A bit of background, we have cruised with Princess, Celebrity, NCL, Cunard and RCL. Our children are 15 and 13. We didn't choose the cruise for the itinerary as we have visited all the ports except Sciliy before. We were keen to try Carnival as we had heard good things and the boat looked to have lots of child friendly features.
We spent 4 days in Barcelona before the cruise which we enjoyed, staying at the Gravina hotel just of the Rambla's
The embarkation process was excellent - Cunard could do with learning from this ! We went straight to the pool as we had swimwear all prepared and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
Good location, we always seemed to be on the right side