Carnival Spirit - March 27 - April 1 review (long)

[Luv2Travelnow]

This is my first review ever, of my second Carnival Cruise. Warning - it is extremely long, so read at your leisure. Photos will be forth coming in a few days once I get around to downloading and hosting the photos. I hope you enjoy the review!

 

Carnival Spirit 3/27 – 4/1/11 review

This is our second Carnival cruise. We did the Elation last year and loved it. In some ways we really liked portions of the Elation cruise more, but in many other ways we really liked the portions of the Spirit cruise more.

Saturday, March 26 – San Diego

We (DW / DD) leave home after packing for several hours, and make our way to San Diego via the 8 freeway. Along the way we are stopped once by the border patrol, and once by the agricultural check point (waved through). As an American I have mixed feelings about the border patrol stops / checkpoints, but I’ll leave the politics for another thread / forum.

We made our way to our hotel in San Diego around 11:30pm, after a lot of fog and drizzle near El Cajon to San Diego. I had reserved a nice suite room at my favorite hotel, the Residence Inn. When we checked in, a nice surprise awaited us – we had been upgraded to a great two bedroom suite. DW wanted to go to bed right away, DD and I decided to relax in the other bedroom while watching some cartoons, and check the internet for some last minute things before the cruise the next morning.

Around 2am I heard a great commotion outside. Looking outside the window, I saw about 20-30 people leaving a bar or night club across the parking lot. There was a lot of hollering and noise, and then a fight started between some of the people. About 15-20 of the people started confronting each other and started beating some folks up. About 5-6 police cars showed up 5 minutes later, things quieted down, and the folks just milled around the parking lot. Then 30 minutes later another fight broke out, and the cops came back, this time arresting some of the stragglers. Finally 30 minutes later the remainder of the people left and things quieted down for the night.

Sunday, March 27 – San Diego

 

I managed to fall asleep around 4 or 4:30am, and woke up around 8am to get a bite to eat at the free hot breakfast. DD/DW packed up, and we left the hotel around 11:30am.

 

We drove our way leisurely around San Diego, and got to the port around 12:45pm. We dropped off our luggage, and I parked the car across the street at the pier parking. There was a huge spring break crowd of folks, and the Carnival Spirit was accompanied in port by the Holland ship Zaandam. We finally made it through the madness and got to our rooms around 1:30pm. After unpacking, checking out our new wonder extended balcony room, we were called to the emergency muster drill at 3:30pm. The drill was packed, and we stood there miserably for 30 minutes before we could finally go back to our rooms.

By this time, we were pretty hungry, so we went up to the Lido deck and got some fish / fries to eat. The ship finally left port around 5 or 5:30pm, and we were on our merry vacation!

The one thing about a cruise ship is that there is a constant buzz of activity, starting the moment you board. This was especially true for us. We felt like we had not time to relax yet, as at 5pm we had to take DD to the camp Carnival orientation. We had felt like we had been on the run ever since leaving our San Diego hotel. After DD’s camp carnival orientation, we finally relaxed for 30 minutes or so, and then opted to go to dinner.

 

We had the YTD (any time) dining option, so it was nice to go when we desired. The dining room was fairly busy, and our dining seemed to take a bit longer than usual the first dinner. We weren’t too bothered as we were all very tired and enjoyed the peace and comfort of just sitting in one place for a while. By the time we finished dinner at 8pm, we headed back to the room stuffed and exhausted. There was a nice towel animal in the bed waiting for us, and DD loved the animal. She loved the towel animals so much that she slept with them on her bunk bed every night, as her pseudo teddy bear.

Having stayed up until 4:30am the night before, I napped for an hour or two while DD / DW explored the balcony and the ship a little bit. After my much needed nap we went to the welcome aboard show around 10pm, during which time my DD fell asleep and I had to carry her back to the room.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Monday, March 28 – Sea Day 1

 

I had ordered room service for breakfast at 7:30am, and it felt like I had just closed my eyes to sleep, when I opened my eyes to the sound of knocking at the door. I opened the door and there was our breakfast being delivered. After tipping the server a few dollars, I set the breakfast down and went back to sleep for another 20-30 minutes. I finally woke up, and woke up DD / DW, and we all ate a nice relaxing breakfast.

 

This being a sea day it was nice to just relax. DW had highlighted a few things she wanted to do but I wanted to relax as much as possible.

 

I went out on the balcony, and enjoyed the sight of the open seas. I had an Ocean View room previously on the Elation, which we enjoyed very much. The extended balcony was a nice treat for us. However, the older ladies in the next balcony to us were heavy smokers, and were pretty much out on the balcony all day smoking. I generally don’t mind smokers, however I do suffer asthma, which is aggravated by second hand smoke. As a result I limited my time out on the balcony to 3-5 minutes at a time before I had to go back to my room. I wish that Carnival could designate “smoking” and “non-smoking” balcony sections or floors, so that those who are affected by second hand smoke could have a chance to enjoy the balconies as much as those who enjoy smoking. Oh well, that is the peril of the balconies.

 

Around lunch time we made our way to the Lido deck for a nice, relaxing lunch. After lunch DW dropped DD at camp Carnival for some activities. DW and I made our way to the gym in the front of the ship for some cardio and a light workout. The gym was packed!! Being the first sea day, I guess a lot of folks had noble intentions of staying in shape despite the drinking / excessive eating. As a result we spent 30 minutes in the gym before leaving to the peace and quiet of our room.

 

During the afternoon, I relaxed on the bed and succumbed to another nice long nap, as I was lulled by the gentle motion of the seas, and still suffering from the lack of sleep two nights before.

 

Finally in the early evening DW woke me up, as we had to get ready for the Elegant evening in the dining room. I showered, changed into a nice suite and tie, and we headed off to dinner around 7:30pm. When we go to the dining room, there was a small line ahead of us. When we saw the hostess, we were told there was a wait, and we were given a pager to notify us when our table was ready. To kill some time while waiting, we went to the numerous photographers who were eagerly taking photos of the diners.

 

As a family we usually do not go to portrait studios to get our photos done, something that as time passes I admit we need to do more often as a family record. So we enjoyed having our photos taken while dressed elegantly, by 4 or 5 photographers with different backgrounds. By the time this was done, our pager was buzzing and we were ready to be seated for dinner.

 

As we sat down for dinner, we were greeted by a very pleasant Indonesian waiter, Yatna. Yatna was very friendly, and especially nice towards DW and DD for our wait. We enjoyed the losber / shrimp combination very much. Last year I did not know that you could ask for seconds, so we only ate one lobster each. This year knowing better, DW and I ordered a second lobster to enjoy, which Yatna promptly delivered. We finally finished our dinner with the warm melting chocolate cake, and were ready to retire to our room to relax. By the time we changed into more comfortable clothes in our room around 10pm, DW said she wanted to see another show. So we all changed again our of our PJs and then went to the Pharos Lounge on deck 2 to enjoy the evening’s show.

 

One nice surprise in the room was a dessert plate on the table, with a note of apology for the long wait for dinner. We enjoyed a few of the desserts and much appreciated the sentiment of the note, although we would not have complained or minded the wait at all.

 

The evening show was a jazz show, and it was relatively entertaining. However, I was still tired from the previous few days of activity, so I started dozing off towards the end of the show. We finally made it back to our room around 11:30 or 11:45pm and fell asleep right away.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Tuesday, March 29 – Cabo day 1

We woke up around 8am, looked out the balcony and saw that we had arrived in Cabo. There was another ship, a NCL ship anchored already and tendering out to the port. It was interesting that the NCL ship was using one of its life boats to tender to port.

We slowly got dressed, and went to lido deck for some breakfast. By the time we finally finished breakfast and got ready to go to Cabo, it was about 10:30am. We had done Cabo last year, and wanted to mostly relax this year and not rush on excursions. So it was nice to take our time to enjoy breakfast and then take our time to go to shore.

We tendered to Cabo around 11am, and then hired a local water taxi to give us a 30 minute tour of the various beachs and sights. We saw Lover’s Beach, and the waves were very high. After our tour we opted to be dropped off at Medano beach. After this drop off, DW / DD enjoyed the beach / sand / water for a few hours. The beach was fairly busy, this being Spring Break. There were a lot of vendors peddling everything from temporary henna tattoos to cheap jewelry and clothes.

After seeing some other spring break kids getting temporary tattoos, I decided to try one as well, a decision I would regret later. I negotiated with a vendor and got a tattoo for $10. I had sprayed a ton of sun block on my body, so the vendor used some sort of deodorant looking stick to clean my arm, and then trace the drawing onto it, and finally apply the dark tattoo material. I would find out later that it was probably not pure henna, but some sort of fake henna which could cause severe allergic reactions, burning / scarring in people. Fortunately I had applied a lot of sun block some of which remained in place and probably blocked some of the fake henna material form penetrating my skin fully. I also had taken a long hot shower back on the ship a few hours later, and had washed away a lot of the fake henna material with lots of soap and lather during the shower as well.

Anyway, after the tattoo, we debated on eating at the beach or going back to the ship. We opted to have a lunch at the Office restaurant. The Office is a very popular beach front restaurant, getting rave reviews from many cruisers and spring breakers alike. We ordered nachos, seafood soup, and a couple of Coronas. I normally do not drink at home, as I try to watch my diet and eat as healthy as possible. However, being on vacation, I decided I deserved a drink or two, and enjoyed the two Coronas very much. After our delicious lunch, we took a water taxi back to the main port area.

The line back to the cruise ships were huge by this time, around 3:45pm. We waited in line for 30 – 45 minutes, before finally getting on our tender and heading back to the Spirit. We finally made it back to our room around 4:45pm or so, after passing through security again. After a nice hot shower, I took another nap in the room. DW / DD apparently were just as tired, and they fell asleep soon thereafter.

Around 8pm or so we all woke up, and got ready to go to dinner. We made our way to the dining room around 8:30, and enjoyed another delicious dinner, finishing around 10pm or so.

We made it back to our rooms, and crashed for the night.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Wednesday, March 30, Cabo day 2

We woke up around 8:30am after a long, much needed night of sleep. After leisurely eating breakfast on the lido deck, we decided to head back ashore to Cabo around 10:30am.

The Carnival Splendor was now parked in port next to us, and it was nice to see the port dominated by two Carnival ships. We tendered to Cabo around 10:45am, and decided to just walk around Cabo to explore for the day.

 

We walked around the pier all the way to the shopping center and beyond, finally stopping at the construction area next to Medano beach area. We walked back, and decided to eat lunch at Alexander Restaurant around 12pm. We ordered 6 tacos for $12 (everything is in US dollars here), 2 fish, 2 chicken, and 2 steak tacos. I also ordered a Corona for $2, and a bottle of water for $3.50. We had finished drinking our water bottle we had brought from the ship and didn’t want to take a chance of the non-bottled water.

The lunch was delicious, and by the time we finished it was about 1pm. The last tender would leave at 2:15pm so we had an hour to kill. We decided to do some shopping. After some negotiations and haggling with the local vendors, we bought some bracelets, some t-shirts as gifts for back home, and a few small trinkets.

 

We finally lined back up around 2pm, and got to our tender around 2:30pm. We were back on the ship and in our rooms by 3pm.

We were all tired again from all the walking, so we relaxed in the room for a while. DW / DD finally went out on lido deck for some walking and snacking, while I took another much needed nap around 3:30pm.

We were invited to the past guest party at 4pm. As first time Gold members, we were excited to see what the past guest party would be like. And we were not disappointed. There were delicious hors o dourves’ and free drinks being served aplenty. Soon DW / DD and I were enjoying the munchies, I had a beer, a rum and punch, and a vodka / orange juice. As I mentioned, before I’m not much of a drinker, so I was pretty light headed with all the drinks.

Jen the cruise director had a short quiz for us, and the winner would get some prize. We tried out for the quiz but flunked out the first question. A cute little girl ultimately won her daddy a bottle of champagne, a plastic ship trophy, and 20 raffle tickets for the free cruise. I decided to buy 20 raffle tickets for a very unlikely chance to win a free cruise after the party, for $20 as well.

After the party at 5pm, we walked down to the future cruise desk, and purchased the $100 Carnival future cruise certificate. The certificate could be used within 24 months, and we would get up to $200 free OBC, or we could fully refund it if we opted not to use it. A no-lose proposition to me. DW also was intrigued by the Carnival credit card offer, and decided to apply for the credit card. Much to her delight she was approved on the spot, and we got a few free gifts like a Carnival beach bag, a $5 casino co-play credit, and discounts to the spa.

After this we headed to the sushi bar, and got a few plates of delicious sushi rolls to enjoy.

I decided to try out the free casino voucher, and played $5 cash plus the $5 casino voucher, on the Roulette table. I bet on red…and unfortunately the ball landed on black. There went $5. Oh well, we could have won $10, but only lost $5, so it was a risk worth taking. That was the first time I had gambled on the cruise ship as well. I normally don’t gamble or drink, which means I’m a pretty dull person usually.

We retired to our room, took another nap, woke up at 8pm again, and went to dinner. The dinner was delicious, and we were stuffed again, especially after all the snacking at the past guest party. We went back to our room around 10pm, and relaxed watching cartoons with DD and unwinding from the day. I finally fell asleep around 12am.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Thursday, March 31 – Sea Day 2

 

We woke up around 8am, and saw that the ship was surrounded by nothing but fog. The visibility was extremely low, anywhere from 20 – 100 feet. We couldn’t tell the ocean from the horizon or the sky due to the fog. Therefore we didn’t spend much time on the balcony. We ate a light breakfast on the lido deck around 9am and relaxed for the rest of the time in our room.

 

We ate lunch in the formal dining room around 12pm. We asked for a window seat, and were seated in the aft area, where visibility had improved and could see the ship’s wake from the thrusters. We sat with another lovely couple from Colorado and their young son. Our DD and their son got along great while we enjoyed breakfast. We finished around 2pm and headed back to lido deck to relax.

 

Around 2:30pm we went back to the Empire dining room, where we were given a kitchen galley tour. It was very interesting hearing all the amounts of food the cruise had consumed, and seeing the galley, especially how clean and Spartan it was. We finished the tour around 3pm, and wandered to the photo area to review our photos.

 

At 3:30pm we went back to Pharo’s palace, and watched the raffle for the free cruise. Unfortunately we were no where close to the winning raffle number, so we retired to our room around 4pm. For some reason I was still extremely tired from the constant activity on the ship as well as on shore. I really wanted to relax and I felt like I really had not relaxed all that much. As a result I napped / relaxed in the room from 4pm until 7pm. During this time DW and DD explored the ship and did their own thing. DW also hit the gym for a while and said the gym was dead.

 

I woke up at 7pm, changed, and went to work out in the gym. The gym was indeed dead, with only 2-3 people in there, a drastic difference from the super packed gym I had seen a couple of days earlier. I did the elliptical for 30 minutes, and then a light amount of weight lifting for another 20 minutes.

 

One thing I did conclude, was that I liked the Elation’s gym much better than the Spirit’s gym. Although the Elation was a smaller / older ship, the Elation’s gym had a spectacular view of the sea in front of the ship, unencumbered by the surrounding decks. The Elation also had traditional machines with cables / weights. The Spirit’s gym was encompassed by at least two outer decks, so the view was not as grand as the Elation. The Spirit’s weight machines were also pneumatic or hydraulic, which gave a strange artificial feel to the weights, and I couldn’t achieve a natural full range of motion during the repetitions. As a result I limited my workout on the machines, and used the flat / incline benches with free weights for most of the workout. After 50 minutes in the gym, I decided it was time to shower and then go eat dinner with the family.

 

We all showed up in the dining room around 8:30pm, and I asked to have Yatna’s table area again. We were given a pager and waited about 3 minutes before we were called to a table staffed by Yatna and his team. We found out Yatna’s wife was pregnant and expecting later in the year, and he was working hard to support his future child. We enjoyed our dinner and finished around 9:30m, and said our farewells to Yatna and the dining room staff. We also dropped off the matire’d tip envelope with our tip money as well to show our appreciation.

 

After dinner we went to the photo area, and ordered a lot of photos as we had sorely needed some nice family photos. I spent about $200 on the photos, getting 4 large canvases with the package. This is about $150 more than I usually spend a year on formal photos, so I didn’t mind splurging to get some nice family photos for DW and DD.

 

We retired to our room around 10:30pm, and put out our luggage to be checked. DW and DD relaxed by watching DD’s favorite cartoons in Spanish channel. Around 12am I decided to indulge our final night, and went up to the lido deck and ordered some pizza and frozen yogurt ice cream to take back to the room for a late night dessert. You can see by now I had wrecked my usually very healthy lifestyle, and we were loving it!

 

For some reason this cruise felt extremely short. The 5 day really felt like a 3 day cruise, as it seemed like we were on the go-go-go all the time and didn’t really relax all that much. We finally fell asleep around 1am.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Friday, April 1 – Back to San Diego

 

DW said she woke up at 4am since the ship stopped moving, and noticed that we had arrived back in San Diego. I woke up at 6:20am due to my alarm, and at 7am room service delivered our breakfast. This is another area where I liked our Elation cruise much better. On our last day on the Elation, we were permitted to stay in our room until we were called to depart. On the Spirit, we were asked to leave our rooms by 8:30am, and wait in the lido / promenade or other public decks until we were called. As a result we felt hurried to eat our breakfast, clean up our items / pack them, and get out of our room. Again – hurry hurry, rush rush, wait wait.

 

We made our way out of our room at 8:30am, with DD crying that she would miss the room, the towel animals, and the ship. We found an empty table on the lido deck, and killed time by getting some ice cream, taking photos, making phone calls. We were finally called around 9:45am, and headed down to depart. We left the ship officially at 10am, and gathered our luggage for the drive home.

 

I went across the street, picked up our car, paid for the parking ($75 for 5 days), and picked up the family / luggage back at the pier.

 

By the time we left the area it was around 11am. We drove to our favorite fast food restaurant in San Diego, San Sai Sushi, had a nice lunch. We then filled up our car at CostCo gas, and drove back home. It was a very warm / hot drive home, and we were glad to get home finally at night time.

 

After arriving home, we turned on the air conditioner, briefly unpacked, showered, and promptly fell asleep. We were all exhausted by the trip / drive and our bodies showed it.

 

As I write the review today, my head is still zoned out, my body still feeling phantom waves, and I am unable to focus on getting chores done or doing more unpacking. I may take another nap and then get up and get things done, like chores, shopping, laundry, etc.

 

Looking back on the trip, I am very glad we did the cruise, but honestly the 5 days felt like just a couple of days, and I really didn’t feel like I relaxed as much as I anticipated, due to the constant get-up / go / wait / go routines of the day. For my next cruise I would like to relax a lot more, maybe not even worry about going ashore, and just relax on my time on the lido deck, or in our room.

 

I also wouldn’t pay extra for a balcony again. I estimate we probably spent a total of 1-2 hours on the balcony. I much enjoyed the ocean view room we had last year, which allowed us to see the sea streaming by much better from the room. Maybe if Carnival had a designated non-smoking section of balconies I would pay more for that.

 

Anyway, it’s back to reality as I conclude this review. I will download the photos and post photos here in another day or two, to add some visual detail to our trip. Right now I am simply too tired to do all of that.

 

I hope you enjoyed our review. DW and DD loved the cruise, and it was totally worth it just to see their reactions on the trip.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Reserved for photos.

[Luv2Travelnow]

Reserved for more photos.

[cdamion]

Thank you Thank you!!!

 

I am booked on the same cruise - almost the same dates next year. Looking forward to the photos!

 

How rowdy was the spring break crowd? I usually avoid spring break, but with kids going this time, I needed to book when they are off of school.

[luv cruising 007]

Great review fellow desert neighbor::)! same cruise I took in january!

[dustyroad]

great reveiw about my favorite ship. how did you get the raffle ticket for the free cruise?? i dont remeber getting one on my june cruise on her. thanks for letting us know. :). and i hope you get rested up soon. :D

[raylene5]

Monday, March 28 – Sea Day 1

One nice surprise in the room was a dessert plate on the table, with a note of apology for the long wait for dinner. We enjoyed a few of the desserts and much appreciated the sentiment of the note, although we would not have complained or minded the wait at all.

 

]

 

Our wait on the Spirit on formal night was over an hour. We were pretty tired after dinner and went to bed...by the way, we also had our 11 month old in the room with us. At around 10:30pm someone knocked on the door with dessert treats...an apology for the dinner wait. Now I was a lot more irritated with that than dinner wait...especially since it woke up the baby! ARRGGHH! I half expected them to show up the next day during the baby's nap to offer an apology for waking up the baby the night before! Ha ha! No biggie though...we didn't care too much about the whole incident :)

[raylene5]

Yeah, it has been unbearably hot here in AZ, hasn't it :) Stinks to come home from a cruise in early April and have to turn on the AC!

 

We did the 9 day out of San Diego on the Spirit in mid March and had a wonderful time. 3 sea days and 5 ports...it was perfect. I really could have stayed longer but it was relaxing (well, as relaxing as vacationing with 4 young children can be :) ). Take the longer cruise next time!

[bronco77]

Thanks for the review,we will be on the Spirit this June. What part of Az are you from? We live in Yuma.

[BettyPC]

Great review - thanks for sharng it with us!

[Luv2Travelnow]

Thank you Thank you!!!

 

I am booked on the same cruise - almost the same dates next year. Looking forward to the photos!

 

How rowdy was the spring break crowd? I usually avoid spring break, but with kids going this time, I needed to book when they are off of school.

I would say the crowd was somewhat rowdy, but not too bad really. The nice thing about a cruise ship is you can really enjoy the rowdiness on the lido deck, by the pool areas, or retreat to the quieter enclosed areas where there's not as much people. We did have a funny drunk guy on our tender back to port on Cabo day 1, and boy was he drunk! But he was not a college kid, just a very drunk adult. :)

 

You'll love it, and I'm sure your kids will love it! The best part of the cruise is we didn't have cell phones, no texting, no web. As a result we really enjoyed each others' company and the vacation, instead of being distracted by work / school / other people.

Great review fellow desert neighbor::)! same cruise I took in january!

Thanks! Was it colder in January? It was pretty chilly on our sea day back, but the two Cabo days were fairly warm.

 

great reveiw about my favorite ship. how did you get the raffle ticket for the free cruise?? i dont remeber getting one on my june cruise on her. thanks for letting us know. :). and i hope you get rested up soon. :D

Thanks! We bought the raffle tickets at the past guest party, but I heard you can buy them from the casino area or the future carnival cruise deask (folks let me know if this is correct).

[Luv2Travelnow]

Our wait on the Spirit on formal night was over an hour. We were pretty tired after dinner and went to bed...by the way, we also had our 11 month old in the room with us. At around 10:30pm someone knocked on the door with dessert treats...an apology for the dinner wait. Now I was a lot more irritated with that than dinner wait...especially since it woke up the baby! ARRGGHH! I half expected them to show up the next day during the baby's nap to offer an apology for waking up the baby the night before! Ha ha! No biggie though...we didn't care too much about the whole incident :)

Sorry to hear that. :( Yes I can see how that would be very irritating. All told our wait was about 30 minutes. I was told that elegant night is the most busy, and we didn't have to wait much at all the other nights. What I learned was to put the "snoozin' in" sign on the door and they would not knock, unless you ordered room service.

 

Yeah, it has been unbearably hot here in AZ, hasn't it :) Stinks to come home from a cruise in early April and have to turn on the AC!

 

We did the 9 day out of San Diego on the Spirit in mid March and had a wonderful time. 3 sea days and 5 ports...it was perfect. I really could have stayed longer but it was relaxing (well, as relaxing as vacationing with 4 young children can be :) ). Take the longer cruise next time!

This year has been really whacky. It was very chilly when we left last weekend, and now it's super warm a week later. And to boot, I found a dead bird and dead lizard on my front porch. As I was cleaning my front yard, I also found a bark scorpion trying to get into the house so I killed that too. We didn't get much of a break between too cold to too warm! :eek:

 

I also agree we need a much longer cruise!

 

Thanks for the review,we will be on the Spirit this June. What part of Az are you from? We live in Yuma.

We're from Phoenix, but I really like stopping in Yuma. I had horrible sushi at Ichiban in Avondale, on the way out to San Diego. We stopped at Ninja Sushi in Yuma, and loved the sushi!!!

 

On the way back from San Diego, the car recorded 105 degrees!! I like driving through Yuma to San Diego, and you're lucky you're only 2-3 hours away from San Diego!

[Luv2Travelnow]

Great review - thanks for sharng it with us!

Thanks! I will post the photos later tonight as I get more organized, or in the next day or so. I took so many photos, that by the end of the cruise, the 8gb memory card only had room for 30 more photos!!! :eek:

 

By the way, I forgot to mention, the bathroom and the room in general on the Spirit ship was way better than the Elation's room. The cabinets felt like newer / more modern, the TV was still a 27" (?) tube TV though. The bathroom on the Spirit had plenty of little shelves (about six), where we laid out our bathroom stuff. On the Elation we had to use the shoe organizer over the door to hold our stuff, so the bathroom was a lot better on the Spirit. I didn't even use the shoe organizer that we had brought, on our Spirit cruise. But nevertheless we did enjoy our Elation room quite a lot even though it was older. The Elation is due for dry dock for a couple of weeks for upgrades, so hopefully the rooms will get upgraded somewhat.

[luv cruising 007]

I would say the crowd was somewhat rowdy, but not too bad really. The nice thing about a cruise ship is you can really enjoy the rowdiness on the lido deck, by the pool areas, or retreat to the quieter enclosed areas where there's not as much people. We did have a funny drunk guy on our tender back to port on Cabo day 1, and boy was he drunk! But he was not a college kid, just a very drunk adult. :)

 

You'll love it, and I'm sure your kids will love it! The best part of the cruise is we didn't have cell phones, no texting, no web. As a result we really enjoyed each others' company and the vacation, instead of being distracted by work / school / other people.

Thanks! Was it colder in January? It was pretty chilly on our sea day back, but the two Cabo days were fairly warm.

 

It was cold on the sea day down & up but THNKFULLY the POOLS WERE HEATED TO MY SHOCK! The adult pool was warm enough to have steam come off it on the way back! But not as warm as the hot tub me & my 50's mother spent hours between the adult pool & spa! but the ride was smooth both ways! Yup cabo was warm & had smooth seas around the port & beaches! A lil refreshing in the ocean when i snorkled on my whale watching tour colder than the carrib but not nearly as cold as pacific beach in S.D. or the west coast beaches :) from personal experiences try cabosanlucastours.net I found great tours there including my open bar, snorkeling whale watching tour with lunch there

[CupKayke]

Thanks for the review. Nice to finally read a Spirit review! We are doing a 9-night later this year. Looking forward to your pics.

 

I noticed you wrote earlier that you went to the Lido deck and got some fish/fries. Do they have a "makeshift" Fish n' Chips on the Spirit?? That would cool!

[luv cruising 007]

Thanks for the review. Nice to finally read a Spirit review! We are doing a 9-night later this year. Looking forward to your pics.

 

I noticed you wrote earlier that you went to the Lido deck and got some fish/fries. Do they have a "makeshift" Fish n' Chips on the Spirit?? That would cool!

 

I didnt see a makeshift "fish & chips" as of JAN 2011 maybe I missed it but if I saw it I would try it! they do have mongolian & a deli along with the reg buffet stuff!

[Serangel71]

Thank you for the review. Will be going on the Spirit next month. Good to hear the pool & hot tub are hot as we will be sailing to Alaska. For this Florida girl -- I AM GOING TO FREEZE. What was I thinking?:eek: I left the cold far behind me a long time ago. :rolleyes:

 

Can't wait for pictures!!

 

Raylene - my oldest son was 13 months his first cruise. He loved it. Loves it still. There was no Camp Carnival back then. They had a room on an open deck and 1 person watching the kids. The bathroom was a ways away so she had to take that child to the potty and leave the other kids unsupervised. We did not leave our son there. He was good, even on elegant night -- left us behind & went to his table in the dining room. Luckily, it was a straight shot from our cabin to the dining room. Everyone was watching in awe as he went right there. Could be he wanted more of the linguine with clam sauce. Still a chow hound. He had so mcuh attention from the dining room staff when he cleaned his plate to the trophy he won for the clown costume I made him. Someone put a red-lipstick heart on is cheek--too cute. Memories.

[bronco77]

We're from Phoenix, but I really like stopping in Yuma. I had horrible sushi at Ichiban in Avondale, on the way out to San Diego. We stopped at Ninja Sushi in Yuma, and loved the sushi!!!

 

On the way back from San Diego, the car recorded 105 degrees!! I like driving through Yuma to San Diego, and you're lucky you're only 2-3 hours away from San Diego

 

 

 

Love Ninja Sushi!! Yes, it has been unseasonably hot for this time of year that's why I am really looking forward to our Alaskan cruise this June :D

[luv cruising 007]

Thank you for the review. Will be going on the Spirit next month. Good to hear the pool & hot tub are hot as we will be sailing to Alaska. For this Florida girl -- I AM GOING TO FREEZE. What was I thinking?:eek: I left the cold far behind me a long time ago. :rolleyes:

 

Can't wait for pictures!!

 

Raylene - my oldest son was 13 months his first cruise. He loved it. Loves it still. There was no Camp Carnival back then. They had a room on an open deck and 1 person watching the kids. The bathroom was a ways away so she had to take that child to the potty and leave the other kids unsupervised. We did not leave our son there. He was good, even on elegant night -- left us behind & went to his table in the dining room. Luckily, it was a straight shot from our cabin to the dining room. Everyone was watching in awe as he went right there. Could be he wanted more of the linguine with clam sauce. Still a chow hound. He had so mcuh attention from the dining room staff when he cleaned his plate to the trophy he won for the clown costume I made him. Someone put a red-lipstick heart on is cheek--too cute. Memories.

 

You wont freeze I THINK :eek::) you wont be overheated & sticky for that week being outta orlando at least! We tried the Steakhouse on the SPIRIT & it was pretty good if you try it but no more live piano guy in the steakhouse(on our sailing) hey a good drink & the hot pool/spa will help plus the thick robes! I HATE the cold too! the cappachino/expresso is no charge & good during DINNER in the MDR!

[luv cruising 007]

serangel71 Congrats on the weight loss! after high school a few years ago i ballooned to 240 but im back to 180 & it is tough to lose weight! no more fried foods & I have a glass stomach at times too! taxes done It helped pay for the last cruise have fun on the SPIRIT & there are pics somewere on here too sad mine are still in my digital camera :(