Embarkation-This was the worst embarkation I have ever experienced. This was our 11th cruise (2 past w/Carnival). My husband and I booked all transportation thru Carnival. We left our home in Beaumont, Texas around 5am the morning of April 15, 2007 to go to the airport terminal in Houston, Texas for a 9:30am flight. After changing planes in Dallas, we arrived to San Diego, at 12:35p.m. (would have been 2:35 pm Texas time). It was our understanding that we would then go by bus to Ensenada terminal, however, we were instead taken to the San Diego port where we were able to check in and then were told to take a free shuttle to the shops around the port, that the buses to Ensenada would not be leaving until 5pm and we needed to be back by then. We were dressed in our summer clothes with short sleeved shirts and shorts and not expecting the chilly, cold weather. We walked around as long as we could stand and finally made our way back to the terminal to await our bus. We arrived earlier than 5pm but by 5pm there still were no buses and a terminal full of impatient, tired people. Restrooms could not even accommodate all these people, some women were finally using the men's restrooms. I am not sure what time exactly the buses finally started loading, but we were #15 and were probably not on the bus until around 6:00pm. After the long ride to Ensenada, we found that the buses were not unloading and never really got an explanation as to why. We waited for over an hour and half on the bus before we finally were able to unload. It was misting rain at that time and everyone had to walk in the rain to get to the ship. I was very surprised at the way Carnival handled this embarkation. This was a trip that I for one had saved and planned for a long time and it was a bad way to start off. In January, I traveled with another cruise line who had a medical emergency that made the ship arrive later than planned (only 3 hours late). That particular cruise line provided free shuttles to a shopping area at that port, plus set up tables with water, assorted non-alcoholic drinks, sandwiches and cookies. The VIP people even had round tables w/white tablecloths and flowers. They had mimosas, champagne and fancy hordorves along with the sandwiches, etc. When we arrived on board the ship, we were each given a letter of explanation and apology, along with a ship credit each for the day missed-even though we had not entirely missed the whole day. We were on that ship before 6pm. I could not believe that Carnival handled their passengers in such an uncaring way. We were never ever given any explanation throughout the 12 nite cruise-Carnival just pretended nothing unusual ever happened.
The rest of our cruise was nice. It certainly wasn't the crew's fault that the passengers were handled this way on day 1. Our room steward was very nice and so was the entire wait staff throughout the entire cruise. The entertainment was great. The food was as good as any cruise I have ever been on.
Our debarkation process could have been a little more organized. We were lucky to get a porter to help us with our bags. My husband searched for the bags (which were scattered) while I stayed with the porter who helped load them as found. We took an excursion to Pearl Harbor, etc and were delivered on time for our flight.