We sailed the Carnival Spirit round-trip from Los Angeles (San Pedro) to Hawaii 12/02/11-12/17/11. We had sailed the same ship 12 days from Honolulu to Vancouver in 2004. This was my 13th Carnival cruise and 31st cruise overall.

Generally, we had a good time. We met some really nice folks, enjoyed our Cruise Critic get-togethers, loved most of our port time and had a great vacation. However, we were disappointed in the food and entertainment as compared to our other cruises. This was the 3rd time we've cruised between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the 3rd time we've said we don't want to do that again -- it just takes too much away from our holiday and family celebrations.

Embarkation was delayed because the ship arrived into port late. We were at the Crowne Plaza -- in a harbor view suite specifically to watch the ship come in, but we kept waiting. Finally went to the front desk to ask and they checked some monitor and told us we'd be able to see it in 6 minutes (not kidding...and we did). Got great pictures as the ship sailed by. As "platinum" guests, we were in Zone 1, but boarded at 1:35. Debarkation was also seemed late. We were group #1 and didn't get to LAX until almost 11:30. I sure hope nobody booked an early flight home. Read more