We started out our vacation by staying at the Hyatt in Garden Grove. I had won a free night in a sweepstakes and this was the nearest hotel that I could get for free. We went to check in and were told it was too early, however, I did manage to get upgraded to a suite for free. What a great start to our trip. Monday morning we drove to Long Beach, we arrived about 10:30. We parked in the parking garage and went to find out our cabin assignments as we had both booked guarantees. I got upgraded 1 category and my friend got upgraded 5 categories. Don't know how they figure this stuff out. This was my 8th cruise with Carnival and her second. Oh well just happy to go. We tagged our luggage, and proceeded to walk to the check in area. As we were walking out of the parking garage I noticed a gentlemen travelling solo and asked him if he was Kent from this board. He was. How great is that to find people before you ever get on board.

We found a porter and checked in. We then proceeded to early check in on the Queen Mary. There was no one in line so we got done rather quickly. When we got our sail and sign cards I looked at the dinner seating and realized they had goofed. My friend got early 6:15 which is what we all requested and I got late 8:30. This is the second time in 3 months they have screwed up my dining arrangements. Oh well, not to worry it gets fixed later. As we were leaving the Queen Mary and walking towards the dome we saw Andrea and her son Curtis. We have been lucky finding fellow CC members before boarding. We agreed to meet up with them later. We got in line at the dome. We boarded right around 12:30. We dropped off our carry ons and found our rooms were ready.

We went to Lido deck for burgers and the first bucket of beers. We then walked around and got our bearings. We went to see the maitre d' to find out about switching my dining time so we could all be together and this was accomplished. However I was still a little miffed as we had told our PVP when we booked and I had called a second time to reconfirm this. Because of this we were seated at a table for four instead of a larger table. We also got relegated to a table near the kitchen. Oh well as I said before just happy to be there. We also went to the Travel Talk which was at 3:45. Read more