First, a little background: My wife and I are in our late 20's/30's, and this was my 7th cruise - 6th with Carnival and 3rd as an adult, and it was my wife's 3rd. We typically have done the east coast, Caribbean cruises, but decided to head out west and try one since I had some air miles to use up.

GETTING THERE: We flew into LAX the night before departure and rented a car from Budget. Only Budget and Avis are open on Sundays in Long Beach. We went with the rental for two reasons, one, so I could drive my wife around a bit (first time for her in LA), and two, it was only $60 for the one-way to Long Beach. I figured it would cost not too much less than that for shuttles and such over two days. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Hermosa Beach, because I had a free stay to use. Otherwise we may have gone down into Long Beach, but we ended up having a nice night and morning there. We dropped the car off in downtown Long Beach, and they called a taxi for us, which came quickly. It cost about $9+tip for him to take us down to the ship.

EMBARKATION We slept in and slowly made our way to the terminal, finally getting there about 1:15. The line inside the dome was long, but moved quickly. It ended up being good timing, because we walked onto the ship, went right to our room, and it was ready. All in all, I thought everything went pretty smooth. We also had our bags delivered earlier than we ever have, too. After the good ol' lifeboat drill, we rushed back up on deck to watch us leave Long Beach. Read more