We have cruised twice on Princess and were very happy with both those trips. We booked Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas because we wanted a warm weather cruise to celebrate our son's graduation from high school. Our choices for a West Coast warm weather cruise were only Carnival and RCCL. RCCL seemed the better choice for a family cruise and we were not disappointed.

Pre-cruise: We flew into Long Beach from Portland via JetBlue on Saturday the 12th. It was an easy flight and a short cab ride ($23 negotiated rate) from the Long Beach airport to the Hyatt Hotel. We had an early flight and were there by 10:30 a.m. They allowed us to check in early, which was really nice. The Hyatt is on the harbor across the street from Shoreline Village. We had a huge lunch at the Yard Arm, took pictures of the Queen Mary, poked through the shops, spent some time at the pool and then ate dinner at PF Changs across the street; all in all, very nice. The Hyatt is a little on the spendy side but I would definitely do it again.

Embarkation: We timed our arrival at the cruise terminal for right around noon. Again, an easy cab ride from downtown Long Beach. We found a porter immediately and shifted off our bags to be seen later. I was walking with a cane due to an unfortunate incident of clumsiness involving our stairs which resulted in a very badly sprained ankle. We were not thinking of taking advantage of assisted boarding, but a RCCL employee directed us to that check-in desk. Again, a very fast process and we were on the elevator and in line to board. Lines were short, we were photographed for our SeaPass cards, had our obligatory ship photo and walked onto the Deck 4 level of the Promenade. The look on our kids' faces was priceless, and they should have been awed. The Mariner is a lovely ship and the three level Promenade is very impressive. Read more