Just back carnival spirit hawaii!

[mcgovernsandra]

Just got back from the April 11 Spirit cruise Ensenada to Hawaii. Had a blast! Any questions, feel free to ask...

[gargoyle999]

I just got back from this one too! How was your bus ride to Ensenada? We were in the first group of buses so had to sit there for an hour and a half right next to the ship before they let us off so that made some people mad. But heard a bus broke down and heard of one with a toilet overflowing. So others had it worse. Hope you weren't on one of those!

 

Otherwise we had a great cruise! :)

[dreadlockjack]

Hi Spirit cruisers!

 

What was the age of the fellow cruisers?

 

I am considering this cruise for my family, we have a 6 yrs old son (at the time of sailing). Since I heard that carnival is attracting mainly younger folks and families, but as I know, such cruises tend to attract more older people... What kind of fellow-cruiser can we expect? Will our son have mates to have fun with? I don't want a kiddie-crying-cruise, we are more looking for cruises with 50-100 kids. Could this match???

 

Or will we be the yougest with our age (40 yrs)?

 

C u all!

DJ

[MrPete]

Just got back from the April 11 Spirit cruise Ensenada to Hawaii. Had a blast! Any questions, feel free to ask...

 

I have two:

 

Where are your pictures?

Where is your review?

[mcgovernsandra]

Hi Spirit cruisers!

 

What was the age of the fellow cruisers?

 

I am considering this cruise for my family, we have a 6 yrs old son (at the time of sailing). Since I heard that carnival is attracting mainly younger folks and families, but as I know, such cruises tend to attract more older people... What kind of fellow-cruiser can we expect? Will our son have mates to have fun with? I don't want a kiddie-crying-cruise, we are more looking for cruises with 50-100 kids. Could this match???

 

Or will we be the yougest with our age (40 yrs)?

 

C u all!

DJ

 

I am 43 and my husband is 39. We were some of the youngest onboard it appeared, though there were some maybe in late 20's? As far as kids, there were very few. We were told by a crew member that there were on 20 kids onboard. Most likely due to the length of the cruise I assume. I would say the majority of the cruisers on this ship were between 50's-80's. I have been on several week long Carnival cruises in the past, and it is a whole different vibe. I would definitely not consider this a party cruise by any means. Don't get me wrong , my husband and I had a great time, but it depends what your interests are. We enjo laying poolside during the day, going to the casino, enjoying cocktails, etc. The did have some poolside activities daily but certainly not non-stop action. There was the usual - Bingo, art auctions, arts/crafts, trivia, etc. We did go to two of the shows - a magician one night and a "prop" comedian another - both were horrible in my opinion, although I am sure there were others that will disagree.

[mcgovernsandra]

I have two:

 

Where are your pictures?

Where is your review?

 

 

here is link to photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3804792007/a=47481881_47481881/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

 

review to follow. Still suffering from post-cruise fatigue!!:)

[LHP]

Hi Spirit cruisers!

 

What was the age of the fellow cruisers?

 

I am considering this cruise for my family, we have a 6 yrs old son (at the time of sailing). Since I heard that carnival is attracting mainly younger folks and families, but as I know, such cruises tend to attract more older people... What kind of fellow-cruiser can we expect? Will our son have mates to have fun with? I don't want a kiddie-crying-cruise, we are more looking for cruises with 50-100 kids. Could this match???

 

Or will we be the yougest with our age (40 yrs)?

 

C u all!

DJ

 

 

This will probably be as close as you will be on Carnival. BUT you have to remember....this sailed while school was in session.

 

The least amount of children we have experienced during the summer was on the Spirit...Alaska. There were only 150 kids onboard.

 

However, that was back when they did the "start in Anchorage....end in Vancouver " and vice versa....

 

now that they do a closed end loop out of Seattle...more children may be on this one as well.

[hoplady]

How were the "at sea" days? We are considering this cruise and were wondering if the seas would be too rough in the open waters. We've been to Hawaii before, but thought this would be a different way to see it. And, since we enjoy cruising so much, this might be a fun way to do it again! Thanks!

[MrPete]

here is link to photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3804792007/a=47481881_47481881/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

 

 

Aw. Can't seem to view without having to register. :(

[Sargent_Schultz]

We enjoyed the sea days and could have happily sailed there and back. The waters were rougher than the Caribbean, but I think they only had barf bags out once. Personally, we like knowing we are on a ship.

[mcgovernsandra]

I just got back from this one too! How was your bus ride to Ensenada? We were in the first group of buses so had to sit there for an hour and a half right next to the ship before they let us off so that made some people mad. But heard a bus broke down and heard of one with a toilet overflowing. So others had it worse. Hope you weren't on one of those!

 

Otherwise we had a great cruise! :)

 

trip to Ensenada was not a pleasurable one, as you can attest to! Our shuttle did not leave San Diego until around 5 and we did not get on the Spirit until around 8:30 or so. As did all the buses I believe, we had the police and helicopter escorts the entire way down. We were also delayed on the buses for about 1/2 hr in Ensenada parked right next to the ship. No real explanation was given. We were only told that the reason we were so late leaving San Diego was that the ship had been late arriving in port, and they were still loading provisions, etc. Not sure if this was accurate or not, but not a big deal. I think Carnival made up for it with the $15 per person credit, and the free drinks the next evening. Since Carnival only does this route twice a year, it would be unreasonable to think that they have it down to an exact science yet, and people should not expect that. I also believe a lot of the delays, etc. stemmed from the situations occuring in Mexico at this time. At no point did I feel unsafe traveling to Ensenada, and Carnival did their best to ensure that. Yes, we were tired and cranky that first night, and yes, I had expected to get on board earlier than 9pm (!) and enjoy lunch onboard, touring the ship, etc. But, it is what it is. I got over my disappointment by the next day and was excited my voyage had begun! Though I did hear some people STILL complaining about the embarkation process on the second to last day of the cruise!~ Ridiculous! People need to get over it and move on with enjoying the rest of their vacation instead of dwelling on one negative event.... Anyway, had a great cruise, and thoroughly enjoyed Hawaii...

[vacruizer]

I have two:

 

Where are your pictures?

Where is your review?

 

I still haven't forgotten you on the ones I promised from my land trip. Taking longer than I thought to upload. Hope to finish tonight after work and get the link up.

[mcgovernsandra]

How were the "at sea" days? We are considering this cruise and were wondering if the seas would be too rough in the open waters. We've been to Hawaii before, but thought this would be a different way to see it. And, since we enjoy cruising so much, this might be a fun way to do it again! Thanks!

 

5 days at sea...hmm - in two words: cool & windy! I didn't consider it "rough" sailing, but it was rougher than we've experienced in the Caribbean of course. We've only cruised the Caribbean in the past, so this was a different experience for us. The first 2 days it was too chilly to sit by the pool and none of the activities appealed to me that much, so we spent most of the time in the casino, reading, browsing in shops, etc. The next few days, the temps warmed up a bit but it was cloudy most of the time, so not prime deck weather. We did play mini golf one day, but the winds were horrendous so we played 1 round and called it quits.

[MrPete]

I still haven't forgotten you on the ones I promised from my land trip. Taking longer than I thought to upload. Hope to finish tonight after work and get the link up.

 

OK Looking forward! We could even connect on FB under my CC nome de Plume.

[COP]

I have taken 5 cruises to Hawaii since Oct 2006.:) You will find that most of the passengers are 50's to 80. There is not much going on the ships after 9PM with the exception of a few of us who still enjoy dancing to 70"s 80"s music.We took my oldest son and his two sons last year and there were only 7 children onboard. We have sailed on HAL, RCCL, Cleb. to Hawaii from San Diego/LA and enjoyed the cruise very much. The weather is always cool for the first two days at sea and the last two. The other days are great and warm. We have always cruised to Hawaii in SEP/OCT/NOV.

The only danger onboard ship is not from the sea being rough, it is the wheel chairs and scooters.:p

COP

[MrPete]

I have taken 5 cruises to Hawaii since Oct 2006.:) You will find that most of the passengers are 50's to 80. There is not much going on the ships after 9PM with the exception of a few of us who still enjoy dancing to 70"s 80"s music.

 

These were our findings as well, and subsequent cruises reported the same thing.

 

The average age of this cruise is just this side of death, with small pockets of other ages, and the ship is basically sleeping by the end of the second show.

 

We were at the first seating, and most were even sleeping during that.

 

We are VERY glad we cruised with another couple, and found a third couple to hang with.

[S&GIn]

My wife and I are going on the reverse of this cruise in September. Honolulu to Ensenada. Your posts are confirming what I had suspected. We are only 40 and will probably be the youngest age bracket. I am expecting to have a good time though. We might have the pool and late shows all to ourselves. :)

[quickrate]

We did the Hawaii to Vancouver and loved it! We had a very active rollcall before the cruise so had lots of people our age[mid 50's] to play with! It is a different crowd than the carribean crowd but a great cruise. Loved Vancouver!

Pat

[vacruizer]

OK Looking forward! We could even connect on FB under my CC nome de Plume.

 

Tried to find you on FB but no luck. If you want email me and I'll get you in to the album that way! vacruizer at gmail dot com

[aussie2324]

These were our findings as well, and subsequent cruises reported the same thing.

 

The average age of this cruise is just this side of death, with small pockets of other ages, and the ship is basically sleeping by the end of the second show.

 

We were at the first seating, and most were even sleeping during that.

 

We are VERY glad we cruised with another couple, and found a third couple to hang with.

 

Hilarious:D Means we will have a chance to get s seat for the shows.;)Lucky we are going with a CC group and we seem to be a mixed bag of ages. But does this mean no Hairy chest competitions:(We did a B2B Eastern & Western Caribbean on the Triumph and had the best time. But as they say a Bad Day At Sea Is Better Than A Good Day At Work:p

[GottaLuvCruising]

Did they have big production shows and/or headliners?

 

On our Spirit Hawaii cruise the highlight was "Tribute to the Temptations" with awesome music. Nypsy Russell was also a headliner, but got sick before our show. Our cruise was also an older demographic and, even in our 50s, we were some of the youngsters. CD had revamped the entertainment and activities to suit the crowd and cruise was a perfect fit for us. We'd like to do it again, but only if we can expect great entertainment.

[mcgovernsandra]

Did they have big production shows and/or headliners?

 

On our Spirit Hawaii cruise the highlight was "Tribute to the Temptations" with awesome music. Nypsy Russell was also a headliner, but got sick before our show. Our cruise was also an older demographic and, even in our 50s, we were some of the youngsters. CD had revamped the entertainment and activities to suit the crowd and cruise was a perfect fit for us. We'd like to do it again, but only if we can expect great entertainment.

 

No, there were no big headliners. The couple we traveled with went to "The Big Easy" show and a country rock band show and said that both of those were good. My husband and I went to two shows before dinner - a prop comedian and a magician and we found neither one of them very entertaining. Singer in casino bar was entertaining most evenings - not sure of his name. Did not care for piano bar singer too much.

[dreadlockjack]

Thanks folks for your inputs! Very useful information!

 

DJ

[actresslp]

My husband and I are 27/31 and were looking at booking this cruise next April. Are we going to hate it? I was really looking forward to it. We're not big time partiers, but it would be nice to sit with someone close to our age at dinner.

[mcgovernsandra]

My husband and I are 27/31 and were looking at booking this cruise next April. Are we going to hate it? I was really looking forward to it. We're not big time partiers, but it would be nice to sit with someone close to our age at dinner.

 

It is what you make of it. We traveled with another couple on this cruise that were actually our tablemates that we met on a cruise 4 years ago! It is funny, because I did not really want to be seated at a big table on that cruise, and when my husband and I got to dinner that night, it was a table for 8 (3 other couples)! I was hesitant at first, but to make a long story short, all 8 of us ended up all getting along so well that we spent the rest of the cruise together. We also have traveled with them on 2 cruises since. We have met many nice people on cruises, as well as many NOT so nice! IT is always my fear that I am going to be seated with people that I am not compatible with. We witnessed that a lot in the dining room tables around us on this cruise. We had opted for traditional later dinner seating. When we got to dinner on the first night, there was a table of 4 (2 couples) that you could tell did not know each other. They made small talk and looked completely uncomfortable by the end of dinner. Needless to say, the next night at dinner (as well as every other night on the cruise!) the table was empty. I assume both couples had asked to switch to "anytime dining". I have noticed on most cruises I've been on, that the cruise lines make a good attempt at trying to seat people of similar ages, etc. together. For example, I don't think they are going to pair a newlywed couple together with a family of 5! However, you cannot account for people's personalities, and sometimes you just don't click with the others at your table. That's when its time to move on and change seats - no reason to spoil vacation sitting with people you don't mesh with.