It had been 13 years since my last cruise and changes were to be expected. The ship was big! big! big! compared to my last one with Princess, the old Crown Princess.
We live in British Columbia, so we decided to drive down to LA, park and sail. The ship was there the morning of December 7th and I parked the car around 10:30am after dropping off my wife and the bags. The bags disappeared into a staging warehouse while we checked in. As a Platinum level passenger the embarkation went without hassle. We were on board and sitting in the Horizon Court by 11:30am, watching all the action as others boarded. You get the feeling that you are the first ones to ever do this cruise, but remember: they just off-loaded the last cruise 3 hours earlier.
The staff was great! Everyone always had a "Good Morning" or "Hello" with a big smile. We had an inside cabin on Aloha deck midships and it was perfect. We did not plan to spend much time in the cabin over the next 14 days so why get an outside or balcony? -- unless this is what you want...