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As more and more cars arrived at the pier, they began cueing them into separate lines along side each other. When they began letting us in at 11am, there were 4 lines of about 20 cars each, waiting. I think that it is better to get there early and wait for them to open, then get there at 11 and wait behind 80 cars. Once they let you in, the process moved pretty fast. First stop is the luggage drop off. They direct you in two lanes to the back of the lot, which is closest to the ship. There, each lane has a long row of airline type luggage carts. You are directed to a cart, which a porter will load your luggage into. Patti took a couple shots of the ship while we were back there. The stern of the Pride.....



Looking up at the Green Thunder water slide.....



As the porter unloaded my car, I reminded him that we were priority, and asked him if he would be putting the orange tape on our bags. He said that they don't do it at this point, but that it would be done when the bags were sorted. I didn't have a warm fuzzy feeling about this, but later on when our bags arrived in our cabin, the orange tape was there.


Once your bags are dropped off, you are directed to the next part of the process, which is paying for your parking. There are three lanes for this. Cash transactions are handled in the far right lane, credit cards in the other two lanes. The cost is $15 dollars a day, or $105 dollars for the 7 day cruise. Once you pay, you are free to park wherever you want.


Next up is checking in. As soon as you enter, you are divided into the regular or VIP lines. Before the scanner they check your bottles and cans, and I mean they check them. We had our legal amount of two bottles of wine, and a 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, but they picked up and checked each and every one, so beware you smugglers!!


We were checked in at the VIP lounge which didn't take more than a few minutes, and then led to the VIP seating area. The VIP seats face those in the boarding zone seats, so you get to look across the aisle at each other. I wonder what they were thinking?


At exactly Noon they began boarding. It seems to me that Diamonds, Platinums, Suites, and maybe even FTTF people were all glumped together and boarded at the same time. No biggie. This way to the ship.....




We posed for our embarkation photo.....



We dinged our cards in the security scanner, then made our way up the long ramp onto the Carnival Pride. Our first view was the Renaissance Lobby Bar.....



To be continued.....   


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