This was our seventh cruise, but first on the west coast ... all others have been in the Caribbean. I read a lot of reviews prior to our cruise in an attempt to get a feel for what to expect, since we had never sailed out of Los Angeles (Port of Long Beach).
EMBARKATION We arrived in LA the day before our cruise and we stayed on the Queen Mary. This was SO convenient ... right next to the Carnival cruise terminal. We registered for the early check-in at 9:30 a.m. and then hung around for an hour or so. We got into our zone for pre-boarding around 10:30, and by 11:30 we were on Lido deck having lunch. It was by far the fastest embarkation of our seven cruises.
After reading alot of message boards I was concerned about the "Art" onboard the Pride. My preference would be that Carnival would not expose children to that kind of "Art", but all in all, it wasn't as bad as some people made it sound on these message boards. However it's not like it went unnoticed. There were plenty of people talking about it, including the comedian. My wife and I would prefer a different decor.
Not sure what Joe Farcus was thinking when he added all of the art/nudity. There are so many better choices that would be less controversial.