I have been on two cruises, both Carnival (Holiday [what a dump], Paradise[better]) we went to Catalina and Ensenada from March 6th-11th, 2006. We flew into LAX and bought the pre-paid voucher from Carnival for the shuttle and found out it is a rip-off, other friends didn't do the voucher and took a super shuttle bus to the pier for $15.00 ($8.00 cheaper) and had better service and a quicker shuttle then we did.
We got to the pier and went through security (no problem). I packed several bottles of booze and a blender into my check-in baggage and everything arrived to my cabin in about two hours after we boarded.
We stayed on the Veranda Deck (V32) inside cabin and found the room clean and nice, our friends had V5 (suite) and had a 6:00A.M wake up bumps every day from the weights hitting the floor from the Gym right above cabin V5 (stay out of this cabin). Bring coat hangers, they supply about 10 plastic hangers, bring an extension cord because there is only one socket in the whole room. They do supply all the bathroom soaps, shampoo, etc. The bed is very firm, like sleeping on plywood.