Both my husband and I are 26 and traveled with my parents. We have cruised on Carnival in the past and my parents have cruised Princess prior to this trip. The first part of the review will read like a journal and I will finish with overall comments, favorites, and suggestions.
Day 1- Embarkation was a bit disorganized as there was no loud speaker working and everyone was in a rush to get on the ship. We arrived at about 11 am and were given a number one to board the ship. The staff struggled with the amount of people that were impatiently waiting to get on the ship. We were on the ship around noon and headed to our staterooms. We booked an inside room on the Aloha deck which was nicely arranged with plenty of storage room and all of the necessities. The bathroom is small, but adequate and also offers room for storage and hooks to hang towels and robes on the door. The closet space was more than sufficient for our four suitcases worth of stuff. We were impressed with the refrigerator in the room as carnival did not offer that. The beds were hard and the bedding is comparable to average hotel bedding. We met our steward, Jaime, who was awesome and got us extra pillows and a blanket immediately. Throughout the trip he not only cleaned up our room, but also organized our belongings! My parents balcony room was located on the Baja deck and was similar to ours except with a balcony.
Next thing we did after checking our rooms was to make dinner reservations, which was a breeze. We were allowed to pick any time to eat, but could only make reservations through Tuesday. We were told that the buffet was the only option for lunch, so we headed there and enjoyed a nice lunch. Later, we looked at our patters and were disappointed to see that the dining room was open after all. The buffet worked out though and because we were on the ship early it was not too busy. I enjoyed the layout as it allowed for jumping between stations to get the items that you want. My mom and I also purchased our coke stickers at lunch time, which turned out to be a value for both of us. We enjoyed a few drinks and hung out on lounge chairs near the Aloha deck pool for sail away. There was no excitement at sail away, which was somewhat disappointing. That evening we dined at Pacific Moon and enjoyed it very much. Each dining room has one special and the Pacific Moon had the best special of the dining rooms. The first night I began my nightly desert tradition having sorbet, which was awesome particularly the honeydew sorbet.