Carnival Pride Mexican Riviera Cruise April 6th to 13th, 2008

Background This cruise was the first Carnival cruise my husband and I have taken. I have cruised with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, and NCL before taking this cruise. My husband has cruised once before with Celebrity. This cruise appealed to us mainly because we live within driving distance of the Long Beach port and the price was a really good deal. My husband is 43, and I am 35. My mother and two of her friends also joined us on this cruise. My husband and I had an extended view balcony room, and my mother and her friends shared the same type of cabin.

Embarkation We had read on the boards that the embarkation was not very well organized from this port. I had done this same cruise on Princess leaving out of San Pedro, so I thought I knew what to expect, but I was wrong. My husband and I drove to the port from our house and arrived just before noon. Embarkation took over two hours. Most of that time was spent in line waiting for a porter to take our luggage. At one point, when we were finally at the front of the line, they tried to send us to the back of another line. After waiting over an hour in that line there was no way we were going to go to a new line, so we refused. They finally took our luggage, and we were free to go on to the next line for security. The rest of the embarkation process went rather smoothly. There were more lines, but at least the lines moved. We finally made it on the ship just after 2:00 pm. Read more