My mom, dad and I sailed on the Carnival Imagination on February 7, 2016, which was Superbowl Sunday. This was a belated 50th anniversary cruise for my parents.

The fun started the week before when I got the call from the Upgrade Fairy and was able to upgrade Mom and Dad to one of the Owner's Suites. I also upgraded to a junior suite so that I could be sure to be just one flight down and also at the same muster station. My dad is 85 and has Parkinson's Disease. He's doing OK, but I worry about him in crowds. One of the perks of the Owner's Suite is a personalized escort right from check-in up all the way up to the room. We were shown the features of the room and made sure all of our questions were answered. The Owner's Suite was fantastic. Since my dad wouldn't be taking part in many of the ship's activities, he had a variety of places to go in the room or on the large balcony without feeling like he was cooped up in a motel room. The only drawback of the Owner's Suite is that it's right under the jogging track and lounge area on the top deck. You can hear the runners pounding the track and the deck chairs being dragged around. My dad doesn't hear well, so it didn't bother him, but my mom found it annoying. Getting off the ship when we returned back to Long Beach, the Owner's Suite occupants were able to wait in the library and get off with the upper level VIFP members, again, saving my dad a wait in a long line.

The maitre d reserved us table 101 for Your Time Dining every night in the Pride dining room. Our servers were Jose, Marin and Lester, and we could not have been treated any better. The food was better than I remembered from my last cruise. Read more