There's not a lot of choice out of the west coast--so you're kind of stuck with Mexico or Alaska. I've been on this cruise about 10 times and I always enjoy it on Carnival--not so much so with Royal Caribbean. Embarkation was easy-peasy-- just walked up and got on the ship. Our room was a OV on the lowest deck--first time I've sailed that low and I'm going to request it every time from now on! It was SO quiet! Room had 3 closets, small bathroom, a comfortable king bed and a desk with two chairs. Nothing special and completely serviceable. The room service menu has shrunk--but I don't use it much anyway, except for tea in the morning. The main dining room service seems to have vastly improved over the years! The food was to die for in the dining rooms and you simply must go to the sea day brunch they offer! Having said that, the buffet food was same ol', same ol', and tasted bland. The few times I went to the buffet I had a hot sandwich made in the deli or grabbed a cookie. The bubbles program (one payment for unlimited soda) was important to me since I'm a diet coke aholic. $7 a day for each day. It's a deal if you average more than three soda's a day. I also like that you can get different juices too. The band was great for dancing, and tea time is always fun! I spend a lot of time in the spa-- had two couples massages with my honey and they were great. It was his first time cruising and he said it was the best massage he ever had (and we go on a LOT of spa-centered getaways). Massages are expensive though-- couples massages averaged over $375 with tip, single massages were close to $200 with tip. The therapist were really good though and although the offered products at the end, they never pushed them on us once we said no thank you. For my (adult) kids that were cruising with us, I just warned them that they might try to sell them stuff at the end and that they should just say "no thank you, I'm not interested in the least." Both of them said that worked like a charm. That was the good--now unfortunately, here's the bad. Carnival has a new Hasbro show on two nights. BORING. Which leaves nothing to do on those nights entertainment wise. I look forward to the Vegas like shows in the evening after dinner. Comedy-- the quality has really gone down in the past few years. The comedians aren't even funny any more-- just vulgar. And I hate that I have to look at their vulgar little faces drinking it up in the bar after their set each night. Just give those guys a bottle and lock them in their rooms if they can't deliver a decent show. Back to the good-- the ship was always clean. There weren't a lot of kids or teenagers on this cruise (probably because it was only two weeks into the school semester), so it was really enjoyable. Oh, there were still the non-existent parents who let their kids run amok and hog the hot tubs, but with the new Serenity deck those of us who prefer not to have a bunch of little kids screaming around us can really enjoy that deck. The waterslide looked like fun, but it was just too cold to use at this time of year. The staff was always nice and remembered what we ordered for drinks and such at dinner. The first port was Catalina Island. It's a tender port--but they now have a really well run tendering number system that gets you on and off very fast with a minimal wait. Normally I would go snorkeling in Lover's Cove in this port, but because it was January and I'm familiar with the island we just rented a golf cart (no need to pre-order--they have loads of them just to the right off the pier--about $30 an hour with one hour free if you pay for two). We had a blast taking the cart all over the island and taking pics of stuff we found. Yes we saw buffallos! Yes we saw that little red fox the islanders all like! And yes we stopped for fish tacos at the little Mexican restaurant. All good. Next stop was Ensenada. Ensenada is a place you either love, hate, or tolerate. Normally I don't get off the ship while in this port because well, if you've seen Ensenada, once is usually enough. My cruise partner hadn't been to this port though so we got off. $2 per person on the bus from the ship to the shopping district. You can walk it, but it's about 2 miles and I'm lazy. We had a blast meeting all the shopkeepers and went with the attitude of just having some fun. I'm a purse freak, so I bought 3 purses-- just nice little leather purses, about $50 each. Got some blankets to bring back to people and of course, when in Ensenada you must bring back two things-- Mexican Vanilla and drugs. Wait? Did I say drugs? Just so you know--I mean LEGAL drugs. You are allowed to bring back 3 mos. worth to the states for your personal use--just nothing that's schedule 1 or higher (so no, you can't get Vicodin). I always pick up some Retin-A, and cruise partner gets a supply of viagara (hey, we're old!-- don't judge us!) Last stop's always Papa's and Beer for the obligatory photo proving we were in Ensenada. Taxi back to the ship for 3 and all our junk-- $5 (the taxi's always start off asking for $20). The tours offered by Carnival are OK, but we've already done them all and how many times do you want to see a blow hole really? I will be cruising again with them. In fact, I'm going again in June!