Cruise Post #4: Are you in or out of line?

Vacations are supposed to be relaxing, but it took a hell of a time for ours to get to that point. On our first day of "vacation," we stood on a total of eight lines. The first two were at the airport, and that was to be expected.

I didn't expect the purgatory that Carnival offered in generous helpings. I was mistaken in thinking that the Carnival embarkation would be as smooth as Royal Caribbean when Josh and I took a cruise on Voyager of the Seas last year. That time, we sailed from Miami, FL, and the cheapest way to fly there was to take an early flight. It worked in our favor because the Royal Caribbean transfer allowed us on the dock early and we got into the terminal right away. Once inside, there were many stations to check us in and we embarked in less than half an hour. It was smooth and painless.

When we were at the Carnival dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico, (1) we stood in a herd outside of the terminal funneling towards a very small spot. People who had Carnival transfers were stuck because they had to wait to leave the airport. They didn't get onboard any earlier than we did. It turns out that the crowd was funneling to two San Juan employees who were looking to see if we had cruise tickets. Josh and I got through, but the woman who'd just let us through decided to stop working right before Josh's family's turn. After a while, the other worker checked them in, all so we could (2) wait in line AGAIN to get into the actual terminal.

(3) Then there was an hour-long line to check-in to the actual ship. We did what Carnival said and registered with their "Funpass" and completed the check-in process beforehand. It was ridiculously useless. The line for "Funpass" was 100 people long, and the one for those people smart enough NOT TO FOLLOW CARNIVAL INSTRUCTIONS was only 10 people long!

After that, there was(4) another line to take a picture we wound up looking really pissed in, then (5) another line to get through security, (6) another line to take pictures for our ID. I would call the buffet line for the crappy (worse than college dining hall food) lunch number 7, but Josh says I shouldn't.

The whole process only took 3 hours in total!