Let me start by saying my first cruise with Carnival was on this ship's 3 night version of this cruise and from the booking process until weeks before I booked this cruise I hated everything about Carnival. We booked this cruise last minute for our anniversary because our son's baseball schedule changed and we had time to cruise. This 4 nighter was the only option for our short time frame and so we decided to give Carnival another shot.

We got to the port and just as before the boarding process was quick and easy. They truly have their act together at the Long Beach Carnival Terminal. We always get there early and we were on the ship by 11:35 which was only 5 mins after we arrived. Of course the rooms weren't done yet but the boat was in full swing. Hallways to the rooms were closed with signs reading that they would be available by noon which they were. When open we headed to our room and I was interested in how things were. Last time our rooms were ready but the hallways were dirty, even having a butter knife on the floor across from our room and remained that way the entire cruise. But this time the halls were clean and seemed to have a very nice smell to them which was new from our last cruise just 6 months prior. The room was clean and had a nice smell to it as well. One of the nice things about this older ship is the size of its bathroom. One of the larger inside cabin bathrooms I've seen. You can actually move in the shower. :-)

We explored the ship and noticed that it was much cleaner than it was last time. The staff was friendlier and more eager to help this trip. We purchased the Cheers program and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a few drinks on board. To help do the math you only need to drink 5 drinks in a 24 hour period for it to pay for itself. You do have a 15 drink max per 24 hours but if you pace yourself and order wisely that's enough, even on sea days (which is what I was worried about). Read more