We sailed on the Carnival Spirit from San Pedro for 15 days to Hawaii. We had planned this trip for 1 1/2 years!
Since we live in Az, we drove in a day early and stayed at the Doubletree in San Pedro, since they had a room/ parking package. The hotel was fine and the package worked out perfectly for us.
Embarkation was delayed until about 2:00 because the ship was delayed coming into port due of bad weather. I don't feel that they communicated information properly to keep us up to date with the delay. We sat in the terminal until called and when we got onto the ship, our room was ready! Not painful at all.