Just off the Spirit

We just got off the Spirit yesterday and I don't know when I'll have time to put together a complete review. So for now, here are some bits and pieces in no particular order:

San Diego

We flew in the day before from Denver, primarily because the weather is unpredicatable in November and we didn't want to worry about flight delays. We decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Downtown and were a little concerned about the railroad track running in back of the hotel (and most others in the downtown area). However, train traffic was very light in the evening and we never heard a thing between 9PM and 4AM - but the 4AM train could wake the dead. The trolley ran along the tracks and we took it to old town, had a nice lunch, and looked around. We found a 7-11 about two blocks away and bought some Pepsi to take on the ship with us. The store also had a limited selection of wines.

The hotel was 3 blocks from the cruise ship terminal, had transportation between the hotel - terminal - and airport, and had a nice included breakfast in the morning. And the price was right.

More to follow.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn 3 weeks ago when we cruised on the Spirit, and that train horn would wake the dead. We were told that a city ordinance passed and the train noise will soon cease. They are putting up extra guard rails for safety. We would stay at the Hampton Inn again, but only IF the train horn blowing stops.

Did this cruise twice and both times we stayed at the Hampton Inn also. We ended up switching our room the 2nd time to the front of the hotel because of the train! BTW, the reason we went on this TWICE, even tho I couldn't really be bothered with MR and even tho we live just 20 mins. from the cruise terminal in Manhattan so a cruise from here is a no brainer is BECAUSE of San Diego. We went a day early and stayed a day later the lst time and I totally fell in love with it. So as soon as we got home we booked the exact same cruise for the following year, but this time we went out 4 days pre cruise and rented a car and had a blast...looking forward to hearing about your cruise! :)

Day of the cruise

After the train woke us up at 4, we were awake for the day. After reading the newspaper, we went to breakfast and then on a walk to the cruise terminal and far beyond and back to the hotel. We arranged for the hotel to take us and our luggage to the terminal at 10:30. We checked in, went through security, and had our carry on bags xrayed. Nothing was said even though we had some unacceptable beverages with us. Our friends were asked to open their bags because the agent saw a piece of metal. The agent actually pulled out their unacceptable beverages and put them back in the luggage after finding nothing of interest. If there is a crack down on smuggling, it sure didn't show. We then got seated in a "VIP" section of the waiting room because we had a suite, and were called to board at 11. We were some of the first people in the buffet.

Our rooms were ready at about 2 so we went to look at our room - an aft wrap suite on deck 4. Amazing - more on this latter. Two of our 3 suitcases arrived soon afterwards and we unpacked and put most of our stuff away.

The mustard drill

We were continually told over the loud speaker to go to our muster stations at about 3:45 when the whistle blew. Unlike on our last cruise, we did not have to take our life jackets with us. Hundreds of us stood on the deck of the ship like sardines in the direct sun listening to a variety of staff telling us to stand back, move this way, move that way, put our drinks away, etc. Finally, Jen the Cruise Director came over the loud speaker and talked for about 15 minutes. We couldn't hear anything she was saying because of the noise from the trucks and fork lifts loading the ship directly below us. The staff obviously couldn't hear her either because each of them was doing something entirely different with their life vests. Finally, it was all over and we all felt a little safer.

Our 3rd suitcase finally arrive right before dinner and was obviously searched but none of our goodies were taken.

To be continued

Our room

After reading all the glowing reports about an "aft wrap" suite, we decided to get one. And we're glad we did. The room was in the back corner of the 4th deck and had a balcony that was twice as deep and probably ten times as long as normal. The room itself was huge and had 7 (I think) floor to ceiling windows in addition to the door leading out to the balcony. At first, we told each other that it was illogical to spend a lot of money on a room because we don't spend that much time in it. If we had a regular room, and especially a regular room without a window, we indeed would not spend much time in it. But we found ourselves spending a good portion of the 4 sea days on our balcony just laying around, reading, and looking at the beautiful water and sea life (turtles, dolphins, and whales near the southern end of the Baja Peninsula). The balcony had a top to it so no one from above could see us - it was very private.

The only drawback was that the room had a hard vibration on the first night when the ship was moving at high speeds. Combined with the squeeks and rattles from the room shaking, it was hard to get a comfortable night's sleep. But we only experienced that problem during the first night on the ship - I think the captain was trying to make up for lost time after the ship departed San Diego two hours late.

There was one other drawback - we will find it hard to go on another cruise in a regular room.

More

Thanks for the review...

We will be on the Splendor on the 28th unless we get canceled..:(

I have had my eyes on the Spirit for some time, like the layout of the ship & ease to get around...:)

If the Splendor cancels then we want to go on the Spirit Feb. 6th, 2011...

Also Southwest has lowered their fares from Denver to San Diego (base fare of $59 one way) so we can fly roundtrip for $278.80...:D

As a bonus my daughter may fly in from Japan to visit her hubby's family in Bear Lake so we can do a Hotel on the beach to spend time with them & the grandkids after the cruise....

We are looking at the Ocean Beach Hotel on the beach & pier (on Abbot St.), has anyone stayed at this Hotel (they are around $130 a night :confused:)...

Anyway I ramble, thanks for your review...

How did you like the layout of the Spirit?, can you give me more details?

How many days?

Thanks

Bob & Kathy

The itinerary

The ship went to Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, and Manzanillo. This itinerary was scheduled through the winter but Carnival changed the itinerary after the end of November. During an "ask the cruise director" session on the ship, someone asked Jen why the itinerary was not going to be offered after this month. She said that some thought that Acapulco was no longer safe and there was not much to do in Manzanillo. She added that Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta are much nicer and the Spirit will be going there on its new sailings.

In Acapulco, we booked a tour through Rosie's Tours after reading about it on Cruisecritic. The tour was in a new air conditioned van and we went on a very thorough ride though the city and hills overlooking the city. She had coolers in her vans with soda, water, and beer included in the price. We visited her home, had lunch at an excellent restaurant (at our expense), and finished at the evening cliff diver show.

We did not have a tour in Zihuatanejo but just went on a long walk south along the water front, had a nice lunch, went shopping, and had a few beers at some of the many places advertising "$1 cerveza".

In Manzanillo, we took a tour through the ship - I think it was called the Colonial tour to Colima. We drove for about an hour through coconut plantations and farmland to Colima, visited a government building and cathedral, and looked around. We went to a site where some pyramids were being excavated, went to a museum, looked around Comala, and had a nice lunch.

We loved the itinerary and thought the stops were much nicer than what we experienced on a prior cruise to Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan. Of course this is only our subjective opinion.

Oh,wow....we always book those aft wraps too....it's like we are twins seperated at birth lol! :rolleyes: Bob and Kathy, sure hope you make your Splendour cruise.

Bmaintz - I think that's the price we paid for our SW flights between Denver and San Diego - and no charge for our luggage. This was only our 3rd Carnival cruise - the first was on the Mardi Gras about 25 years ago and our 2nd was last year on the Legend from Tampa. The Spirit and Legend are identical ships but just decorated differently. We both thought the Legend was very gaudy with urns everywhere you look. The Spirit was much more beautiful. The Spirit was very easy to get around, although the various sections of the buffet on deck 9 seemed hidden until we got used to it. Our cruise was 8 nights - 2 sea days, 3 days in a row in ports, and 2 more sea days. We wish you luck on your Splendor cruise. We docked right next to the Splendor on Friday and that ship is HUGE!!

Oh,wow....we always book those aft wraps too....it's like we are twins seperated at birth lol!

I told the wife that we'll both have to get jobs if we want to keep cruising in aft wraps. So much for retirement.

I was looking at an Aft Cabin (not wrap), afraid if I got one I would never go back to a inside cabin...:rolleyes:

In Manzanillo, we took a tour through the ship - I think it was called the Colonial tour to Colima. We drove for about an hour through coconut plantations and farmland to Colima, visited a government building and cathedral, and looked around. We went to a site where some pyramids were being excavated, went to a museum, looked around Comala, and had a nice lunch.

We did this tour, too, and became big fans of Manzanillo as a result. Glad you enjoyed it! And, of course, Zihuatanejo is a true gem.

I wish Carnival would just drop Acapulco if people are really worried about safety. (If people think Manzanillo is dull, then the CD isn't doing his/her job at promoting it.) Maybe they could substitute La Paz (like on the new itinerary) or even Catalina. (I'd love to cruise to Catalina again, but I can't justify the price of a balcony on Paradise. :p)

Enjoying your trip report - when we do Alaska, we want it to be on one of those deck 4 wraps. Sounds amazing...

I was looking at an Aft Cabin (not wrap), afraid if I got one I would never go back to a inside cabin...:rolleyes:

When we lst started cruising, we always had an OV. Most of the ships at that time didn't even HAVE balconies! :eek: When they started building ships with balconies and DH broached the subject of booking one, I had visions of sitting on the balcony hanging onto the side of the ship for dear life with the wind howling around me. We were upgraded on the Sensation, I believe, to a balcony...well, we NEVER looked back. Spoiled FOREVER. We even booked suites on some ships because that was the only cabin category that had balconies. We did an aft one cruise and I just didn't care for it. The wake is beautiful but you can see that from the Lido deck. I wanted to see where we were GOING, not just where we CAME FROM. :p I would book a "side" balcony before I'd book an aft. But that's just MHO. Course those aft wraps, you get the best of both worlds. I think AK is DEFINITELY an aft wrap cruise! ;)

re: Aca-lst time we went with 2 other couples and we did the tour, then did the dinner with cliff diver excursion which was great ONCE. 2nd time we went alone and just got off the ship to explore and were HOUNDED so bad that I had to fake being sick to turn around to go back to the ship where we stayed the rest of the day. We actually had to give 2 men $20 bills just to GET THE **** away from us. :mad:

We booked our first suite on our Hawaii 2012 cruise. We have had balconies for all but one of our cruises and loved them all. Our cruise on Inspiration was a oceanview and the window was ok but, balconies are the way to go. Our cruise on Pride thru the canal was made so much better by having a front row seat to all the fun!

I am so happy to hear that Spirit is a good ship - we loved Pride and my wife likes the layout of it the best of all we have cruised. I loved Dream best overall but, the deck 5 wrap obstructs view of the water above it and that was a bummer. Overall though Dream has some great innovative features - and I think we should have booked a cove balcony but our friend talked us out of it and afterward was all gungho for trying one - you figger???

We cruised the Dream also. Besides the CTN, she had 2 Caribbean cruises last November from Manhattan before repositioning to FL. We live just about 20 mins. from the cruise terminal, so figured we would try this BIG BRAND NEW SHIP. We really enjoyed her. I was thinking I would be overwhelmed by her size, but it was really no biggie (no pun intended lol) We had aft wrap on deck 7, so it "wasn't as bad" as the deck 6 balconies, but the Dream doesn't have those seperate rooms in the aft wrap cabins like the Spirit class does and that was a bit of a shock/surprise. And getting to the dining room...:mad:...Spirit class is really the best IMO. Have seen pictures of the Cove balconies, but I don't think I would like to be in an "enclosed" balcony. I mean, if you look up you see a roof over your head. But everyone that has had one has raved about them. Miracle is "our Spirit ship" now cuz she sails out of Manhattan. OP,sorry to highjack your thread! :o

Have seen pictures of the Cove balconies, but I don't think I would like to be in an "enclosed" balcony. I mean, if you look up you see a roof over your head. But everyone that has had one has raved about them.

Not sure I would like a cove balcony either. I prefer more open space than an enclosed feeling.

Food

This seems to be one of the highlights of any cruise for us and we weren't disappointed this trip. The memorable (good and not so good) meals for us included:

Breakfast - I had great eggs benedict in the MDR several times, and whenever I went to the buffet for breakfast, I had their biscuits and gravy - very good. I also thought the coffee was good in both the MDR and buffet. One day, we ordered room service breakfast and had very good salmon with a bagel and cream cheese.

Lunch - We had fish and chips in the MDR one day and it was as good as we have ever had. The pastrami sandwiches from the deli section of the buffet were also fantastic. We thought the hamburgers were rather dry and not very good and the hotdogs weren't as good as we remembered from our last cruise. We ordered a roast beef and brie sandwich from room service one afternoon and it was not nearly as good as the one we had on our last cruise.

Dinner - Most of the soups were fantastic, especially the wild mushroom cream and the onion soup. For appetizers, we loved the shrimp cocktail (had it numerous nights), escargot, stuffed mushrooms, and the portobello and spinich salad. Fantastic entrees included Martini basa filet, barbequed spare ribs, flat iron steak, prime rib and lobster/shrimp. We were a little hesitant to get the flat iron steak after reading some negative comments about it on Cruisecritic but we thought it was very well prepared, tender, juicy, and flavorful - I would love one right now. I was very dissappointed in the rack of lamb - very overcooked, strong flavor, and tough. And I normally love rack of lamb. The barbequed cornish game hen was okay but too overcooked and dry. The chateaubriand was tough and rather flavorless. At least one of us had warm chocolate melting cake every night and they were all perfect. The bitter n' blanc, cheese selection, and ice creams were also great. The grand marnier souffle was bland and flavorless.

Don't get the idea that we didn't like the food - I just wanted to point out that not everything was perfect. Carnival does a great job in this area and we both gained a lot of weight.

Was alcohol (bottles not just cocktails) available through Room Service ? Just in case I run out of the BV order. Thanks for all the info.

Hi Jay B. I have a couple of quick questions. While on the cruise did you only change your clocks forward once to Mountain time?

Also, did you happen to check out the piano bar and have any opinions on the person playing in there?

Oh, one other thing were the unacceptable beverages in rum runners?

It sounds like you had a nice cruise. :) I love aft wrap suites and want/try to book them on every cruise. We sail on the Spirit this Saturday and I have the same one I had last year. I have not tried a Deck 4 aft wrap yet. Sounds like you enjoyed it. Our friends have one this cruise, so I will check it out.

Thanks for your review!

Was alcohol (bottles not just cocktails) available through Room Service ? Just in case I run out of the BV order. Thanks for all the info.

I saw a room service waiter with some bottles of vodka delivering them to a room down the hall. I don't know if all BV beverages are available but at least some of them are.

Hi Jay B. I have a couple of quick questions. While on the cruise did you only change your clocks forward once to Mountain time?

Also, did you happen to check out the piano bar and have any opinions on the person playing in there?

 

Oh, one other thing were the unacceptable beverages in rum runners?

It sounds like you had a nice cruise. :) I love aft wrap suites and want/try to book them on every cruise. We sail on the Spirit this Saturday and I have the same one I had last year. I have not tried a Deck 4 aft wrap yet. Sounds like you enjoyed it. Our friends have one this cruise, so I will check it out.

Thanks for your review!

We started out on Pacific Daylight Savings Time and remained on the same time all through the cruise, even though port times were on Central. The day before we docked, the ship time was moved back one hour due to the end of Daylight Savings Time.

I didn't really pay attention to the piano bar player -sorry.

The unacceptable beverages in our carry-on were in 16 ounce water bottles with no attempt made to seal them back up. We also had several minis in our carry on which went through just fine. Our friends also had a 5-liter box of wine in their checked luggage. Their luggage was searched but nothing was done about the wine. I don't know if the port people were just busy on this specific cruise or if this is typical for San Diego, but we were ready to buy Bon Voyage booze just in case ours didn't make it.

I saw a room service waiter with some bottles of vodka delivering them to a room down the hall. I don't know if all BV beverages are available but at least some of them are.

Was this on the first day or later in the cruise?

Was this on the first day or later in the cruise?

I believe it was about half way through the cruise.

Entertainment, things to do

The evening shows seemed to be about the same as they were last year. We enjoyed something called Jazz Hot but did not like a show about the big band era (can't remember the name of it). But our favorite show by a long shot was one they put on at 10:30 PM the evening we were still in Acapulco. They brought on a group of local entertainers who did a Mexican Folklore shore - the dancing and costumes were fantastic.

During the day, most activities were designed to seperate you from your money. A lot of specials in the spa (acupuncture, have your hair done for elegant night, teeth whitening, etc.), art auctions and specials continually, a lot of great sales in the gift shops (for a limited time only), slot tournaments, jackpot bingo (half priced cards for just another 10 minutes), and lots of drink specials. And then there were the continual trivia contests (actually entertaining - I won 2 ships on a stick), and other activities. The tour director hosted an "ask the tour director" session that was very informative. My wife enjoyed the casino (didn't loose too much) but I found it much too smokey and couldn't spend more than 5 minutes in there. The past guest party was fun with free drinks for an hour - it was held at 2 different times because there were so many past guests. Your invitation will tell you which party to attend. Perhaps the best kept secret was something listed in the Funtimes on the last day of the cruise as "Fairwell" at 5:00 PM in the small lounge in the front of deck 1. It was an hour of good music, a great singer, and all you wanted to drink for free. There were probably no more than 50 people at the party, along with 25 cocktail waiters.

One day we were walking by one of the lounges and saw a private party for the "Elvis Cruise Group" with a bunch of Elvis impersonators. We sat outside the lounge, along with many other people, and watched and listened to some of the best entertainment the ship had all week. One of the Elvis impersonators was identical to a 30-year old Elvis and sounded just like him. Do you suppose -- nah.

I was very satisfied with my huge balcony and spent more time there than looking for entertainment on the ship. I was very happy in my lounger with a good book, adult beverage, and the sound of the ocean.

Jan the Cruise Director (I think her last name was Baxter) was on the ship. She was also on our last cruise on the Legend (where she made continual announcements trying to sell crap). She had really toned down her announcements and only made a few sales pitches on this cruise. We actually enjoyed her this time.

The itinerary

 

In Manzanillo, we took a tour through the ship - I think it was called the Colonial tour to Colima. We drove for about an hour through coconut plantations and farmland to Colima, visited a government building and cathedral, and looked around. We went to a site where some pyramids were being excavated, went to a museum, looked around Comala, and had a nice lunch.

We are going on the Colonial Tour in 2 weeks. How much time did you spend in Colima and Comala? How much time was spent at the ruins? Where did you have lunch?

Any pictures from this tour?

I believe it was about half way through the cruise.

Thanks