The embarkation process was fast and we were on the ship in about 20-30 minutes, but we got stock in lovely LA traffic and didn't make it to port till about 2:30pm.
Our cabin was ready, nice and clean. This is was 5th cruise with Carnival, so I pretty much knew exactly what to expect. I've never been on this ship nor this sized ship so that was a pleasant surprised.
The food was actually pretty good, and the menu changed constantly, it did get pretty crowded in the buffet areas but I guess that's expecting on this size ship.
We just walked around the pier and got annoyingly hacked to take a taxi into town, although if you walk all the way around the town is only a few minutes walk and you don't need a taxi. We found a local restaurant and had some really good tacos.