DH and I sailed on the Carnival Splendor October 18-25, 2009 along with Hurricane Rick and a great group of Cruise Critic folks.

We drove down from northern California and stayed at the Hilton Long Beach the night before the cruise. We hadreserved the special Carnival Cruiser park and stay package with the hotel on-line and it worked out really well.

We had a nice king room on the 10th floor for only $89. We left our car in the garage during the cruise and werenot charged parking for the whole 8 days since Mark at the front desk had made a note on our parking ticket, so we were able to exit the garage easily. During check-in, I asked Mark at the front desk about getting a shuttle to theport the next morning, they don't have a list to sign up on, he said to just let them know when we were ready. Sowe went to the restaurant for breakfast then to the front desk to let them know we were ready for the shuttle (about10:00 a.m.), he radio'd the shuttle and found that he was not near the hotel (at the airport I think), so said we could have a taxi on the hotel take us to the port. Mark filled out a voucher that the valet gave to a taxi waiting in front and we were off to the port which is only a couple of miles away. Read more