WOW! Who knew we could have the best vacation of our life stuck on a large boat? I can't stress enough how great our trip was. We got back on Sunday and had plunked down a $1000 deposit Monday night for next spring break in April, 2009. We will be trying the Caribbean from Galveston on that one. We have two sons, aged 9 and 6. Our 9 year old is cautious about new things, our 6 year old could care less.
Our trip began with a flight into LAX on the same day as our cruise. I figured out the cheapest way to get to the L.A. Port was through Blue Van. That cost us $48 (plus a $5 cash tip) to get us there. Our only mistake was arriving at 12 noon and getting to the boat about 1:15pm. Way too late!! We sat in line to get on the boat for over an hour and a half. Get there as early as possible. If you do get there later here's a tip. After you pass through the metal detectors you are given a choice (at least we were) of getting in 1 of 3 lines. They all led to the massive row of agents taking the info and pictures of each passenger. DO NOT GET IN THE MIDDLE LINE! It turns out the middle line zig zags back in forth which you don't see until you are in it. The left and right line took about 30 minutes I guess for people in those lines. We took over an hour. Oh well!
Once on the boat it was almost 4 pm. Our room was ready, our bags weren't there yet. We walked around and got familiar with the boat.