I have previously cruised the 7 day Mexican Riveria with Princess Cruises on the Sapphire Princess, so this was my first time on Carnival Cruiselines. Me and my family got a great deal online and it was a great graduation with. With me was my girlfriend and parents. We had reserved an interior stateroom on deck 2, near the back of the ship, room 2-448. We only had one planned excursion for Puerto Vallarta for the Ultimate Canopy/Zipline Tour, more details to follow.

We arrived in Long Beach port by car, we live in the area so no hotel/flight comments, and I already noticed how tiny the port was. For most times only was ship is in the LB port for Carnival, we arrived at about 10:30am and it was pretty busy already. Cars and vans still leaving from the previous cruise as well as the supply trucks rushing to in from the port. I recommend getting at the port at about 10 or a little earlier to beat the arrival traffic rush. Under the parking structure was the Drop-off/Pick-up Zone, with 2 lanes going down. Not too bad of an area to go, however during rush hour it looks worse than LAX terminals. We grabbed our bags and luggage. With the 4 of us we had 5 luggage bags all together to give to the porter, very nice guys and they direct you to where you go. Once those were out of the way we walked toward to Check-In area. Again, very small with only about 12 stations. These stations had to tackle almost 3,000 guests coming in and they did a great job! We looked for the line, which was half empty. We waited about 10 minutes to get to the station. No problems with check-in, we got our room keys and walked toward our waiting spot, which was Number 6. By that time is was about 11:15 and we wanted a snack, next to the terminal (Queen Mary Village) is a small gift/snack store which also handles shipping. Very convenient and very welcoming people, but over priced. We got our snacks and went back to the waiting area.

My girlfriend has a lung condition so she can't be around people who smoke, today's time a lot of people smoke and that small waiting area, even though it's outside, was filled with smokers, we had to move near the secruity entrance to avoid the smoke. At about 12:35pm they announced the first waiting group to proceed with Security check. After 45 minutes group 6 was called, security is slow, like any other port or airport, no complications, just need patience. **NOTE: Carnival allows ONE 750 ml bottle of Wine/Champagne per guest over 21 years old, please take it with you on carry-on or it could break in your bag.** After security we followed the flow up an escalator and another random check of your room key and passport/ID. The welcome staff through the morning were very welcoming and happy! I appreciated it because Check-In time is never a fun thing but they made the process more relaxed. We proceeded to a room, took the embarking picture and checked the room key once again. After that we went were able to walk on the gangway, which another photo was taken. The long bridge to your week vacation was clean and sturdy! And the ship looked clean and ready to sail. We stepped foot on the ship and greeted by welcome staff/security, again checking the room key. They led us to the Atrium, which is the first room/area you see on the ship. Below is the Positive/Negative reviews of the ship. Read more