California to Mexico via Carnival's biggie

About the time when cruise lines are scrambling across the globe to dominate the next hot market (China? India? South America? Australia?), Carnival is planning to base the biggest ship in company history in the exotic port of, er, um, Long Beach.

In all fairness, Carnival Splendor (3,006 passengers) will spend most of its time somewhere else -- the best thing about boarding a ship in Long Beach is that, eventually, you get to leave Long Beach -- in this case, the waters off Mexico's west coast. In March 2009, Splendor will take over the weekly Mexican Riviera round-trips out of Long Beach currently being offered on Carnival Pride, the company announced recently.....