We drove to Long Beach to board the Carnival Splendor on its July 31 sailing to the Mexican Riviera. We drove up from San Diego on Saturday and got a great Cruise and Park package at the Hilton Long Beach and Executive Meeting Center. The room and 7 days of parking (in an underground structure) cost us $137. The hotel was very accommodating to cruise passengers. The morning of departure, the hotel shuttle left the area around 9am and wouldn't return to the hotel until around 11:30. We, of course, wanted to leave for the ship during that time. So the hotel gave us taxi vouchers (there were 14 in our party) so we could go whenever we wanted. It was a 10-minute taxi ride to the cruise terminal and we arrived around 11. There was no line at this time to check in.

We got Zone 4 boarding, which was still in the shaded area close to the dome, and waited until about 12:30 to board. Boarding was simple and we were in the Lido Buffet for lunch by 1. It was busy, so we went upstairs to the Rotisserie where it was quiet and un-crowded.

After touring the ship we were able to get into our rooms at 2:30. Our room was 6450, an aft wrap. A great room with a fabulous deck! Part of our group was in 6448 (a 'regular' balcony room but it's sideways so the balcony is twice as long as normal) and the vestibule between our two rooms was quite handy. We opened the balcony partition between the two rooms and had a huge deck on the back corner of the ship. These two rooms were great, but the next balcony room over and the interior rooms across the hall did get noise from the lounge below us. On the Karaoke nights, the thump of the music was quite loud. But on four of the nights there were comedy shows, so the noise wasn't too bad. Read more