We planned to go on Freedom in the Western Caribbean but I could not get the award air to Ft Lauderdale/Miami, as I did 2 yrs ago for a cruise with Glory out of Port Canaveral. We finally settled on Splendor as we live on the West Coast and almost all of us could drive to Long Beach. What dumb luck! Florida was COLD and the Caribbean cool and rainy. On the other hand, we basked in glorious sun every day, including our pre-cruise days in Los Angeles at 78 degrees!

We discovered 2nd St in Long Beach, a lovely strip of restaurants and shops and surely the place to be on a Saturday night. Our daughter picked all the restaurants for those of us who were in town early using Yelp. We enjoyed a Greek dinner at George's Greek on 2nd St with all but 5 who flew into LAX and ate at their hotel. Luckily, Cruise Critic folk had the low down on what hotel to choose for long term parking and snooze. We booked 6 rooms at the Hilton Long Beach for $94 per room which entitled us to a free shuttle to and from the port and free parking during our stay and the cruise. You must book with the hotel's own reservationist to get the rate. Very nice upscale hotel, walking distance to shops and a cheap ferris wheel ($2!). There is a local tourist bus for $1.10 each to take you around if you have no car. We drove to 2nd and found parking for free on a side street.

One family member with a van picked up the gang at LAX and we all shuttled from the Hilton. We had received calls from Carnival asking us not to arrive before 2 pm which suited us fine. Leisurely brunch, walk to Shoreline, etc. We arrived around 230 or so and all 20 of us were in our rooms in a reasonable amount of time. Lines were fairly short and Carnival staff very efficient in getting us on board. We attended muster right before the sailing, luckily these days, without our life jackets. We went up top to the sailaway party and to watch the departure. Glorious evening, balmy. We actually made it almost on time to our first seating dinner in the Gold Pearl Restaurant. We had been warned about the decor but got used to it with no problem. Our Italian daughter-in-law was actually awed by all the glass decor as the ship was made in Italy. What surprised me were the 30's characters on the room halls, just like Dream's. I thought Dream was the first with them. Read more