First, we arrived in San Diego 6 days prior to the cruse and stayed in a town by the name of Cardiff by the Sea. If you ever have a chance to visit San Diego I would suggest seal beach, La Jolla and of course the zoo. Oh, and bring a sweatshirt weather is ever-changing during this time of year. Also, Temecula wine country is very neat but plan to spend a whole day there and have a limo drive you as there are MANY wineries.

Getting on the ship was a breeze, although I have VIP status. The line was extremely long so I am sure it wasn't a breeze for others. I asked for a upgrade and was told we were sailing on a full ship. Being 10 years or so old, the ship was really nice. VERY clean, but a little smaller than I am used to. The pools were always crowded as well as the hot tubs. I actually had a sweatshirt on during sea days b/c of the Baja breeze. Very unusual to me, as the Caribbean days at sea are so hot. Make sure to bring binoculars and always have your camera ready to go. If any of you have sailed the Caribbean you will note there are not many dolphin sightings and no whale sightings. Totally different on the Baja cruise. We saw at least 30 whales during our travels as well as tons of dolphins and tiny brown sea lions. We have great pictures and the best one we have is of 3 killer whales which are very rare during the summer.

Since it was just my b/f and I we were trying to get a table by ourselves but, this did not work out since they did not have small tables available. We usually go with my family so this was new to us to sit with people we didn't know. However, it turned out to be perfect and everyone was around our age except a couple in their 40's and they were even very nice and fun. The food was OK, and I have never had a problem with carnival food but, the menu wasn't great. I am guessing it was because it was a 5 day and I usually go on 7 day or longer. They still had the melting chocolate cake which I got every night, love it! Lunch food was good pizza, burgers, etc. The deli line was always long and I love their turkey sandwiches on the country roll--delish! Lines were so long it was insane. Sushi was excellent. Read more