tidecat

Either carry it on (one 12 pack per guest) or settle for Pepsi Zero onboard. You can preorder Pepsi Zero and have it delivered to your stateroom. It's not cheap ($10/6 cans) but you won't have to carry it up the gangway with whatever else you may have.

D will be on the starboard side. The entrance should be near the Pixels Photo Gallery.

Since the ship has to wait for Ian to go by, Miami would also be an option. Last I saw Dade County schools had not canceled classes for Friday.

I was on the Triumph in February 2019. Casino was open immediately after the muster drill. Louisiana would allow casinos to operate anywhere a vessel could float.

If you check in right at midnight on the date online check in opens, you shouldn't have any issue being onboard before Noon. This obviously would be less of an issue if anyone on the reservation is Platinum or Diamond as you can do online check in two days earlier and should be able to grab the earliest time slot. The biggest constraint might be can you actually get to the port early enough? Even if you have an 11 AM Check in time, I wouldn't recommend the Noon appointment.

Or Aladdin is heading to sea: https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-announces-next-cruise-ship-the-treasure/

Costa Venezia's cruises from December 1, 2022 have now been canceled, leaving a five month gap between her last revenue sailing for Costa and her first for Carnival. Will her Carnival deployment begin earlier? Will this be a more involved rebranding? Is this a defensive move in an era of supply and labor shortages? Five months still seems excessive even for a massive drydock. The Destiny/Sunshine and Triumph/Sunrise conversions we're nowhere near that long.