Spirit Review LOOOONG

[imdeaf]

Sailed aboard the Carnival Spirit June1-Northbound Alaska with my husband. Just to give some background---we are in our early 30’s and from NYC.

 

Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly (although not much ugly):

 

 

EMBARKATION:

 

Flew into Vancouver direct and used US Direct to get to ship. It was WONDERFUL. We arrived at the airport at 10:40am, was met by Carnival representatives as we were leaving plane and escorted to a waiting area until other flights arrived to fill up the buses. The wait wasn’t very long (maybe 20 minutes) and the staff was friendly. We were then boarded onto a bus with a great driver who sort of gave us an abbreviated tour of Vancouver on the way to the pier. We were then ushered from the bus to embarkation desks. There were no lines, relatively speaking, and we handed the agent our paperwork and funpass and in five minutes we were boarding the ship. There was a few minutes wait while people were getting their pictures taken for id purposes. (I can imagine that this line would be nightmare if there were a lot of people at once trying to board).

 

SHIP:

 

Everyone was smiling and friendly and we found the way to our room very easily, Panorama Deck Aft. The cabin was pretty spacious as was the bathroom and the balcony. Everything was clean and tidy. There was, as someone else wrote, dust on the shelves in the bathroom, but it should be noted that these shelves are glass. I myself have a glass shelf in my home bathroom and it is the bane of my existence. No matter how many times you clean or dust it, it will be dusty---that’s just the nature of glass being in a bathroom. But let me make one thing clear---this was not dirt, it was dust (like from towels). I did have a concern about our cabin being directly under the pool, but I must say there was no odor (of chlorine or anything else) or noise from above.

 

The ship itself is quite large and (I’m sorry) quite gaudy. Although I didn’t care very much for the décor it didn’t bother me per se. Most places look brand new but there were places where there was a little wear and tear (but I personally couldn’t care less). It was very clean, easy to find your way around, and spacious.

 

For the record, when we embarked at noon the buffet on the lido deck was open (the grill might also have been). We were able to get food and drinks and walk around. The entire ship was open to exploration.

 

 

Entertainment:

 

The show on the first night was good (I think it was called Spirited Away or something to that nature). A little hokey for my taste, but it was fun and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. We did not go to the Swinging with the Bands show, but we did go to the Broadway revue and the last show with the dancers. First let me say that the two lead singers were great and the Broadway show was very well done. The dancers were a mixed bag though. Some of them were very talented, some of them okay and a handful just weren’t talented. I wasn’t really expecting much from the shows, so just having a couple that were pretty good exceeded my expectations. The last show I found boring (I actually fell asleep in my chair), but my husband seemed to like it.

 

We did not go to the first midnight comedy show, but we did see Stan Ullman’s two shows. One was rated r and the other general admission. I enjoyed both but I will say that his shtick is getting old. Even though it was very funny it was same old same old. The Max Winfrey show was great. We only caught the last half but it was a blast and people seemed to really enjoy his comedy.

 

The other show was a split show between a balancing act and a hypnotist. The balancing act was quite good, but we left when the stupid hypnotist “show” was only a few minutes old. Sorry but it was awful…(unless you’re into that sort of thing, although there was no actual hypnotizing going on).

 

The music in the atrium and the various bars around the ship throughout the cruise were good. We didn’t sit anywhere just to listen but we did pass by quite a few and spent a few minutes enjoying.

 

We didn’t go to the Clubs so I have no info on that.

 

And the casino WILL take your money. We’re pretty experienced gamblers and know that it’s win or lose, but there was much too much losing going on all around. The dealers are quite nice and friendly though and we found that we were usually playing with the same people at our blackjack table. And on an aside----for those of you who don’t know how to play, the cruise line will “teach” you the rules of the game, but they don’t let you in on the strategy, so if you are going to sit at a blackjack table (and you are more than welcome to, even though I know it is a bit frightening at first) bring with you a cheat sheet from home. They are little cards that tell you what to do with your hand depending on what the dealer is showing. This will make your play better and give you better odds against the house. There is a strategy and once you learn it and feel comfortable with it you will feel right at home at the table.

 

 

FOOD:

 

Okay, this is where we were both extremely unhappy. The food was just not up to snuff. The dining room food was just good. It wasn’t anything special—you can call a piece of meat filet mignon, but that doesn’t make it so. I would have preferred a smaller but higher quality cut of meat. And no, I am not basing my opinion just on one meal. We ate dinner in the dining room every night but one. The meals were just unforgettable at best and not very good at worst. The first couple of deserts were actually quite good and then those became not so good also. The service was okay, we didn’t have one of the “fun” waiters, but all I needed was for her to bring me my food. I will say though, not to be cranky, but the service was slow (I know, I know, I’m from ny where everything goes a 100 mph, but there were other people who came in with us or after us and were served much quicker). We had breakfast and lunch in the dining room also and found those to be just fine.

 

Now, the lido deck food!!! To say it was awful would not be an overstatement. What little choice of it there was, it was tasteless or bland or chewy. The deli sandwiches were terrible (for the record pastrami doesn’t taste like that), the buffet food was bland. The breakfast food was okay, but the butter had no taste to it. And don’t get me started on the coffee. It was terrible!!!!!!!!! The coffee in the dining room was quite tasty, but the one available 24 hours was horrific. And let me tell you----there was no caffeine in it. I don’t care what they say…. they want you to spend two bucks and buy coffee from the “café” instead of drinking the free coffee. I will say though that the hot chocolate was wonderful. It actually tasted quite good and was perfect for those evenings on deck or on the balcony.

 

All in all we were extremely disappointed in the food, as that seems to be what everyone talks about with cruises. Understand that quantity does not make up for quality.

 

And for the people who complain about long lines----why do you show up ten minutes before mealtime and stand in a long line? We just went to dinner ten minutes late every night and didn’t have to wait on any lines.

 

PORTS OF CALL:

 

I will not go into specifics here about the ports themselves (I will do that on the Alaska board) or the excursions, but I will say that the debarking and embarking were very smooth. At most we had a few minutes wait to get on or off the ship most of the time. The personnel were very courteous and efficient. And, maybe because of where I live, I think the metal detector was perfectly fine. As you’re waiting to get on board load all of your stuff into your bag and just put the bag through, that way you don’t have to worry about standing there and emptying your pockets and then filling them up again. The tendering also went very smoothly.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is if you encounter a line walk away, go somewhere else or just sit for a while. When we were leaving Juneau the line was about 40 minutes long, so we sat on the pier and enjoyed some conversation and took some pictures and waited for the line to get shorter. When we were back on board some woman was loudly complaining about having to stand in line and when I told her we just waited it out she seemed rather annoyed. With over 2000 people getting on and off one boat there is bound to be lines, but how we react to them makes all the difference. When we were going to get off the boat we would look over the railing to see how the flow of people was and then made our decision whether to try or not. If we showed up and the line was longer than we were willing to wait we would go away and come back in 10 minutes. But I will say again, that this only happened a few times—most of the time there were no lines.

 

DEBARKATION:

 

Cannot complain about the procedure. It all went rather smoothly.

 

I will give a word of caution however---we received incorrect information initially (they had us doing a tour on our way from Whittier to Anchorage) and went to the purser’s desk to tell them about their mistake. They told me that I was the one that was mistaken and that my ta must have booked it for us and that the coupon would be in our carnival book. The next morning we went to the excursions desk and spoke to the guy there and of course I was right (believe me, I know how much money I spent and on what I spent it). He straightened it all out for us. I did find the purser’s desk to be too quick to dismiss me and think that I missed something. They didn’t check their computer or anything, just off the cuff told me that I was mistaken. Just be aware of what you’re supposed to have and not have and make sure that your travel documentation is correct.

 

MISC:

 

I know that there have been many complaints about Michael the CD, but he seemed to be everywhere on our cruise. He was at just about every one of the shows that we attended, he was in the lobby for ports of call, he was on shore, he was on some excursions. He really did seem to want to liven the joint up. He was excited and genuinely wanted to help people make the most out of Alaska.

 

The naturalist Michele was wonderful. We went to two out of three of her talks and they were informative and interesting. She was great when we were at sea filling us in on the details of where we were and what to look for.

 

The captain was also very friendly and accessible. He got the ship to 1000 feet from the Harvard Glacier and then did a 180!!!

 

All of the staff was very friendly and cordial.

 

The balcony was great!!!! The scenery was magnificent---I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite as beautiful.

 

 

I know there is probably much more that I haven’t thought about, so if you have any specifics let me know and I’ll try to give you an honest answer.

 

And if I failed to say this before we had a great time!!! It was worth every penny.

:)

[cmm80124]

Thanks so much for your review - we plan to do an Alaska itinerary sometime in the next two years (hopefully)!

 

Coffee without caffeine - that's the only reason for drinking it! :)

[TamaLee]

imdeaf -

 

Thanks for taking the time to write down your thoughts. We don't leave on our cruise for another year but I still want to find out all I can.

 

Can you share more detail about what you did once you got off the ship in Whittier? What time did your flight leave from Anchorage? We may not be able to get a flight home until 12:30 am so we want to see what options we have for filling the time.

[BettyB2]

thanks for the review!! Glad that you had a great time and wish the food would have been better for you!!!

[LHP]

great karaoke???

 

We are headed out next month and I can't wait.

 

I sprung for our first balcony (out of 12 Carnival cruises since 1998).

 

Thanks for the 411 .

[decemberg]

The Harvard Glacier part is the absolute best part of the whole trip. Brave the cold and get on the bow of the boat for the whole thing. Its worth it.

The captian is fabulous!

May 18-25

[Bsan1221]

Am glad you had a good trip.. I was on the Spirit a month ago and the food was excellent for lunch and dinner. The breakfast was just ok...