First time sailing out of Long Beach and honestly San Diego is still my favorite. We used www.redvans.com for shuttle service from LAX and this not only went smoothly but saved over CCL transfers. Once at the port, it was a fluster of people, but Carnival did a great job funneling people on board. Once allowed to enter the terminal building, we were on board the ship in less than 15 min.

Once on board we set out to explore this ship and compare to the other I have been recently. Although this was my first time on a Spirit Class ship, the layout is somewhat similar to others in the Carnival fleet. The decor was nice and nothing really stood out in a bad way. The ship was very clean as are everyone one of Carnivals I have been on. Muster drill was usual and went well, pretty organized actually. We were always able to find a deck chair, and really didn't notice things too crowded. The ship had several pools and hot tubs, and they were spaced out over the Lido deck. It offered a covered Lido that could be opened or closed as needed. The only draw back was the lack of a real entertainment spot on the lido like some of the other ships have, so if you wanted to hear some Caribbean music, you did have a big space to do it in. The CD on this trip was Mark Price. While he did an acceptable job, we had a hard time hearing him, as he seemed very soft spoken, additionally coupled with poor speakers around the ship made announcements like non-existent. The entertainment was good with the exception of a poor ventriloquist. I wont waste too much time on that, as I'm sure you are bound to get a bad act every now and again. The regular Carnival shows were amazing, and I highly recommend to catch them, and most notably Carnival Legends. The comedians were dang funny. Food lines were not too bad. The layout of the Mermaids restaurant was a bit scattered, which did help to avoid congestion in one area, but made for some trips around to get what you wanted or to make sure you didn't miss anything. We had the late seating dining in Normandy's. The food was okay, and came out cool, not hot at all, but still acceptable. I have seen a downtrend in food quality over the last year, but don't get me wrong its still great food, I really cant say anything too bad. Our waiters were poor, and not talkative. I am used to befriending our waiters over the cruise, but it was evident this was not going to happen here. Big not for Carnival, I think the Maitre D' should evaluate the staff and boot the ones not happy to be there. I think the dining room is where you want your outgoing friendly people. Ours this time was just down to business. We didn't want to make an issue and switch tables, because in the whole scope of things its probably not worth it anyways.

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