This was a long awaited vacation plus our honeymoon. We had went on the Carnival Legend out of NYC for our first cruise and loved everything about it, we were hooked on cruising. After our return everyone we had talked to stated to go on Royal as it was far better. Our trip consisted of leaving early to the West Coast to spend 3 days in L.A. before the cruise. It was like having 2 vacations!We flew on Southwest and are flights were on time. Crew was very friendly and provided complementary drinks and snacks. I was a little irritated with the carry on policy as it read online the dimensions and clearly they don't follow this. Passengers were bringing some luggage with them to store overhead while I conformed to the rules and had a small man purse. I would fly with SW again no problem. We stayed in El Sengudo just south of LAX at the Courtyard by Marriott for 2 nights. Our room did have some signs of mold but no other issues. The pool is unheated but we did take advantage of the hot tub. At night the courtyard which has a nicely lit gazebo was nice for pictures. I would stay here again but wouldn't eat the $13 per person breakfast that I thought was complementary. At LAX we went to Hertz by shuttle where I was to have a Pontiac G6 with nav. on hold. Arrived to find out there is no such combo. The first guy we talked to tried getting us in a SUV as we def. wanted the navigation. I'm into cars and have a corvette so I asked about that because they had at least 10 sitting outside. I got a ridiculous price so I then asked for a ride to another rental company. At first I thought we were going back to LAX as Hertz wouldn't take us to another company from their building. Finally I talked to another guy who gave me a price on a corvette after I explained the situation. This time the price on the vette dropped $150.00 I then dropped it another $60 because I told him I know they were renting them. He agreed with all the insurance so I was off to cram all the luggage into the rear. I was happy! Spent alot of time just cruising around. Took a celebrity house tour of BH and Rodeo Dr. which was informative and pretty cheap. Went to a club "AREA" on night. It was very nice but very pricey as expected. The 3rd night we stayed at the Holiday Inn in San Pedro which was nice and clean just out dated. Kinda had a mid-evil feel to it. We had no car here so we walked to the harbor which is about a 20 min walk. We used supershuttle for the 2 transfers we needed. We were told by the desk to return by taxi if past sunset. Not really alot to do here it seemed, just shopped near the harbor and returned to our room and again used the hot tub. Pool was dirty and very cold. Overall for the price I would stay again. We paid $10 to have a transfer from the hotel to the dock. Boarding the ship was very easy as were arrived early with hardly no wait time to board. We had read online about the ship being older but we didn't care about that. Our inside cabin (had a balcony on Carnival) was much of what I expected. Nothing cosmetically was wrong with our room. It didn't looked used and abused at all. I found that our shampoo provided was plain as I remembered the Legend's to have a very intoxicating smell. The ship is some spots did show signs of age which is to be expected being 10 yrs old. I wasn't bothered by this but found it to be a little unprofessional for people that are particular. The ship overall is very detailed more then the Legend. Staff was very friendly as was on Carnival so to me there was no difference there. Everyone was out to make a good time and try to make new friends. I personally thought that I saw the cruise director on Carnival more but I guess he can't be everywhere all the time. My biggest disappointment was the food. Carnivals everyday drinks were milk and a fruit punch juice. I loved both. On Royal there was Lemonade that had a ton of pulp in every glass and unsweetened tea. I didn't like either. A soda card for the week was $42.00 which I thought was ridiculous. I don't remember Carnival's price probably because I didn't want the soda with all the endless milk I could drink. The grill on Royal was terrible. When I think of grill I don't want boiled hot dogs and hamburgers. The french fries weren't bad. On Royal the "grill" as they call it was not open 24/7 as was on Carnival. The buffet on Royal was ok. Breakfast was always good I'll say and I made up for the other meals then. Based on this alone I would go back to Carnival. One night around 1am getting ready for bed we had no water. I contacted the front desk to which I was told she would contact maintenance. Waited 20 min. called again and she said it would be back on in 3-4 hrs. We both went to bed. When It came on, who knows. She could have called me back? Another night our room smelled like sewer, our attendant was brought in who agreed. He made a call and we were told if it doesn't go away in an hour to call down there to tell them. Luckily I guess it did go away as I didn't see any other solution to this problem. Towel animals were good like Carnival so no complaints there. :) This boat is smaller, I didn't research the measurements to compare the two but just visually looking I could tell. WE def. could feel alot more of the sea on this cruise. Not really an issue just didn't expect it that much. She was taking motion sickness pills as she learned her lesson from the first voyage. Now to the Ports! Cabo seemed dirty but we didn't travel far inland so I guess I shouldn't judge it like that. We used www.cabosail.com for a 3 hr excursion that included snorkeling and actual sailing and went by Lands End and Lover's Beach for pictures. Overall we were both very happy with this and recommend it. Crew was very nice and it included drinks and nachos and all snorkel gear. We snorkeled by Pelican's Rock which was awesome, I will never forget it. After the 3 hrs were just walked around and shopped and then returned to the tender dock. Mazatlan we wanted to horseback ride and ride ATV's. Linked up with a guy that quoted us a price including transportation to Stone Island and back along with unlimited drinks at the bar/restaurant. Company was Playa Sur. Were told the ATV's would be ready as we wanted to do that first. Arrived after a short taxi ride then a short water taxi ride then taxi ride again. ATV's were not there nor ready so we did the horseback ride with a tour guide on the beach for about an hour. It was very nice and we both enjoyed it. Came back to the bar and waited about 45min for the ATV's. We both had our own ATV and was told to returned in an hour. We rode along the beach and into the fields/trails as we wanted. Again very fun and no issues with the ATV's. I did not like waiting that long to do it but we did take advantage of the drinks during this time. We then taxied back and shopped again and returned early to the ship. Puerto Vallarta we shopped the entire time. Tried to find stuff we liked then looked for the best deal. Talked to locals and ate at Burger King that contained 2 security guards. Food was just like in the USA but I have never had such a language barrier before. It took about 10 min to get the food correct and still it wasn't correct but I couldn't deal with it anymore. PV seemed the cleanest out of the 3 to us. It was fun bartering with people on prices. All 3 ports were great in their own ways for us. The return trip back was good. We arrived back at port at 7am on the dot.