Precruise - We flew into San Diego the day before the cruise. The airport is very close to the downtown area and the cruise port. We stayed at the La Pensione Hotel in the Little Italy section of downtown, about 4 blocks from the cruise port. Taxi to the hotel was $8.00 and to the cruise port from the hotel was $6.00. We like the hotel just fine, the rooms were small, but it was clean and the staff was helpful and friendly. It was a bit noisy, especially since there was a train depot only 2 blocks away and you did hear the horn all hours of the night. It's in a great location with many restaurants within walking distance. There is also a city trolley stop about 2 blocks away.

Embarkation - The morning of the cruise we walked to the port from the hotel and had breakfast just across the street from the ships. The dock is right on the street, so getting a good view of the ships in port was nice. There was a sign warning that there was no dropping off of passengers before 11:00 AM. We were dropped off by taxi at 11 on the dot. We left our luggage with a porter who refused our tip. I was pleasantly surprised by this...he told my husband to "spend in on her". After passing through the security line, we were given a card with Zone 9 on it. We got our Sign & Sail cards without waiting in any line and were then directed to seats to wait until our zone was called. This took about 20 minutes and we were walking on board. All in all, it was a very easy embarkation. We left our carry on in our cabin (we didn't wait until 1:30 to go in) and headed up to the Lido deck for lunch.

The Ship - Our cabin was and 8A balcony #4171 on the Main deck. It was nice, the same as any other balcony cabin I've had on Carnival. Roomy enough and efficient with closet space and drawers. Outside the cabin door were windows that looked down on the atrium. This location was good for us, close to elevators. I liked the layout of this ship...easy enough to learn to get around after one afternoon. Read more