be sitting on the john when you flush! It might suck the clothes right off of you.
The Celebration has most of their activities on two decks. The Lido deck is where the pool party and sunning takes place (the pools will be closed now). There is also a pretty good buffet-style restaurant there where you can eat most times of day. Right now they are serving lunch, so go eat. Don't judge the food by the "Wheelhouse" restaurant, though. The dining room food is orders of magnitude better than what you will have here.
If there is a long line at the buffet, here's a tip: Go around the line and hit the pizza place, the salad bar, or the deserts. There are several little service areas inside if you don't want to wait for the main lines (there are two lines, so be sure they are both full). I only ate at the Wheelhouse for lunch on the first day, and breakfast for the last day. It looked like the food during the trip was a little better than the first lunch served, but it was OK.
Meals are free, of course. Also, in the Wheelhouse you can drink coffee, tea or juice without charge. They sell a "soda card" for $18.95 (plus 15% tip) that is probably not a good deal. This card entitles you to fountain sodas at the bars. But there is always something free to drink at meals. The bar fountain drinks are often pretty watery although you'll quickly learn which bars don't have fountains so they give you a glass of canned soda anyway! I got a card, but at $1.15 or so a drink I maybe broke even. It is handy to be able to get a drink without worrying about signing. Practically everything you sign for will include a 15% tip too. We didn't do this, but you probably only need one card. It has your name on it (on the back), but I didn't see anyone check the entire trip. They just looked at the card and gave you a soda. I could easily have sent my wife with the same card to get another soda if we had wanted to. Of course, don't get caught.
Which leads me to an interesting observation. The crew seems very interested that you have a good time. Unless you are endangering someone's safety, I never saw anyone told to stop doing anything. So even though the dining room, for example, has a dress code, I never saw it enforced. You aren't supposed to take food from the dining room, but people do it all the time. So it may be just a feeling, but I don't think the staff wanted to catch you double dipping on a drink card.
The other deck you may want to check out is the Promenade. This is a party deck from stem to stern (they call it Bourbon Street). There are several bars, the casino, and part of the big auditorium (the Astoria which is on two decks). There are several indoor places to sit and look out the window here. Keep in mind that this is a ship, not a nightclub. So it is OK to just walk into one of these bars and enjoy the entertainment. You don't have to order anything. What's more, if you have a drink it is perfectly OK to pick it up and go to another bar with it and sit down! Try that on the real Bourbon Street.
Just relax and look over the Carnival Caper newsletter to see what's going on. There will be a few shows. Some will sound boring, but drop in -- even the "cruise director talks" (Trevor Block was our cruise director) were entertaining. Trevor was very energetic and had lots of funny stories. By the way, if you didn't get your Caper in your room, you can get a copy by the Purser's office on the main deck. Also, across the way on the Shore Excursions desk you can get a "mini" copy of the New York Times every day! They don't bring those to your room, and they are good to read over breakfast or on deck. Another good freebie in this area: postcards. The Purser's desk has a stack of free postcards that have a good picture of the ship on them.
By the way, if you miss any of the "talks" they run them on the shipboard television. You can also get all three major networks and a sort of news channel that just has text news. The ship also runs 3 movies continuously. We didn't watch any -- they were fairly new movies but nothing struck our fancy. They rotate the movies so if you miss one, it might be on again before the end of the cruise. The TV and Carnival Caper tell you the movies and the times.
You also need to review the shore excursions and decide which (if any) you want to do. I'll talk more about the shore excursions later. Some of them fill up, so if you really want one, sign up for one as soon as possible.
Before you know it, you'll be at sea. Right after the ship sails, you'll have to have a mandatory lifeboat drill. In your cabin there are enough personal floatation devices for the people in your cabin. There is also a label that tells you what muster station you should report to. When the drill begins, you return to your cabin, get your life vest, and find your muster station (there are signs clearly marking the way). Our muster station was one part of the Astoria lounge. You sit there while they explain the life vests to you. Then you can go back to your cabin and drop off your life vest. There is a light and whistle on some vests. The lights won't work unless they are in the water. They don't clean the vests often, so you probably don't want to blow the whistle unless you have to! If you are going somewhere right before the drill, you might want to get your life vest ahead of time. You won't be the only one carrying them around.
The next page talks about my favorite part of the cruise: Dinner!