This is our 6th cruise, first with Carnival. Heard alot of bad press about Carnival, but we were pleasantly surprised, it was great. We booked a prenight at the Westin in Long Beach, beautiful hotel and easy taxi ride ($8) to the pier. We used early check in at the Queen Mary as advised on this board & were on board by 12:30, in our cabin by 2:30. We had been upgraded to a beautiful Jr. Suite, big king bed, dressing room, bathroom with double sinks & jacuzzi tub and BIG verandah. It was our first verandah cabin and we would never sail without one again. Every day at sea, we ordered room service breakfast and had our coffee out on our deck, it was wonderful. Days at sea were filled with fun activities, or nothing at all if you chose. We did a yoga lesson, massages at the spa, wine tasting, and my husband had a golf lesson (one of the best he's ever had anywhere). The food was great - another surprise as I had heard Carnival was not up to par. We did not do David's restaurant, but had dinner in the dining room every evening but two. The buffet we had for lunch every day and one dinner, and it did not disappoint - fairly good variety of food. Our only complaint was it was sometimes cold, or at least not very hot. The service from our housekeeping staff and wait staff at the restaurant was excellent - however, we thought the staff on the rest of the ship could have taken some customer service lessons. Several times when we asked simple questions at the purser's desk the staff was very curt, as if they were annoyed we bothered them. Also the people taking your card off and on the ship at ports were just short of rude. Don't know what their problem was. Ports themselves were great. We did the Yelapa snorkeling trip in Puerto, the tour & show in Mazatlan and the whale watching by zodiac in Cabo. All three allowed us plenty in time in port after our excursions, and all 3 were well run and as written. The water was a little cool for snorkeling, but the catamaran staff was lots of fun and the stop in Yelapa was great, real local flavor. Debarkation was a breeze, we were off the ship and on our bus to the airport by 9:30. Would cruise Carnival again, and would recommend this itinerary as a great alternative to the Caribbean.