This was our first cruise and after reading the reviews we still had a lot of questions of how things would work on the cruise. The embarkation process was very organized and easy, but you will need to have a little patience because it takes a while to load 3,700 people on a ship. When you get to your cabin you are greeted by your steward and they already know you by name, which is amazing. Your luggage is waiting for you outside your cabin along with your sail and sign card, and your daily planner that explains everything that is going on that day. A new one of these is given to you every night for the next days activities. The ship is huge and overwhelming to try and figure out where everything is, so I recommend that you download the free Carnival Hub app on your device. With this app you get a map of the entire ship and all the decks, and it shows you what activities are going on and where. It also shows you where you can eat and what time all the restaurants are open. The food is good throughout the ship but we quickly figured out that the breakfast at the Gold Pearl was better than the buffet and open to all passengers. The BBQ Grill is kind of a hidden restaurant towards the back of the ship but well worth eating there for lunch. The highlight of the dining is dinner at the Black Pearl. The food is amazing, and the only thing better is the service of the waiters and staff. Michael and Domagoj treated us like family. They went out of their way to make us feel like royalty. Domagoj worked the breakfast at the Gold Pearl and dinner at the Black Pearl and recognized us every time and made an effort to talk to us every time. Out of the three port cities we enjoyed Puerto Vallarta the most although Cabo and Mazatlan were nice too. As far as entertainment goes, there is entertainment going on all the time. If you look on the Carnival Hub app you will always know where the fun is at, and it's usually with MarQ. MarQ was our cruise director and by day two we figured out that wherever MarQ was at, is where wanted to be. MarQ made our cruise the best we could ever hope for. He made everything more fun and his energy was always at 110%. Even with 3,776 passengers on board he still remembered my daughter and made a connection with her. No matter how busy he was or what he was doing, he always made time for a picture and a hug with a crazy smile. I recommend going to all the singing, dancing, trivia, Lip Sync Battle, MarQ and A, and even the debarkation talk. His assistant JJ was also very funny and friendly. This was the best trip we have ever been on and would definitely go again.