PRE-CRUISE & EMBARKATION

Carnival Splendor served as our home for a 7-day cruise with Cruise Critic hosts, our community manager and many Cruise Critic members.  We arrived in LA on Saturday, April 25 (we always try to arrive in our departure city a day before we embark) and caught a Super Shuttle van to the Queen Mary.  It was a long, slow trip with four stops before our arrival in Long Beach (took almost 90 minutes in all).  We enjoyed our evening on board Queen Mary, including dinner at Chelsea.  I love walking this grand old lady and looking at the old photos and beautiful wood and art deco designs that still appear.  She's a great place to stay prior to a cruise out of Long Beach and very convenient to Carnival's pier.  We got up early on Sunday morning and walked over to the pier with luggage in hand just before 10:00 AM.  Carnival has an early check-in desk set up outside it's terminal so we could quickly check-in and pick up our sign and sail card and then drop off our luggage with porters.  It was quick and easy. 

We returned to the Queen Mary for several hours as we were told boarding would begin around 1:30.  Weather was a bit chilly for LA at this time of year (in the mid 60s).  Everyone was looking forward to heading south to some warmth.  After walking around the QM and taking photos to kill some time, we headed back to the pier.  We had been given a Zone 1 boarding card when we did the early check in and when we arrived back at the pier at noon, they had already called Zone 1.  We entered the terminal (the old Spruce Goose building) and stood in line to go through x-ray security.  After exiting security, they placed us into series of lines where we stood for 15 minutes or so.  After releasing us from those lines, we had welcome aboard photos taken with a Mexican background and then we went up an escalator where they placed us into yet more lines (this time to get your photo taken for your sail and sign card).  After another 15 minutes we were ready to step onboard.  While the early check-in was very nice and quick, this process somewhat defeated the purpose of early check-in. When you combined the early check-in with the actual on-boarding process, it actually took longer than a normal check-in process would have.   Read more