For our one-year anniversary, my husband and I decided to take a cruise because we both love boat rides and were looking for an all-inclusive, stress-free trip. This was my second cruise (my first being over a decade ago) and this was his first, so needless to say, we are not very experienced cruisers. We embarked at Long Beach, CA for the 4-night Catalina/Ensenada, Mexico cruise on the Carnival Paradise.

Embarkation was similar to that of boarding a plane with all the lines you are required to stand in: check-in, security...oh, but there are a couple of differences, PHOTO lines! We have read several other reviews before the trip, so we went in with the expectation of potential long embarkation timeframes of up to 2 ½ hours. So, with that expectation, we were grateful for our 1-hour embarkation process. We definitely have to say the process was quite smooth and organized.

Once onboard on the Main Deck, we immediately were hit with an unpleasant odor. It smelled like a restroom facility. The thought of getting used to that smell for an extended amount of time was not something we were looking forward to, but we were pleasantly surprised that our lower-level location (Riviera Deck) did not have any noticeable unpleasant smell. So, we were happy about that. We are both sensitive to smell, so you can imagine our relief to escape that rancid smell for the trip. Read more