We have 12 cruises under our belt and three more booked for the next few months. We are semi-retired now and enjoy life and travel quite a lot. We did this same cruise about eight months ago so the review will compare this one to that one also. The Pride is a good ship, not too big nor small. It is clean and the rooms are keep up very nicely. It will be replaced by the new and much larger Splendor next year for the seven night Mex Riviera cruise. We live in No. AZ so we find driving to and from the cruise terminal much less expensive and it takes about the same time as it would to fly, considering we would have to shuttle to/from PHX. The worst embarkation in the USA must be the cruise terminal at Long Beach, which the Pride uses. Carnival tries very hard but it is a disaster. It hasn't gotten any better since the last one. No matter when you arrive you will be waiting outside with hardly any benches or chairs for sitting, no matter what the weather throws at you. This can be especially hard if you have kids, elderly or have a handicap. Be prepared by checking the weather forecast before you get there. The sun can be very brutal if you are standing in it for up to four hours! The best way for the embarkation that we have been able to gather is to not arrive at the terminal until after about three PM. You will not get your bags until about time for the evening meal but your wait will be very short. We had an obscured balcony stateroom, number 5166. It was fine for us as it was mid-ship and between the stairs/elevators, to reduce the amount of traffic going by the room, especially late at night. The balcony is smaller than the others on the ship, but then the price we paid was much better so you decide which way you want to go. Our room stewards were Lucky and Ahmed and they were excellent. They were around the area quite often so if you had a special request, like wine glasses in the room ( we bring a few bottles of wine with us when we cruise ) it was easy to find them. They were very quick to help in any way. I like the way that the buffet is set up on the Pride. It is fairly easy to go to the different stations for food and the lines are usually not too long. The line that is usually the longest is the one for the deli sandwiches. The Pride has made one very good change from before and that is they have gotten rid of the plastic coffee/tea mugs. My wife is English and shuddered each time she had to use the plastic ones, as they leave a taste. There are plenty of stations to obtain juices and hot drinks. One nice touch with Carnival is that they have juices available all day and night, unlike Princess. Carnival also has ice cream and frozen yogurt dispensers in a couple of locations and it is free. Princess charges for their ice cream, except for one hour a day. NCL only has one ice cream spot part of the day. If you are travelling with kids this is a very big thing to consider. The dining room is average in decor with the food good and at times very good. Their soups were consistently wonderful. We also had a couple with us that this was their first cruise so we were able to see what their reactions were to the food and service. The service on the Carnival was their usual excellent service with only one server being not very good but he was leaving the ship latter this month and maybe the Carnival line all together, so his attitude was lacking. One thing many people do not know is that there is sushi available on the Promenade deck each night also. The entertainment aboard was the same as it was eight months ago so we tended to bypass it. The friends with us, first timers, were not very impressed with it except for the comedians. Heather, in the Ivory Lounge, was very good and we enjoyed going there listening to her. We usually tend to do our own thing at the ports and have been in the ports along the Mexican Riviera enough so that we know were we want to go and what we wish to do, so we do not use the shore excursions through the ship. There are some very good excursions available however depending on just what you want to do. I am sure that you can get a very good idea from other cruise critics comments. The prices along the Mexican Riviera have increased dramatically in the last year or so, enough that we have found better deals in AZ for certain items than what we could get in Mexico. We use the quick/self service/express disembarkation so we can start our drive at a decent time and try to avoid the heavy traffic in the LA area. Being that this cruise begins and ends on a Sunday is an immense help. This last time it took two hours from when they called the first group to disembark to when we finally got off the ship. Carnival allows its passengers to remain in their rooms while waiting to be called to disembark. One may also wait in the lounges. One very good thing that the Pride did was to call the quick/self service/express disembarkation people by decks so that there was not the usual congestion around the exit. In all fairness to Carnival the disembarkation was taking longer due to the length of time it was taking the customs inspectors to process the departing passengers. No one can estimate just how long that may take as it does vary depending on the passengers disembarking. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience and an inexpensive vacation. When and if Carnival ever gets the Long Beach terminal squared away it will be a very good cruise to do for a short vacation. I dread to think how awful it could be if they don't before the Splendor arrives.