Upon arrival at the port of Long Beach, we parked our car and took our luggage down the elevator to the line of passengers waiting to check in. When we reached the ground floor, we realized we should have dropped off and checked in our luggage at the bottom floor of the parking garage and then parked the car upstairs instead of lugging it back down ourselves. We arrived around noon and were greeted by a line that wove in and out and around the area in front of the dome and out in front of the gift shops. It was intimidating at first, but once it started moving, it didn't take as long as anticipated to get to the check-in area (1 1/2 hrs.) Check-in was fast, friendly and efficient.

Once onboard we proceeded to our cabin (7143/balcony). It was not as clean as cabins we'd had in the past. Upon entering I found the ice bucket to be full of water and there were beads and bits of paper in the middle of the floor. Our cabin steward never did introduce himself/herself or make their presence known. Once the cruise began, we found the cabin to be made up and cleaned in a reasonable amount of time and to our satisfaction.

Our children ages 6 and 10 enjoyed their time in Camp Carnival for the most part. They had the typical activities including PlayStations, GameBoys, pizza and ice-cream eating contests etc. The sign-in and sign-out process for the 6-9 year olds was time-consuming each day, but was done with the safety of the children in mind so we can't complain. By the end of the week, they knew who went with who and it went a little faster. My 10 year old could sign himself in and out whenever he wanted to and did so quite often. He and his new friends enjoyed playing video games in the arcade (most of the games are $1 each) and eating pizza and ice cream on their own as opposed to the pre-arranged activities which he said did not keep with the scheduled activity most of the time. Read more