We flew into Los Angeles on October 3rd the day before our cruise. This was going to be our 2nd time cruising with Carnival. We thought we would try them again since the last ship was very old, the Carnival Celebration. This would be our 8th cruise. We usually like Royal Caribbean, but thought for the price we would try it again. My husband and 2 children were traveling with me. We stayed at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel, very nice and very convenient. There is a free trolley service that runs all around the downtown area and it also took us to the pier. Once at the pier we checked in and they gave us boarding pass 3. At 12:30 we were on our way into security and had our picture taken. We were on the ship in no time. You can't get into your room until 2:00, so we started up to the Lido deck and had some lunch. After, lunch we started exploring the ship. I have read other cruise critic review and all of them said that the pink was overwhelming. It wasn't that bad, after a while you hardly realized. One thing with Carnival is that they are alot more flashier than other cruise ships. This is the first time being on a cruise out of the California area. We were sailing by 5:30 after our muster drill. Our waiter and asst. waiter were Allen and Randy. They were alright, they picked up speed by the end of the week. I think after one night of us walking out before dessert, they got the picture. They would take so long to get our food together when they only had 3 tables and they were small tables. The food was alright also. Just your typical cruise food. Our bar waiter in the dining room was awesome. Everynight he had the shirley temples waiting for the kids at the table. I like the ship we were on, very clean. Our cabin steward was awesome also, her name was Marley. She was very attentive with all of our expectations. My husband likes to play craps in the casino. He raived about the staff in the casino on how great they were. I will have to say that the entertainment was also alright, we missed 2 shows and we have never done that before. The best night was when we went to the piano bar. Ron Pass is the piano player and he puts on an awesome show. He is leaving the ship in November, so was glad that I got to see him perform. He puts on a raunchy adult only show after midnight. He can be found on you tube also. The Carnival legends karoake show that is performed by passengers on the last night of the show was also great. The Frank Sinatra man, Rick was so good.