This was my 4th sailing with Carnival traveling with my 4 year old son (his 3rd cruise).

Living in Southern California we decided that with a Monday sail date we would drive down to San Diego on Sunday and spend the day at the Zoo before the Spirit leaves. We had a great time at the Zoo and then made our way to the Best Western Seven Seas. We got a good deal on a room for the night and parking of the car for the entire trip. The shuttle service from the hotel to the pier was ontime and quick.

Embarkation ~ Well it was messed up! The Spirit had mechanical problems at sea which lead to a late arrival on Monday. When ships are 3 hours late their will be problems. When we arrived at 12:30pm we had to walk to the end of a VERY long line with all of our luggage and wait with people who were sailing on the Spirit and Elation. I had VIP check in due to the suite but this did not help at this point. After about 1 1/2 hours in the line outside we finally got into the building to check in which was very quick and the people were very nice. My son and I then went past all the people with zone numbers and went on forward to get on the ship. This is where we hit another snag, the security cameras stopped working so they couldn't check anyone in. After about 35 mins we were the second group of 50 people that they took and we had our security picture taken onboard the ship with the one camera that they have. My parent who were also traveling with us who did not have VIP check in got on board about 2 hours after we did. All in all it was a mess but hey I was going on a cruise so I didn't complain. The Ship ~ Spirit is HUGE and unlike other reviews I did NOT find it overly decorated or gaudy. I thought it was nicely laid out and very clean. I never saw a dirty area of the ship. The pool areas had plenty of chairs and the drink staff was always around. Camp Carnival was laid out well and they had many activities for the kids. They put on a Halloween Hunt along with a party and costume contest for the kids. For the adults they had a party and costume contest with ever so valuable Ship on a Stick. They also had a bath robe party on the Lido deck towards the end of the cruise. I had an Aft Wrap Suite and this was the best room I have ever had on a cruise. The balcony was huge the room had separate sitting, dressing and sleeping areas so it almost felt like 3 rooms. Our room steward Michael was great. Everything was taken care of and he was so nice to my son. We didn't see that many of the shows but we did see one guy who was great. Read more