hello everybody!!! this was my 3rd cruise, second with carnival and second to the mexican riviera. my husband and i are both 22 and love sailing and are completley addicted. we have no kids and this was our frist cruise with a balcony!!! we were soooo excited. i booked this cruise in november of 08' so it was a very long time coming!

PRE CRUISE: we decided to fly in a day before the cruise and would suggest everyone do this as a precautionary measure, plus you can start vacation that much sooner!! after a lot of hard research we decided to fly into lax and stay in long beach. i researched every hotel in long beach it seemed until finally i found one that had everything i wanted at the right price. the Hilton Long beach was the winner. they had a special carnival rate that they dont offer online. we arrived at the hotel at around 1pm and were weary if they would be able to accomidate us so early. They got us right in and in a beautiful room. i have never ever ever ever stayed in a hotel with such excellent customer service. i have not one bad word to sya against this hilton!!

EMBARKATION: we arrived at about 930am to check in and recieved boarding zone 1. extremely fast and smooth check in. we then sat around until about 12 when they were ready to start boarding. pretty easy and effortless. i was anxious to see what the buzz was on all the pink. to be honest i didnt even notice all the pink at all. what i did find an issue with though, was all of the circles and small dots EVERYWHERE you turned. it got a bit overwhelming especially the first day when you didnt know where you where going. kind of felt like a fun house. Read more