This is my 4th cruise overall and my 2nd with Carnival. So far I have not been disappointed with any cruise vacation I have taken, although there is always room for a little improvement. I am a 42 year old male from the Sacramento area, this time traveling with my younger sister and parents. It was my sister's first cruise and she wanted the full cruise experience so I participated in a lot more activities than I normally would have.
EMBARKATION/DEBARKATION I flew to San Diego and was picked up by a friend in the area to have lunch. After a nice meal in Point Loma (with a view of the ship, of course), he dropped me at the pier. It only took about 20 minutes to check in and be on board. Really a breeze. I suggest dropping the bigger bags with the porters at the dock, as people that chose to take their own bags on really struggled with them in the hallways. Much better to let the ship handle and wait until they arrive at your room.
Debarkation was also very easy. Once they called our number we were off the ship in about 15 minutes. The only bummer is that it was raining in SD, and the pier doesn't have adequate shelter for this. So we got pretty wet while waiting for a shuttle. Probably not much of a problem usually, as it rarely rains in SD (lucky us).