Let me first state that this was my 8th Carnival cruise and it was planned for the weekend to celebrate my friend's birthday.

I researched the FAQ's on Carnival.com for baggage limitations so I could carry on my luggage. I measured my bag several times to make certain that it was under the limit, but when I arrived at Long Beach, we were made aware that the FAQ page for Carnival MUST be wrong and that we could not carry on. Well in the parking structure I had to open my bag, take out my meds, toiletries, etc. Not fun!! But ok, didn't put a damper on my overall experience. The dimensions of the bag allowance should be made clearer like airline instructions.

We arrived at the port around 1:00 pm. We were to proceed to VIP as the friend sharing my cabin is Platinum. We arrived to find 1 person, slowly checking in and a ROOM FULL of VIP's. We waited in the lounge for at least 45 minutes and when we were checked in, my key wasn't with my friends in VIP so our staff person had to go find my GOLD card out there somewhere in the midst of the regular passengers....It would have been much faster at this port and at that time of day, to have gone in the regular Fun Pass Line I believe. Read more