Disclaimer: My husband and I, both in our early 40’s, and our two boys ages 10 and 6 went on the Carnival Miracle to the Mexican Riviera for spring break 2014 and had a great time. We have been on about 5 cruises total. I am a type A personality and things have to be in order and be perfect when it comes to my job and home duties. I plan, plan, and plan again when it comes to traveling, so I am usually well prepared. With that being said, when I arrive on my vacations, my type A personality “goes out the window”, and my husband and I are easy going, “go with the flow”, travelers. Not much can upset us, as we realize, WE can “make or break” our vacation experience. We are not picky eaters, and enjoy pretty much anything we participate in.

Travel to Long Beach with Stay and Park: We live in Phoenix, Arizona and traveled to Long Beach via personal vehicle Friday after work, approximately 6 hours. We stayed at the Best Western, Long Beach for approximately $180, which included a one night stay, morning breakfast, underground parking for 7 nights, and transportation to and from the port. I will warn you that the location/area is not the greatest, but felt completely safe inside the building, as well as the underground parking.

Embarking: We departed the Best Western via shuttle around 11:15am and arrived at the port at 11:35am. Porters took our luggage from the shuttle and assured us they would get it on board “safe and sound”. We had about 4 pieces of luggage and tipped about $15. The other party on the shuttle with us had approximately 4 pieces of luggage and the husband handed the porter a one dollar bill while the wife was digging out more money. The porter asked the husband if they only had one piece of luggage (his way of saying, he would assure one piece made it on board, for one dollar). The couple quickly came up with more money, and all was well. We did not have FTTF and proceeded to get in line at 11:45. We were on the Lido deck by 12:20, and stopped by our room on the way up to drop off our carry-on luggage. The room-steward was not particularly pleased as she was trying to finish getting the rooms ready, but allowed us to drop our stuff off anyways. I felt bad afterwards for disturbing her, but she was a complete angel for the remainder of the cruise. Read more