This was the very first cruise for my wife and I. We had always wanted to go, but never could find the right opportunity. This time we were celebrating one of our friend's birthdays. It was my wife and I and three of her friends. I have a friend who works at Princess so this was our obvious choice. We all love in the greater Los Angeles area so we simply drove to the port and parked there. The main lot was full so I had to park in the adjacent lot where you board the ships headed to Catalina Island. But it was close by, maybe a 3 minute walk. That lot was $12/day, pricey but not unheard of. The baggage handler was efficient and very straight forward about when it is he wanted us to tip him, but I didn't mind.

EMBARKATION - We purposely arrived later in the day, probably around 2pm. After filling out a "I'm not sick" form, we went upstairs and checked in. There was no waiting there. We got group number 39 and headed into the main waiting room to embark. There were a lot of people waiting around for their numbers to be called, but it didn't seem overcrowded or anything. We probably waited around 45 minutes to be called. I had heard there was a delay early on for whatever reason. Going through security was easy and we were on the boat by 3pm. We had not eaten lunch yet so the first thing we did was go upstairs and got some burgers, pizza, bratwurst and knockwurst, found some layout chairs and were surprised how good those food items were. I purchased a soda sticker for $27 which was well-worth it. It came with a tumbler as well, which was a nice souvenir of sorts. There was a sail away party and people dancing and having a good time. By the time we got back to our rooms, our luggage had arrived and in tact.

STATEROOMS - We figured we would only be spending time in our rooms sleeping so we opted to get inside cabins. We also heard that most people don't use their balconies too much anyway. We were surprised that the room, though cozy, did not seem small at all. I had heard horror stories of cramped rooms and such. The only thing that did seem small was the stand up shower. Perhaps in future cruises, we will try the mini-suites with the balcony and bathtubs. The only other thing about the inside rooms is that it's pitch black when you turn off the lights to go to sleep. It's a bit disconcerting to wake up in the 'morning' but still have it so dark inside. Other than those two things, we were very satisfied with our rooms. Read more