Embarkation was quick and smooth - Princess Rep's met us at the LA Airport - we were ushered (with about 15 others who had just arrived into LA) to the waiting bus to take us to Long Beach port. Check-In at Long Beach took all of about 10 minutes - very quick and easy (we have sailed with Princess 6 or 7 previous times - and have never experienced any difficulty with embarkation procedures)
We booked this cruise knowing that we would have plenty of "days at sea" to relax - which is why we booked the Mini-Suite. The room was very nice - interesting - we booked the exact same category on the Dawn Princess for two previous cruises - on the Dawn Princess the balcony for a mini-suite is MUCH BIGGER and so is the bathroom - separate room for a jet-tub on the Dawn (as well as the Sun Princess) not so on the Island Princess - a little bit of a surprise....
The weather for the first 4 days was AWFUL ! - made for lots of time in the room - lots of time in the library - or watching movies - we were a little disappointed with the movies being shown - Harry Potter, some other children's movie - strange - since the majority of passengers on the ship were "older" (50+)