First this was our 5th Carnival Cruise. It just seemed to me there was a lot of cost savings and we, the passengers, paid the price. We were told to be there between 11:30 and 12:30....arrived at 11:15. We're used to waiting outside at Long Beach (only place we've ever had to) but the Customs folks were just silly. I could have brought a lot of items on board and they wouldn't have cared but Lord help me if I had soda I'd better be adhering to the letter of the law. We got on board by 12:30 and the room wasn't ready so we had to go to the buffet cause the other dining rooms weren't open and neither were all of the dining options at the buffet.....took them another half hour or so to open. Seemed a bit strange to me. Dining was ok....nothing spectacular. We received 2 liter bottles of water and no free drink voucher for the sea day brunch. The only time we had table cloths was on formal nite. Frankly, imo, formal nite on a 4 day cruise is a waste of time. The tea time was cut back severely....2 different types of sandwiches and 4 desserts. They ask if we wanted more tea and we said yes. We were given more water and no more tea bags....guess we were expected to reuse.
First stop was Catalina Island.....we stayed on the boat. We'd been to Catalina before and as my dad would say....didn't lose anything the first time to come back to look for. We did not have the ship to ourselves.....lots of people stayed on board.
Second stop was Ensenada Mexico....We got off just to walk around town and have our obligatory margarita. It's 2.00 to ride into town and 1.00 to ride back....not a bad deal.
I think it was 6B....definitely unobstructed view in the middle of the ship. By 2 we were in our room.....we had a window room on the Upper (6) deck. It was nice enough.....clean and stocked so we've no complaints. We had to ask for the breakfast menu (room service) and they got us 1 and never replaced them til the 3rd nite of the cruise (no room service on the 4th day....leaving) On the evening of the 3rd nite....we got 6 breakfast menu request forms. If we reminded them, we got ice in buckets, if we didn't they didn't give us ice.