This was my first cruise w/ my husband. We wanted a quick vacation from the kids and the 4 day Baja Mexico cruise was a great choice. We were a little concerned because we heard some negative things about the Carnival reputation for being a booze cruise.. We had a great time..
Embarkation was smooth. Plan to arrive early, have your tags on your bags, and be patient. Once you get inside the terminal building things will move quickly. We boarded the ship with no problems and checked out our room on the Empress deck. We loved being on this level, right in the middle, not a lot of walking through the ship..Regardless of what other reviews said there was no sewer smell..Everything was reallt clean. Our steward kept our room so clean every time we came in the room our bed was re-made..
The first port was Catalina island. My husband and I decided to pay for an excursion on Carnival to go kayaking. We paid $90.00. When we arrived at the place to kayak we could have done that on our own for $50.00. We are novice kayakers and w/ a little instruction we were kayaking several miles in the ocean. It was a lot of fun, bring a change on clothes. I did not and was in for a real treat walking back to the tender 2 miles soaked..