natefish95

Looking forward to reading more! When you're onboard, could you see if there is a free sauna or steam room off the gym? Or, could you check the thermal suite and see if there are single-sex saunas in the locker rooms or all co-ed?

Do y'all not get out ever? $48 for a full steakhouse dinner (appetizers, steak, dessert) is such a great value. I've been to steakhouses were a single steak is more than that. The quality in the steakhouse is actually good, especially when compared to the MDR. If you're a family of 4, you're only paying $24 more dollars total for a full steakhouse meal. Not that much really. Also, can y'all please find some actual good lobster and stop obsessing over the rubber that Carnival claims is lobster. All of these changes are pretty common sense when you stop and think about how much food and money is wasted every week.

"You did not survive a pandemic to fake an or****" I can feel the Zeniths clutching their pearls now.

Sorry I made you dread your cruise! I'm still thinking about how great my cruise was despite the issues. I would sail on the Spirit next week in a heartbeat! Glad you had a great time!

I travel solo as well and you can get as many bottles of what as you want throughout the day. One time I tried to get two bottles of water and the first bartender said I could only have one, but another bartender who knew me, let me have two. Tip the bartenders, be nice, and they'll help you out 🙂

Thank you so much! I'll bring my shoes just in case!

I used to live in Midtown Atlanta and have been down Bankhead MANY times! I've seen many a crackhead on a corner (and someone else on the corner if you're going doing Fulton Industrial lol)

Why could it possibly be COVID policies? Cruises have been stopping in San Juan just fine, including recent cruises that didn't even require vaccination. Also, some of these cruises are over a year away. Why would it be COVID policies? It's more likely dock issues or overcrowding issues with too many megaships in port.

As Greg said, there is no free wifi. The wifi you connect to will give you access to the app on the ship, but other features on your phone will not work. iMessage works on the social plan (I always get the value plan) which works for me (when the wifi decides to actually work).

A couple weeks ago on the Spirit, the comedians were not great. The comedians would repeat a lot of jokes throughout their performances. I love vulgar comedy, but noticed people walking out when a certain part of the female anatomy was discussed. I liked Billy Bonnel, but his humor definitely didn't resonate with most people. Oh well.

Hi everyone! I'm going on the Summit in January and I'm a big Peloton rider. Do they have the pedals that are strictly cages or do they have the clips on the other side as well? Is it a regular bike or a bike+? What is the process for reserving them if that's even necessary?

No, don't believe everything the customer service reps say. Look at deck plans of the ships. There's a tiny free one on Sky, but everything is co-ed and costs on Encore.

If you look at my signature, everything from 2017 to now has been solo. I love cruising solo on NCL because they a nightly hosted solo gathering. I always go the first night to see what the vibe is and if I get along with the others. If I do, I keep going back and making friends. If not, I just do my own thing and meet people through other means. I love having my alone time in the day to lay in a lounger and read my book. If I'm on a bigger ship, I'll get a vibe beach club pass. On smaller ships, I always get a thermal suite pass. I personally like having a "a spot" to go where I feel comfortable, peaceful and happy. I cruise for a variety of reasons. If I want to sleep until noon, I do. If I want to wake up at 6am and work out, I do that. I love being in control of my schedule and being able to decide things last minute. Sometimes I'll find people to dine with at night, but if I go alone, it's not a big deal. I bring my Kindle to read. NCL has a much better buffet than Carnival, so I have no problem eating in the buffet for dinner on NCL if I want something quick and casual.

Lol you'll definitely be good by then. None of the current crew will be onboard by then. It was a great location! I spent a good bit of time in the gym, sauna, and steam room, which was super close by one deck up.

You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning. I have my morning drinks (screwdriver), day drinks (something frozen or fruity), and evening drinks (beer or cocktails at alchemy)

I just got exceptionally unlucky. S*** happens. I found a used bandaid in a cabin on Royal Caribbean once, which grosses me out more than roaches honestly. Jam was onboard far longer than me and had no issues like this, so keep that in mind. This was a very rare issue (which was probably caused by my cabin steward not cleaning up leftover dishes from the two day cruise before mine)

Don't dread it! There are like 1000 cabins onboard and I just drew the short straw this week I guess. I had such a great cruise-one of my favorites actually. I would do a cruise again on Spirit again!

Don't let me one (very isolated) experience sour your on the Spirit. I still had a great time and loved the ship!

Willdra, I am not even through your first post, but I am giggling to myself like a crackhead on a street corner. "hungry as a hostage with nothing but my thoughts and prayers" is KILLING ME. I'll have to read this when I'm not in public at an airport. Thanks for doing a great review as always!

I thought it was pretty good. Plenty of strength equipment, free weights, and treadmills, which are what I use. Everything was in good condition and clean. They also had sweat towels and a water fountain.

just posted about my roach roomies haha

And now for... The Ugly So this was not great. I stayed in cabin 8118, which is forward on Deck 8. It was directly below the spa and I thought it was a great location. Would stay in this location again. My issue was with houskeeping. I touched on it above with finding a dirty nail file, towels, cups, etc. That wasn't the main issue. (side bar-the bed was really comfy and I had nice firm pillows that supported by head well. I hate the flat pancake pillows) On night two at about midnight, I was in that weird half-asleep/half-awake phase. I felt something fall onto my head and thought a hair was just tickling my forehead. I have very short hair (and a receding hairlines), so there isn't a long hair to get out of place, but that's how I rationalized it when I was half asleep. THEN I FELT SOMETHING SCURRY ACROSS MY FACE. Let me say that again. Something quickly crawled across my face in my bed. I flipped the light on so fast and found a COCKROACH crawling around in my bed. I ran and grabbed some toilet paper and killed it and flushed it. I went down to guest services because I feel like a cockroach running across my face in my cabin is something to be reported and not just me being a Karen. The guest services guy really didn't seem interested at all and just said he'd call housekeeping. Went back to my room and the housekeeping deck manager and another guy came by. I didn't have a picture and they couldn't find anything, so they just kinda left and said to call them if I need anything. Fine. Whatever. I just want to go bed. On the St. Maarten night, it was about 2am and I woke up and felt something crawling on my chest. IT WAS ANOTHER COCKROACH. I flipped out again, but this one escaped my wrath, BUT I got a picture of it to prove that I'm not crazy and there was indeed cockroaches in my cabin. I called housekeeping and the deck supervisor and the pest control guy came by. They couldn't find anything, but left some traps and said they'd do a thorough search when I'm in St. Thomas and check every nook and cranny. Ok cool. Got back from St. Thomas and it looked like they had indeed searched my cabin but didn't leave a note or anything. Waited until my steward turned down my cabin. Still no note or mention of anything. I walked down to guest services that night and showed a lovely guy named Angel the pictures and asked if there was any news. He pulled up my account and read me the report from housekeeping. They did search my cabin and found a cockroach (and killed it). He actually took the time to listen and empathized that two cockroaches have crawled across my body while trying to sleep. He refunded some onboard charges and tried to offer more, but I politely declined because refunding charges was more than enough. I was just glad someone listened and cared. He offered me to move cabins, but I did not want to pack everything up, move it, and unpack for the last 4 days. On night 6, lightning struck a third time in the same spot and I found a third cockroach on my bed and a fourth on my wall. I killed them both with a fury and went to bed angry. I didn't bother going to guest services because there isn't much else they can do. They refunded charges and it's too late in the cruise to move cabins. Thankfully I had no issues the last two nights. In summary, I found FOUR COCKROACHES in my cabin. The first guest services guy couldn't care less. Housekeeping was not communicative and my steward was not the best. This was a frustrating issue to deal with, but has to be (hopefully) a rare occurrence onboard a ship. TL;DR-don't stay in cabin 8118 on the Carnival Spirit unless you're an entomologist.

Now to what y'all really want to hear...this won't be too long, but a few things i want to mention The Bad The music in Serenity. Oh my god it was awful. They were playing the hits of the 1930's it felt like, which was appropriate because the music made me depressed. I heard someone else complain and the staff member said they can't change it. Love music in general- Reallyyyyyyy weak offerings this week. There was a quartet that played that I didn't care for. There was a duo that played that wasn't very good in my opinion. There was always a latin band, but I didn't hear them much. The guitar player was also just...meh. I only saw the piano bar on the schedule once or twice. I never saw him, but heard he was good. The music this weak was just bad in general (i miss the country duo from the Valor) Housekeeping- I'll get into this in The Ugly section, but my room steward was not great. I found a dirty nail file in the closet, didn't get fresh towels sometimes, cups weren't taken away, and he tried to force me into AM service. Really disappointing. Service in the steakhosue- the food was great, but service was not great. It wasn't crowded and they didn't seem understaffed. We kept having to ask for drink refills. Items were forgotten. And it took FOREVER The Deli-They apparently got a new menu (which I probably would have never noticed honestly). The sandwiches this were just not good in my opinion. I got a buffalo chicken sandwich and she put something on it that looked and tasted like a carrot, but still not 100% sure what it was... Most of them were so bread-heavy with not enough inside. They also didn't have fries but once and had regular lays chips instead. Personal preference, but I'd rather have fries. Bonsai-So it wasn't thaaaat bad, but if I'm going to an upcharge restaurant, I'd expect something a bit better. The salmon tiradito was really, really tiny (good flavor though). I also got two rolls and they were fine, but nothing outstanding. I've had much better sushi on NCL honestly. For dessert I got the yuzu custard and it was not great. This might have been a texture issue, which is on me admittedly, but it was just weirdly gelatinous and chunky at the same time Guys Burgers- Y'all, this is the most overrated thing in the entire Carnival universe. The burgers are overcooked and flavorless. The fires are bland and not like the good, seasoned ones they used to have. The burger I just had in the Miami airport was far better than Guys None of these were all that major, but I feel like it was worth mentioning. Mostly a personal opinion, so feel free to disagree and judge for yourself!

Let's be positive for once on her and start with... The Good The ship-This was my first time on the Spirit class and first time on the Carnival Spirit. I loved the layout of the ship and it never felt too crowded or jam packed (unless you get stuck behind a Berlin Wall-like blockade of scooters and walkers. Let's have some spatial self-awareness puz-lease!) Embarkation-I used Verifly, but they didn't bother to look at it. It was still super quick and painless. Debarkation-Again, super quick and painless. I walked off with my bag around 8:45 and it was not crowded or chaotic like it normally is Alchemy Bar-Seriously, this was a genius part on Carnival's end. Amazing drinks and amazing bartenders as always. I love craft cocktails, so this is my favorite place on board. Viktor, who just ended his contract today actually, has been on Spirit for almost NINE MONTHS, since before the initial startup in Jacksonville. He's coming to Miracle in a month, so make sure you seek him out. Katiya and Giovanni were the other alchemists and were also amazing. (Gio kept making me a strawberry vodka drink with raspberries that was incredible) The Cruise Director Erin-She might be one of my low key favorites. She's not cheesy and doesn't rely on gimmicks or lame jokes to be a CD. She's personable and engaging. Specifically I really enjoyed her during the Military Appreciate gathering and the Love and Marriage show The Military Appreciation Gathering-Carnival is the only one who does something like this and it's one of my favorite things every cruise. I love that they have a dedicated event for us to support our military Most Food-I'll get into a few notable misses in The Bad section, but by and large, the food was really good. This is super subjective, so I won't drag this out Blue Iguana Cantina-these burritos and tacos are always delicious. I had so many this week. The exact number I had is between me and God only Chopsticks in the buffet-I love Asian food and eat it frequently at home. Every time I went this food was delicious. I really appreciated all the sauces (including hot oil!!!) at the end of the buffet. Steakhouse-A friend graciously invited me to join him in the steakhouse. The food was excellent and the company was even better. The wasabi mashed potatoes are an unusual pairing, but absolutely delicious Fitness Center/Spa-I love that this class as a free sauna and steam room in the locker room. I hate the trend of tiny co-ed thermal suites that are an upcharge. I actually used the gym and there was a lot of equipment, free weights, etc. Everything you need for a ship workout. The rower may have been broken or I'm just idiot. I'm sure there is plenty more, but that what I have for now. I'll add more when I think of it. Goldfish-like attention span, remember?

What's up Cruise Critic family. I have a long wait at the Miami airport, so I figured I'd share some thoughts on my recent 8 day cruise on the Carnival Spirit from Miami to Puerto Plata, San Juan, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. I'm not going to be super detailed because I have the attention span of a goldfish and with the exception of a few great posters, no one cares about that kind of detail. If you have any specific questions about things I didn't touch on, feel free to ask! I'm going to break down the onboard part into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (and there will be an ugly bit, so stay tuned), and the four ports of call. For some background, I'm Nate and live in Arlington, Virginia and I've been traveling solo since the NCL Escape back in 2017. As you can see from my signature, I mostly do Carnival and NCL, with some Royal sprinkled in recently. My preferred line is NCL because they treat the solos well, but I still love Carnival and keep coming back.