Carnival Spirit Hawaiian Cruise (real time) Review

[capndinghy]

Review Carnival Spirit

September 14th Sailing

Vancouver – Hawaiian Islands

 

Saturday 13th

Hello this is my first Review so please bear with me as I stumble along. It has been many years since I have brushed off long unused and mostly unpolished, writing Skills.

I am Chuck and my wife is Pat. I retired 2 yrs ago as an Airline Pilot. I discovered that although I do enjoy travel, I have found I (nor any one else in their right mind) enjoys traveling. And I have to admit to being spoiled after always having had a reserved seat and knowing the plane would not leave with out me. (Or if it did I would be in big trouble). I think this is one of the things that endears me to the cruising type of vacation and travel. After a life time of schedules and rapid time zone changes it is so refreshing to just slowly watch the horizon drift by while some one else (usually an Italian) commands the vessel as I sit back with a favorite Foo Foo Umbrella drink in hand.

 

I do think that if one really wants to see and experience a new land, cruising is probably not the best venue. However, if like me, enjoy the simple ambiance and day to day activities aboard ship this is the best venue around. Not to mention, cost effective as the bean counters are so fond of pointing out.

 

We always try and arrive at the departure city a day ahead of time. This makes for a nice relaxed embarkation as opposed to the rush and uncertainty of a harried and hurried hassle trying to reach the wharf before one hears that Horn Honk while trapped on the Wrong side of the dock. Pat and I normally cruise out of Galveston so the ore-cruise day begin with a leisurely 5 hr drive from our home in Ft. Worth.

 

Since this Hawaiian Cruise departs from Vancouver we flew from DFW to YVR a day ahead of time. My “alma mater” airline did a great job of safely delivering us on time to the Vancouver airport. Since we did not want the uncertainty of standby space available employee travel (read one may not get on board the airplane) we opted to purchase full fare tickets. We landed around 1PM pacific standard time. Although the Immigration line was long we managed to clear both Immigration and Customs in just a little over an hour.

 

I had originally planned on taking the Sky Link from Vancouver Airport to downtown Vancouver. However 2 big (read heavy) suitcases, 2 (sorta heavy) duffel bags, and 2 knapsacks full of Electronic gizmos and gear precluded lugging said stuff all around in search for the Train and not to mention lugging said stuff from the downtown train stop to our hotel. I saw a sign advertising cab fare to downtown at $32.00. Although the train fare is about ½ that sport that I am I sprung for a taxi. The fact that we had all that “stuff” of course had nothing to do with that decision.

 

I had booked a hotel room through American Airlines “High Pressure Telephone Marketeers.” We booked a room at the Moda Hotel which is located at 900 Seymour Street, or in other words smack dab in the middle of town near nothing. The room was $130. (+ lots of Canadian taxes). I was quite happy with it. Although I never could get the free WiFi to hook up to my mini lap top. Also I would have liked to have been a bit closer to Canada Place but cheapskate that I am, you get what you pay for, ie location.

 

This will be our first cruise traveling as VIP Platinum (Snobby nose in air) Cruisers, so we are especially anticipating the VIP embarkation perk. We were told by Carnival to board at 1230PM, so we will plan on arriving at the Cruise Terminal around 11AM. Or so. As I recall we pre clear US Customs here in Canada before we board the ship so I suspect that may be a bit of a pain in the rear. Stand by for later reports.

 

It is now 1030AM, so it is time to repack all of my 'stuff', check out of our Chic Modern Hotel, and head for the Wharf. So stay tuned.

 

I do not plan on using the Carnival WiFi, so I shall attempt to update this missive using my Droid Phone 3G piggy back feature before we sail. If I should get distracted by all the pre-sailing fun, frivalities, and foo foo drinks; I shall update these pages from the Hawaiin Isalnds in 5 days or so.

[capndinghy]

Location: Lido Deck aboard The Carnival Spirit

Position: Vancouver Candada Place Terminal

Activities: Relaxing after lunch with Post Boarding Foo Foo Drink

 

Hello again. We had a very nice experince boading the ship this morning. We left the hotel at 11AM. It is about a 5 minute and $7.00 cab ride to Vancouver Canada Place Cruise Terminal. This cruise being our 10th cruise with Carnival trigger the much hearalded VIP Platinum Level in cruse dom land. One of the perks of this exhulted snobby status is priority boarding.

 

We arrived at the cruise terminal and were met by a porter at the taxi. He took charge of our 2 big (read heavy) suitcases. I am a frim believer in sporting folks who handle your luggage be it airline porters or cruise ship porters a semi generous gratuity. I consider it 'see you luggage again insurance' or in airline parlance “non – Bombay” insurance. It is a joke (honest) in the airline industsry that should one piss of an agent, said agent simple put BOM (Bombay India) baggage tags on your suitcases guaranteeing your luggage at the very least a visit to Bombay (ok Mubai) India. So I sported the Porter $10 for his portage of our quite heavy suitcases. (note: the luggage has not arrived yet so “the jury is out” as to the wisdom of my Non Bomby Gratuitous Insurance payment to porters)

We then proceeded to the Security Line and were through it in about 5 minutes or so. No Beeps...No Cavity Searchs.

 

After clearing the Security Guantlet it was time to proceed through US Customs pre Clearance. In other words we precleared our landing at our next US Port of entry which will be Kona, Hi. I was a bit concerned about how much of a hassle this would be All to no avial. A quick scan of our passport by the Immigration/Customs inspector and away we went. So far So good.

 

The next 'hurdle' in the boarding process would be the much aligned and dreaded creepy crawl tto the check in counter. With the hautiness of true snobs we flashed our VIP stamped Boarding pass and were escorted to the head of the line and right to an agent. The actual formalities took about 5 minutes. The 2 things they really checking for are:

 

1. You really are who you claim to be on your passport.

2. Most important...they swipe your Credit Card for your Sign and Sail Cards.

With that completed we were then herded toward the general boarding seating area.

And that was when the 'problem' started. We saw an area clearly marked VIP. After signing in instead of being directed there, we were directed to the (gasp) general seating area. We told the lady directing us to the general seating area we were VIP all to no avail. Off we went. This old bat reminded me of some of the er ah...older coworker attilla the hun flight attendants I used to work with. (one reason I am Happily retired..no more dealing with them!) That is when we started complaining and discovered there were about 30 other VIPs seated there as well. I could tell that 'the old bat' was going to herd all 500 of us toward the ship at the same time. With nose in air we started reminding the 'minders' about priority boarding. My lovely, silver tongued, and fast talking wife Pat finally got a Carnival Gentlleman who understood our concerns regarding losing our priority status. He assured us we would board first. Our main concern was we would end up with the 500 other passengers awaiting boarding and I did want to board early so as to sign up for the “Behind the Scenes Tour”. The old bat lost the boarding battle. When boarding was started all of us (nose in the air) VIPs were given the chance to board first.

So...off we went for the First of many Photo Ops, and then up the boarding gangway we happily marched.

 

We had prevously sailed on the Spirit several years ago on an Alaskan Cruise and thoughly enjoyed the ship. She is just as we remembered her. A bit smaller that her sister ship the Conquest yet larger than her older cousin the Esctasy, the Spirit is an inbetween class of vessel. I find her décor a bit more subdued than some of the other Carnival Fun Ships.

 

I signed up for my coveted Behind the Scenes tour (guess who was #1 on the signup list), and we headed up to the Lido. By now it was only 1150. We had boarded so early no one else was around. Gosh, there were still setting up for lunch and the soon to be arriving hoade of savvy sailors. We in fact had boarded so early they were not even Hawking the Foo Foo Drink of the Day yet. Not to worry, we prompty headed to the bar and enjoyed our first (of what will no doubt be many) bloody marys.

 

While enjoying our Bloody Marys I noticed a couple sitting next to us with a Cruise Critic tag. I asked them about it and Lo and Behold it was the lovely Australian Couple that were on the Roll Call Board who traveled here for an Alaskan Cruise and will now travel on to Hawaii. So chatting with John and his lovely wife was a great way to start off the trip.

 

Well, I must attempt to upload the rest of this boring missive before we sail and are out of Droid phone piggy back range. It will soon be time for “Muster” and then well all know what happens next! That sound we each long for . . . The Happy Honk of the Ships Horn signalling that we are about to get underway! Until next time ALOHA! In the airplane I would always say 'Gear Up', I wonder what they say on these big ships....Toot the horn..I guess.

[gapearl]

Mahalo for the great review so far! Have a great time and keep the review coming!

 

ALOHA!!!

[Linsuesue]

I can't wait to hear more about your cruise; I'm enjoying your cruise story so far! Doing a back to back from Alaska to Hawaii would be a dream come true for me. That is really high on my bucket list. Enjoy!

[boaterette]

Have a great cruise and a mai tai for me. I am enjoying your posts.

[kjunea]

Have a great 5 days! Look forward to reading about your days at sea then!

[salty dingo]

Enjoy the cruise to the Hawaiian islands. You know the saying: getting there is half the fun. Hawaii is the other half!

[pnjkeith]

Just off the Spirit this morning. Be sure to book the Chefs Table. They are doing it 5 days on the Hawaii Cruise. Nothing compares to it onboard.

[willyguy]

Great review keep it up.

[iggy's mom]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Enjoy your cruise!

[!David!]

The rest of the review is on another thread.

.