Unlocking the Ultimate Cruise Experience: My Journey with Carnival’s Faster to the Fun Package

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• Faster to the Fun Meant Less Time Baking Out In the Hot Sun
• I Bypassed So Many Lines of People, It Made Me Embarrassed
• Stepping Onboard Before (Nearly) Everyone Else Made Embarkation More Relaxing
• Having Luggage Arrive at My Stateroom Earlier Made My Three-Day Voyage Better
• Here’s Why I’m Never Sailing Without Faster to the Fun on Carnival Again

Faster to the Fun Meant Less Time Baking Out In the Hot Sun

I arrived at Port Canaveral’s Terminal 3 just after 10:30 in the morning. My boarding pass had 10:30 a.m. listed as an embarkation time, so I headed toward that line (Carnival has numerous lanes for passengers to proceed into the terminal through, each numbered with a time slot).

An agent at the terminal, however, saw the little, tiny “Faster to the Fun” logo on the side of my boarding pass and redirected me to the very-empty Priority Line on the far left. It was so small that I’d barely noticed it when I printed it out, but there it was: Faster to the Fun.

That’s when I started bypassing the majority of the people in the terminal.

I Bypassed So Many Lines of People, It Made Me Embarrassed

At Port Canaveral’s Terminal 3, passengers must ascend a series of sloping ramps to reach the second-level embarkation floor. Unless, that is, you have Faster to the Fun.

I was directed not to the ramps crowded with people, but to an escalator that popped me into a new queue for passengers waiting to get into security. Another port employee saw the Faster to the Fun logo on my boarding pass, and again directed me to cut the entire line of people about 50 deep and proceed into the air-conditioned bliss of the terminal.

Total time spent in the 104-degree Fahrenheit heat: maybe two minutes.

Priority access stops at security, but having jumped two sets of massive lines, I wasn’t unhappy. Security proceeded as normal, and I waited in a short communal queue before, once again, I was pulled out of line by an employee and directed to the Priority Check-In line.

There, a young woman scanned my boarding pass, took my photo, and sent me on my way to embark the vessel.

I made it onboard Carnival Glory in less than 19 minutes, curb-to-vessel. Not tired, not sweaty, not frustrated. It’s hard to put a price on that kind of relaxation. I bypassed so many lines and so many people, it started to embarrass me. But only for a second.

Stepping Onboard Before (Nearly) Everyone Else Made Embarkation More Relaxing

When I stepped aboard Carnival Glory, it was one of the quietest, most orderly experiences I’ve seen on a big mainstream ship. Instead of people pushing and shoving their way into a crowded atrium, we entered the vessel to wide open spaces in the Old Glory Atrium. Guest Relation and Shore Excursion desks were both free for queries. Elevators came as quicky as they were called. Lunch – madness at embarkation day on the best of times – was calm.

One of the perks of Faster to the Fun is the ability to drop your bags in your cabin, a fact advertised during booking. But those seeking to access the passenger cabin corridors at this rarely hour are met by a sign warning that cabins won’t be ready until 1:30 p.m. Asking crewmembers prompted the same response: no access until 1:30 p.m.

Now, I’m a devout rule follower. I rarely color outside the lines. But in this case, I found myself opening the grey firedoors and walking towards my cabin. Completely ignoring the sign, I arrived at my cabin – the door was propped open – to find my steward. I set my carryon-on bag in the closet and thanked my cabin attendant, then exited the stateroom.

No one said a word of objection, so my thought is you can do this. The caveat: lingering in your room is not okay, even with Faster to the Fun. Cabin stewards are working hard at preparing the rooms for your cruise, and even if your room is done, your steward and the Chief Housekeeper may not be. Respect their jobs and duties, and you should have no issues placing your carryon in your room as I did.

Having Luggage Arrive at My Stateroom Earlier Made My Three-Day Voyage Better

When staterooms were announced as being ready at 1:30 p.m., I made my way down to my cabin on Deck 7 to find my luggage waiting right outside the door for me. The hallway was devoid of luggage otherwise, and I would later see pieces being delivered as late as four or five in the evening.

Having my luggage outside my room so early improved my cruise experience dramatically – particularly on this short sailing to Nassau and back. It meant I could unpack and fully unwind, resting easy with the knowledge that my clothes were hung up, toiletries unpacked, books put on the end tables, and all the other little procedures we all have to get our cabins ready for the cruise ahead.

No one wants to get their luggage at 5 p.m. and then rush to dinner only to have to unpack later that night. Unpacking in the afternoon – when little else was happening – was one of the unexpected little perks of Carnival’s Faster to the Fun program.

Here’s Why I’m Never Sailing Without Faster to the Fun on Carnival Again

Would I buy Faster to the Fun on a future Carnival sailing? I already have: I pulled the trigger on the package for my upcoming weeklong cruise on Carnival Luminosa to Alaska as I type this.

For me, being whisked through the boarding process, bypassing the lines at terminal entry, security, and check-in made for a more relaxed experience. If you have kids in tow, this should be the first investment you make in your Carnival cruise: not having to wait in a hot, overcrowded terminal with hungry and or cranky kids (or parents!) is a huge win.

And even though I never used all the perks (we never had to tender, and I never had an issue I needed guest relations to solve), the perks I did take advantage of were more than worth the value paid. “Time is money”, the saying goes – but that could just as easily be applied to cruise vacations. On these short sailings, time spent in line is time that could be better-spent on-deck.

If you’ve achieved the highest echelons of Carnival’s past passenger loyalty program, you won’t need Faster to the Fun, as the perks are already included as part of your loyalty membership. For the rest of us, however, Faster to the Fun means faster to the cruise –and we’re big fans of that.