This cruise was for my husband's 50th birthday. It was our 3rd cruise. We have previously sailed on the Carnival Pride & the Tahitian Princess. I read Cruise Critic regularly, although I do not post. The information provided by this website was very helpful in planning the trip.

PRECRUISE Prior to the cruise, we spent the night at the Holiday Inn San Diego on the Bay. This was our second visit to this hotel. We are Platinum Priority Club members and received an upgrade to a room overlooking the bay. This hotel is in an excellent location across the street from the cruise terminal. It is also located near shopping, long term cruise parking & the airport. The public rooms at the hotel were attractive, and there is both a restaurant and bar onsite. My husband and I used to live in San Diego, so we did not do any sightseeing prior to our cruise.

EMBARKATION From the long term cruise parking we used a baggage handler with seating & a cart attached to a bicycle to take our luggage across the street to the cruise terminal. Depending on the amount of luggage & passengers, it appears the suggested tip is $5.00-$15.00. Our baggage handler dropped us & our luggage with the porter. The embarkation for this trip was not good. The Spirit was late arriving October 18th due to a customs issue in their last port of call. We arrived at the suggested time- 1:00 pm and there were already long lines. As we had purchased suite accommodations, we were told that there would be a VIP boarding area. This was not true and we ended up waiting in a crowded, tented area. It was difficult to hear the instructions from Carnival staff, and the proceedings were very disorganized. At first, no one seemed to know where the line for boarding should be and we were provided conflicting information. Carnival needs to address their boarding procedures for this port. Read more