My partner and I went on this cruise December 13 through December 20, 2009. We have cruised many times before, and this was my 30th cruise. My partner has been on 10 cruises. We mainly use Royal Caribbean (RCCL), Princess and Royal Caribbean's subsidiary, Celebrity. We have both been on this particular Mexican itinerary about 6 times. We have been on cruises to Central America and the Caribbean as well. I will say that I like RCCL better than Princess. Since Carnival bought Princess Cruises a few years back, the Princess experience has been "Carnivalized" as a ship's officer once told me. I thought that was pretty funny when the top staff used that word. We went on a Princess Mexican cruise in 2007 and 2008 so I will compare this trip with those. We have been to these ports many times and have taken the different shore excursions so the last few cruises we didn't even leave the ship. It's nice to have the ship to yourself while everyone else is out touring.

I ended up violently sick with the "Norovirus" on this trip while cruising on the Mariner of the Seas. More about that later in my review and how I am disappointed in RCCL's response.

Getting to the L.A. harbor was very easy for us since we only live about 45 minutes away in Pasadena. We drive there and park our car in the cruise terminal lot. Embarkation was very easy and quick. We arrived at about 12:30 p.m. and walked right up to the check in desk then onboard the ship. The one thing I like about RCCL is that there is a photo by-pass line for those of us that have enough pictures. Read more