First Time Carnival Cruise to Ensenada, Mexico

For my 31st birthday, Scott and I embarked on my first cruise! We did a short 3-day Carnival Cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico, and I seriously had such a blast. I am a fan of the all inclusive types of trips and I just want to arrive and not have to worry about things like how I’m going to pay for things, or going through trouble to find/book activities. Carnival cruises made it extremely easy to have a super enjoyable time.

I told Scott that I wanted a stateroom with portholes just so I could have some natural light. Although I could just walk to the upper decks, I really like waking up to natural light. Unfortunately, the last available stateroom with portholes was located at the very front of the boat and near the area where it sounds like all of the machinery that goes in and out of the boat when docking and leaving the dock is located. Therefore, a couple mornings, we were woken up at 5 am or so to winding and cranking mechanical sounds.

DAY 1 - Embarkment

Aside from the morning wake up calls, the overall trip was really fun! The process of getting through customs/immigration and onto the boat was swift. Then we walked directly to our stateroom and our keys were in a packet at our door. We unpacked a few items then headed off to a safety briefing -that is absolutely mandatory and it’s important that you go. Afterwards, Scott and I watched on a deck as the shipped left the dock. We grabbed lunch at the buffet, then a drink at one of the the bars and played some slot and coin machines. After a few more drinks we called it a night so we could spend more energy the following day exploring the ship more (Scott had also booked a morning massage for me so I didn’t want to not be able to wake up for that).

DAY 2 - At Sea

This day was out at sea, and I started my morning off with a stone massage. I was informed right as the masseuse was leading me into the room that there was a fitness class taking place on the floor above us, and asked if I wanted to reschedule. At that point, I was a few minutes away from getting on the massage table, so I didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of rescheduling. The massage was good for loosening me up, but you have to sit through the post massage recommendations (which is fine because I want to know how to take care of my body post treatment) but it makes you feel like you have to buy a whole set of products. I was able to decline buying anything, and headed back to the room to grab Scott so that we could grab breakfast at the buffet. After eating, we grabbed drinks then headed up to a top deck to play mini golf. Afterwards as we made our way down, we checked out all the fun and commotion going on around the pool. The staff makes sure to get everyone around the pool dancing and taking part in the festivities. We hung out in the casino and grabbed drinks before heading back to the room to get ready for our formal dinner. Scott had already made reservations when he first booked the trip that we wanted to do earlier dinner seatings for both evenings. So we headed to the restaurant to be seated and it’s really nice to have the fine dining experience, but it’s also fun because the staff parade around dancing and singing to get the crowd involved. There was an emphasis on dressing appropriate for sit down dinner, so I was a bit taken back that the hosts would let someone in that a)look like they came from the pool, b) looked heavily intoxicated or c) both as it kinda brought the mood down. Regardless we still had fun.

DAY 3 - Docked in Ensenada - On Land

We docked extremely early (I knew this because mechanical noises started happening around 5 or 6am. We made it off the boat, and of course there’s souvenir type photos before you walk into this area that has shop stalls. When you make it out to the street, there are buses that will take you downtown. Scott and I decided to just walked from the ship and along with the marina. We stumbled upon an open air market, then went to find a taco stand. We made the mistake of not having smaller bills on us, and of course a 2-3 tacos will cost a few dollars. Therefore, we had to ask around for a currency exchange place, and thankfully there was one close by. The attendant was nice and didn’t charge us a fee to just break the bill (I just didn’t know how it would go since we were clearly foreigners and you don’t know if you’ll get taken advantage of). After getting smaller change, we got some tacos and a coke, after enjoying that we walked back to the ship and went out to the pool. We did another “fancy” sit down dinner and this time I got the lobster (which isn’t included - it was a surcharge of about $20) and chocolate molten cake. Pretty much called it an early night, but Scott went gambling and actually came back with huge winnings.

DAY 4 - Back in Long Beach - Disembarkation

This isn’t really considered a day within the cruise itinerary, but I wanted to include since it’s apart of the trip. We were instructed on the time that we would need to be off the ship by. But essentially we docked super early in the morning, and by the time that we got off was at the beginning of a rush of passengers exiting the ship. Because there are so many people coming through, the staff sectioned off areas to manage the traffic flow. You’ll find yourself zig zagging through hallways and through various parts of the ship before you can exit off. And that was it!