Overview -- Itinerary for this cruise includes considerable at-sea time along with a relatively large number of ports-of-call. The cruise is available at a relatively low price and is on a medium to large, modern cruise ship offering undistinguished service, meals, and entertainment.

Background -- This was the fifth cruise for my wife and me; this time celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. It was our second Carnival cruise, the first being a short western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston. We've also done one-week Alaska, 11-day Panama Canal, and one-week Caribbean all on Royal Caribbean. Before and after this cruise, we prefer Royal Caribbean, but only Carnival offers a one-way cruise between the west coast and Hawaii that includes six ports of call in Hawaii, and makes it all available for the lowest price (on a per day basis) compared to the closest offerings by the other cruise lines serving Hawaii.

Embarkation -- Only one word for it -- HORRIBLE! Starting at the San Diego airport, Carnival failed to have adequate staff to direct the passengers or to handle the baggage. Passengers must collect their baggage at baggage claim and move it to an unmarked staging area for loading on rental trucks by a Carnival subcontractor for transport to Ensenada. Then the passengers must find the subcontracted bus service to take them to the check-in area at the port of San Diego. Once checked-in, most passengers will have a considerable amount of time to kill in San Diego before a mass loading of buses to Ensenada starting at about 5:00 PM. Much of this time, the Carnival Spirit is docked in the adjacent slip but apparently Carnival's feeble attempt to comply with the foreign-flagged passenger ship provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, or some other such nonsense, includes hauling both passengers and their luggage by ground transport to Mexico before anything can be loaded on the ship. Additionally, rather than staggering the whole process over the course of the day, Carnival takes an all-at-once approach. Trying to move about 2200 passengers, and their luggage for a 12-day cruise, 60 miles and run them through inadequately-equipped and staffed security, all at one time, is a disaster. It never occurred to me that we would be in a Mexican port waiting in line for security screening, outside, in cold, windy, and slightly wet conditions. Shorts and T-shirts without jackets is not appropriate dress for the beginning of this experience -- we were cold and miserable. To add insult to injury, the waiting line extended parallel to the ship only about 100 feet from where a bunch of very careless baggage handlers were pitching our baggage (two or three very muscular types teaming up on individual bags) from a pile on the dock into the ship. I saw many bags flying 20+ feet before hitting the ceiling in the ship and falling to the floor. The waiting line outside the ship finally cleared at about 9:30 PM and most of us spent the next 12 days trying to forget the indignity of those first few hours. Read more