Spirit cruises out of Jacksonville

[Bostwick girl]

We’re going on Spirit out of Jacksonville on the 26th. Was just curious if anyone on the inaugural sailing could provide some insights as to how it is. We’ve been on Miracle and Legend so are familiar with the different layout, so much easier to navigate! Also going to be our first suite, so really looking forward to that! Curious about the casino and the food. Thanks for any info.

 

[groundloop]

I was wondering the same thing, we're on Spirit for the March 21st sailing.

 

Maybe if nobody chimes in with their experiences on Spirit someone can at least give their views of how things went on some of the other ships in the first few weeks after a restart.

[mpacker]

1 hour ago, groundloop said:

I was wondering the same thing, we're on Spirit for the March 21st sailing.

 

Maybe if nobody chimes in with their experiences on Spirit someone can at least give their views of how things went on some of the other ships in the first few weeks after a restart.

we've done a couple of the covid opening cruises already we haven't had any issues, the staff is always very excited.  i'm also booked on the 21st cruise

[ray98]

On here now.  Been a good cruise so far.  The dining was slow the first night but it seems to have picked up.  Bar service has been good.  The only hiccup is the Alchemy, when it gets busy they fall behind. Only 2 bartenders and one server still in training so he can't make much.

[2Shoes2Go]

We’re on Spirit for four cruises, beginning w March 21. We’re still waiting on cabin assignments, from the move over from Ecstasy, for the first three. Anyone still waiting? Ours are ambulatory balconies.

[Essiesmom]

I’m on the 31st sailing.  Got my reassignment in a couple of days.  I booked a 1A on Ecstasy knowing they didn’t have them on Spirit.  Got one of the French door cabins.  Declined an upsell to balcony for $100.  EM

[Bostwick girl]

11 hours ago, groundloop said:

I was wondering the same thing, we're on Spirit for the March 21st sailing.

 

Maybe if nobody chimes in with their experiences on Spirit someone can at least give their views of how things went on some of the other ships in the first few weeks after a restart.

This trip will be our 5th since restart, 4 on Magic out of port canaveral. They were all good cruises, really enjoyed the non smoking casinos. Didn’t have any issues with boarding, getting off ship or anything food was good. Was great to be cruising again!

 

[sopo1953]

We were on the Spirit on the first cruise out of Jacksonville. Check in went smoothly. Used VeriFLY and didn’t have to show any Covid paperwork. The atrium was full of cheering crew members when we boarded. 
The ship seemed in good condition for its age. About half the coffee machines on the Lido only worked sporadically. The food was rarely hot except for omelettes, deli sandwiches and burgers. The first night in the dining room was a disaster. We waited 1 and a half hours for water. Still no bread until my husband got up and chased down the Maitre d’. Waiters were lost. Many people never went to the dining room again. Brunch was no better. Later in the week we had a better experience. No production show but we could hear them rehearsing for future cruises. The cruise was so cheap we just went with the flow.

[groundloop]

4 hours ago, sopo1953 said:

......No production show but we could hear them rehearsing for future cruises....

 

That would stink.  Carnival should be able to do better than that.

[jmu82]

Who is the cruise director on Spirit?

 

 

[Bostwick girl]

Good question! I searched and couldn’t find anything. Hope someone who has been on her knows.

 

[groundloop]

10 hours ago, jmu82 said:

Who is the cruise director on Spirit?

 

 

If nobody can figure it out before then I'll be getting on Spirit Monday. 

 

However, I've never seen a cruise director make or break my vacation.  Mostly they're just that voice on the PA system reminding everyone to purchase bingo cards.  😁

[LothCat]

We were on Spirit last week and agree that the MDR was a disaster.  First night, we were invisible - when they finally took our wine order, the waiter came back twice to verify what my husband ordered then finally, after about 30 minutes, returned to say they didn't have it.  We gave up and left.  Second night, we were okay but a row of tables next to us had the same experience we had the night before.   Third night, I ordered the fried chicken and it came out raw and bloody.  We didn't go there again.  We did brunch and got what we ordered but not without very slow service and mixups on drinks (they charged another table for our drinks).  We were actually more impressed with the buffet this time than on other cruises and Guys Burgers, Blue Iguana, and Pizza were all very good.  Debarkation also seemed to be a problem.  It took a LOOOOOng time to get people off the boat.  Not sure if the hold up was Carnival or the port staff but hopefully it will go better in the future.

 

The cruise director was Adam Gilbert.  He was fine - we've had better, we've had worse.

 

Overall, good cruise, again, we've had better, we've had worse.  This was her first cruise out of Jacksonville so I'm confident that they'll keep getting better.   Cruising out of Jacksonville is great - sailing under the Dames Point bridge is excellent!

[2Shoes2Go]

Leaving on Monday, four b2bs. How’s the ramp to board? Was crazy steep for Ecstasy; a real workout. Hopefully, customs still come onboard and processes b2bs, at Guest Services. 😊

[ray98]

We were also on the Spirit last week.  Thankfully we avoided many of the dining room issues we heard about but we did skip the first night for Sushi instead and generally dined after the main rush.  I thought our dining room service was comparable to the other sailings we have been on since reopening.  I was neither amazed nor disappointed by anything served to me.  We did hear other guests talking about extended wait times in the dining room though especially on that first night.  I talked to a number of staff over the week and most seem to have been pulled from other ships with a mix of new crew.  This was their first cruise together. 

 

All in all, the food experience was so-so at best for me.  While Guy's burgers, Blue Iguana and Sushi were their normal self, the food on the Lido seemed to suffer, particularly for breakfast.  We tried it 2 mornings and decided to give up on it.  The food was generally cold.  I am talking a bowl of grits that could not melt butter, eggs benedict with a muffin that was hard as a rock, pancakes so cold they were chewy.  We gave up and decided Sea Day Brunch or Blue Iguana breakfast burritos from that point on.  There was also a change at brunch, I am pretty simple and order the steak and eggs every time like I have for the past decade.  I was taken by surprise when I found the normal fantastic filet was replaced with flat iron steak.  I hoped it was just a supply issue but I am seeing talk of it on other ships also so I guess they are downgrading the quality of the cut.

[Bostwick girl]

Thanks for all your insights. Hopefully they’ve got the kinks out by time we sail. Anybody have any comments about the casino?

 

[vamartha]

I was on this cruise. My expectations were not at the highest and I'd have to say it went about as expected.

 

Preface that to say we aren't bar people, not MDR diners and not pool hangerouters. We like to eat at the Lido, we like to gamble a bit little and we like to hang out in our cabin and watch the world go by.

 

So I can't address any MDR issues. I ate the Lido (buffet, Blue Iguana or Guys) most of the time. The last night I needed to spend some credit so I ate at the Steakhouse. It was wonderful. Buffet food was iffy but it is almost that way now on all ships but the Mardi Gras now (we did two weeks on Pride too last fall so I do have some comparison there). If you can eat salad, you are golden but most of the buffet was not exactly hot - temp wise. 3 of the 4 ice machines in Lido were broken and the 4th one stopped by day 4. There was plenty of ice there, but you had to dig in a tub for it instead of it working through the dispenser. Deli was decent, pizza improved over the week.

 

Cabins were clean and adequate but the little touches were missing like checking to see if the fridge was plugged in. Towels are showing their age (oddly the towel animal ones weren't). Water ran brown on a day or two on Deck 8. TV's (I don't sail to watch TV but we like the maps and the view from the bridge) are miniature. Like smaller than every single computer monitor in my house miniature. I knew to expect that one too, they are the same size on Pride. Cabin Stewards still work hard and mine did a great job!

 

Casino was interesting. Lots of machines that didn't work for the duration. And many that did. I was on the smoking side and it seems that ashtrays were a bit on the light side. I vape so I didn't need one but they were few and far between. Bar delivery service was great earlier in the week. It was not so good on the last sea day. But the machines paid off well early in the day!

 

I like Spirit Class ships for their ease of navigation. You never have to go up these steps to go forward, everything is nice and laid out on each deck and you can traverse the whole ship on the same deck. No up and down. They just traverse well. They also aren't my favorites, I prefer a bit larger.

 

All said, we went, we ate, we saw the ocean, we saw other ships and we honked horns at each other. They weren't 100 percent ready for us but they made it happen and the crew handled it was grace. We had rainy spots and two beautiful port days. And had you been Mary Poppins with that darn umbrella, you would have made it off the ship faster on windy debarkation day! 

 

 

 

 

 

[ray98]

2 hours ago, vamartha said:

And had you been Mary Poppins with that darn umbrella, you would have made it off the ship faster on windy debarkation day! 

 

No kidding....that was a disaster.  Has anyone heard why we got in so late?  I know it was scheduled in advance but didn't hear the reason.

[Bostwick girl]

7 hours ago, ray98 said:

No kidding....that was a disaster.  Has anyone heard why we got in so late?  I know it was scheduled in advance but didn't hear the reason.

Probably had something to do with the tide and the bridge.

 

[vamartha]

8 hours ago, ray98 said:

No kidding....that was a disaster.  Has anyone heard why we got in so late?  I know it was scheduled in advance but didn't hear the reason.

It was tides. We had to wait until we fit under the bridge.

[ray98]

8 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

Probably had something to do with the tide and the bridge.

 

 

8 hours ago, vamartha said:

It was tides. We had to wait until we fit under the bridge.

 

Ahhh...that makes sense.  

[groundloop]

10 hours ago, vamartha said:

It was tides. We had to wait until we fit under the bridge.

 

I was wondering about that.  I'm getting on Spirit Monday and see that on our return to port isn't supposed to happen until 9:30 AM and that the ship won't depart until 8:30 PM.

[ray98]

5 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

I was wondering about that.  I'm getting on Spirit Monday and see that on our return to port isn't supposed to happen until 9:30 AM and that the ship won't depart until 8:30 PM.

 

Same thing then.

[Bostwick girl]

In answer to all the comments about the late arrival and departure times, yes the tides are the reason. The Elation and Ecstacy are able to go under the Dames Point Bridge regardless of the tides, but it’s close. The Spirit is just a bit larger so they have to wait for the lower tides to be able to go under the bridge safely. According to Wikipedia, it’s 175 feet tall. Lived in Jacksonville all my life and watched it being built. Jacksonville has tried for years to get a cruise terminal built in the Mayport area so the bridge wouldn’t be an issue, but always run into opposition from the citizens of Mayport not wanting to destroy the quaintness of their little town. There isn’t much property left to be able to build a terminal, so don’t see it happening any time soon.

 

[Essiesmom]

The terminal in JAX used to have a wall of pictures of the ships in port, and the bridge.  n one of the pics, the ship going under the bridge is listing.  It was explained to me that it was because they were doing some work on the bridge and the scaffolding made the ship unable to pass under the center, so they had to cause it to list to get it under a bit to port.  Since I'll sailing on 3/31, I'll look to see if those pics are still there...  EM