My first cruise was on the Carnival Inspiration 4 days to Catalina and Ensenada. We left on June 4th 2012 and returned Friday June 9th, 2012. We sailed from Long Beach CA. Embarkation was super easy. We arrived at the port around 10:30 am and we were guided by Carnival staff to go to the Queen Mary for early check in after dropping our bags with a porter in the parking garage area. We took public transportation from the Inland Empire (Metro link and Metro subway then the Long Beach Passport free shuttle) so we were a little confused as to where to take our bags but discovered that all passengers take their bags to the parking garage even if they didn't park a car. At the Queen Mary early check in, we were in line about 10 minutes before we were called to the counter. We were only held up that long because the passengers ahead of us didn't gather all her teenagers together before checking in so that delayed the process, otherwise the line was moving very quickly. At the check in desk, we were given our Sail & Sign cards and a Zone card(we were given zone 2) and directed to go wait at our zone. We took this chance to look around the Queen Mary for a minute since I know I will never really pay to go back. My son got a kick out of the old engine room, etc. We moved outside to the Zone waiting area but couldn't find a place to sit because most of the people already there had decided their luggage took priority seating on the benches over actual human beings (why are people so self absorbed?) We walked over toward the water and found benches on the waterfront with a great view of the ship so we took some pictures and enjoyed watching the water birds, etc. We could still hear the zone calls from this area so when we heard make an announcement, we headed over to the Zone area to wait our turn. I was happy to find that the embarkation area has nice clean restrooms and a couple vendors selling last minute sunglasses, hats, etc. Our Zone 2 was called so we lined up and followed along through the process which took about 20 minutes to go through security and cross over the ramp to the ship. It was a very easy process that was so much easier than flying.

Once on board the ship, most of the passengers headed to the buffet but I wasn't in the mood for more lines so we decided to grab some deck chairs and enjoy the view until sail away. We were finally on board and in a lounge chair at 11:30 so about an hour after arriving at the port of Long Beach. We bought the bottomless bubbles cards as soon as we saw the pool bar. We had been advised to wait until the next day, but we were thirsty and wanted a Coke and the price difference of the tax wasn't much. We enjoyed the lounge chairs views and wandered around the decks a bit, just enjoying the newness of it all for about two hours. We were really happy that we didn't have to lug around a bunch of luggage and could just stroll around. We were able to get into our room at 1:30 pm (about 2 hours after embarkation)Our room was M186 which is an Ocean View on the main deck toward the aft (back) of the ship. It was a nice room that had two twin beds and an upper Pullman style bed that the Steward would set up if there was a 3rd passenger in the room. When we first arrived, the beds were set up as a King size bed but as soon as the Steward (ours was Eugene and he was wonderful) realized that we were mother and son, he offered to change it. I told him that he could do it when he came to do the room later because I wanted to unpack. He seemed unsure of that because he really wanted our room to be right. I told him it was okay and we would be fine that night (we were so tired from our commute to the port that we would have made sleeping on the floor work!) I have to say that the bed set up as twin is much better even if you are traveling with a spouse. Unless you are newlyweds, I guess. The two twin set up is better because it gives you a lot more floor space to move about the cabin. The cabin is very well arranged to make the most of space, although a 3rd person would probably make it a bit crowded. A tip for a bit of privacy for changing clothes if you are traveling with someone you don't want to change in front of is in the hallway by the bathroom, the closets are across in this hallway. If you open the bathroom door and then open the closet door across from it, they form a good barrier to make a little changing room. I say this because the bathroom is small and will get very wet when you take a shower so you won't want to dress in there.

There was plenty of closet space, shelf space and drawer space. I do recommend taking a hanging organizer for your toiletries as it will keep you organized and limit the clutter. There are several hooks to hang your organizer on. I would recommend you bring a few of your own hangers since as with most hotels, the hangers are those weird "don't steal them" hangers that annoy me and there weren't enough of them for me. Read more