Cruising on Carnival's Imagination Part 1
Yup, I did it again! On Thursday, March 15th, my friend Barb and I took a three night cruise. It was her first cruise ever.
Of course, before getting in the car for the drive to Long Beach, we had to take our picture.
If you are not familiar with Southern California traffic patterns, there is no way for you to know how long your drive is going to be. You can take an educated guess but that's the problem - you're guessing. We left Riverside at 10:45 in the morning so we didn't have to worry about any possible delays. Both of us were shocked when we arrived at the port of Long Beach in just under an hour.
The cruise line's website urges you not to arrive early and I was a bit concerned because we were not scheduled to check-in until 12:30 so I took my time parking and figured we would just sit in the new terminal. I was actually looking forward to seeing it since it had recently gone through a major rennovation.
We breezed through three security checkpoints and then we were boarding the ship! No waiting, no sitting, no getting to explore the new terminal! And also, no photographer around to take the Welcome Aboard photo which we were both looking forward to. They did have this set-up shown below but I had to ask a fellow passenger to take our photo.
The quick glimpse we got of the terminal was pretty cool,and within minutes we were boarding the ship.
What was the very first thing we did? Can you guess? We grabbed a table near Guy's Burger Joint! I think I drove my co-workers crazy in the days leading up to this cruise because over and over all I could say is, "I can't wait for that burger!".
So I sat at the table with our purses and Barb got in the burger line.
Lo and behold...a little bit on heaven on a ship.
While we ate, we enjoyed the view of the Queen Mary.
After lunch we walked around the ship so Barb coule get a feel for the layout. We popped over to the Alchemy Bar because I wanted a drink but they were not going to open until much later that evening.
Now we are outside on the upper deck.
Nice view of Long Beach...
And another nice view of Long Beach!
It was time to go see our cabin and we were excited because we booked an outside cabin.
Can you tell I'm happy?
I completely forgot to tell Barb about the towel animals and she was so jazzed when she saw this.
I got a pin from Carnival!
We didn't do too much that first night, just relaxed and decorated our door for St. Patrick's Day.
Later on, we grabbed a quick snack from the buffet because we were not very hungry after those ginormous Guy's burgers. Naturally, Barb was very excited about her first cruise and I was anxious for the ship to get a move on, LOL! I think you'll enjoy our reactions to the ship leaving port...
Me, sitting back and relaxing and Barb trying not to get sick!
I did finally get a drink at the Alchemy Bar and as you can see, I wasn't thrilled with it. I thought I was losing my mind because the menu was completely different from the last time I had sailed. I have since learned that they do change their drink menu so if you have a favorite, it night not be there next time you go.
That wraps up Day One! Came back for our Ensenada adventure.
Of course, before getting in the car for the drive to Long Beach, we had to take our picture.
If you are not familiar with Southern California traffic patterns, there is no way for you to know how long your drive is going to be. You can take an educated guess but that's the problem - you're guessing. We left Riverside at 10:45 in the morning so we didn't have to worry about any possible delays. Both of us were shocked when we arrived at the port of Long Beach in just under an hour.
The cruise line's website urges you not to arrive early and I was a bit concerned because we were not scheduled to check-in until 12:30 so I took my time parking and figured we would just sit in the new terminal. I was actually looking forward to seeing it since it had recently gone through a major rennovation.
We breezed through three security checkpoints and then we were boarding the ship! No waiting, no sitting, no getting to explore the new terminal! And also, no photographer around to take the Welcome Aboard photo which we were both looking forward to. They did have this set-up shown below but I had to ask a fellow passenger to take our photo.
The quick glimpse we got of the terminal was pretty cool,and within minutes we were boarding the ship.
What was the very first thing we did? Can you guess? We grabbed a table near Guy's Burger Joint! I think I drove my co-workers crazy in the days leading up to this cruise because over and over all I could say is, "I can't wait for that burger!".
So I sat at the table with our purses and Barb got in the burger line.
Lo and behold...a little bit on heaven on a ship.
While we ate, we enjoyed the view of the Queen Mary.
After lunch we walked around the ship so Barb coule get a feel for the layout. We popped over to the Alchemy Bar because I wanted a drink but they were not going to open until much later that evening.
Now we are outside on the upper deck.
Nice view of Long Beach...
And another nice view of Long Beach!
It was time to go see our cabin and we were excited because we booked an outside cabin.
Can you tell I'm happy?
I got a pin from Carnival!
We didn't do too much that first night, just relaxed and decorated our door for St. Patrick's Day.
Later on, we grabbed a quick snack from the buffet because we were not very hungry after those ginormous Guy's burgers. Naturally, Barb was very excited about her first cruise and I was anxious for the ship to get a move on, LOL! I think you'll enjoy our reactions to the ship leaving port...
Me, sitting back and relaxing and Barb trying not to get sick!
I did finally get a drink at the Alchemy Bar and as you can see, I wasn't thrilled with it. I thought I was losing my mind because the menu was completely different from the last time I had sailed. I have since learned that they do change their drink menu so if you have a favorite, it night not be there next time you go.
That wraps up Day One! Came back for our Ensenada adventure.
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