Live B2B2B2B Carnival Spirit Alaska/Panama Canal/Caribbean

[jam19872016]

Dinner was great again tonight. I don't have tonight's menu because it is identical to the night 1 menu from last week. I am super excited for 8 new to me dinnet menus on this 16 day sailing.

 

For my starter I ordered the cured salmon.

 

 

First main was the chicken parmesean. The portion was huge and it was piping hot, I think this was as good as the cucina pay version.

 

 

I also got a large portion of the salmon but it wasn't great tonight. It was overcooked. Dry and starting to burn a little even.

 

 

For dessert I enjoyed the tiramisu.

 

[jam19872016]

Off to the casino for just a little while. Don't plan on staying long hoping fate is kind to me.

[jam19872016]

Just kidding, casino has not opened yet.

[Indianamale]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

Dinner was great again tonight. I don't have tonight's menu because it is identical to the night 1 menu from last week. I am super excited for 8 new to me dinnet menus on this 16 day sailing.

 

For my starter I ordered the cured salmon.

 

 

First main was the chicken parmesean. The portion was huge and it was piping hot, I think this was as good as the cucina pay version.

 

 

I also got a large portion of the salmon but it wasn't great tonight. It was overcooked. Dry and starting to burn a little even.

 

 

For dessert I enjoyed the tiramisu.

 

I love all your food pictures and reviews. I'll be sailing on the Spirit in October and I love to eat. 🤣🤣

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Enjoy your cruises. 

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, Indianamale said:

I love all your food pictures and reviews. I'll be sailing on the Spirit in October and I love to eat. 🤣🤣

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Enjoy your cruises. 

Thanks 😁.  I'll make sure the food is restocked before you board 😋. 

[jam19872016]

The bed is calling my name so I'm going to sleep. Next up, the first of four consecutive sea days 😯

[jam19872016]

I want my bed back from last week. This one is very hard. I was pretty tired though so I was in a pretty deep sleep.

 

My view this am.

 

 

There was a medical response call about an hour ago. I hope everyone is all right. The good news is we are still close to land if they do require further attention. 

 

Looking on the map channel looks like we are about 80 miles west from the northern edge of Oregon.

 

There is a lot going on today not sure if I'm gonna do everything I marked but we shall see. First up, casino should be open now.

[jam19872016]

Already a 30-40 minute wait on brunch so gonna check in there and do casino after I eat.

 

Scale not working with the ship movement again. That could be dangerous with no scale accountability for four days.

 

On turnaround day I had gained .4 lbs for the first week of the cruise. While I would prefer a loss that small gain is within my acceptable range.

[jam19872016]

Brunch today was fantastic. Best meal I've had in a very long time. That's the good news. The bad news is I ordered from the upcharge items not the free brunch menu. Circling back to good news, at least if you are paying extra the food food good. I always worry about paying and then not liking what I order. 

 

This was way too much food and I need my scale more than ever, I did not realize at the low price point how big the servings would be.

 

Shrimp and grits $6

 

 

This was very good very full of flavor and a little spicy. I have a high tolerance for spicy so if it registered as spicy to me I would use caution ordering this if you don't like spicy.

 

The only thing I would change is get rid of all the leaves on top. One of two for a garnish but not a half a salad.

 

Also maybe take the tails off. There is a lot of sauce and I didn't see there were tails still on. My first bite was a surprise 😮😋

 

This was more than enough food. But wait there is more.

 

Crab and avocado sandwich $8.

 

 

This was also very good but I think would enjoy it more if I hadn't already had a full pot of grits.

 

This was a beautiful messy mess of a sandwich and I would also order this again but again this is a meal on its own.

 

Too many leaves again and I wasted a whole salad between the two meals. Under the bed of leaves is a beautiful mess of avocado that begs to be on display. 

 

A very great meal and if you don't mind the upcharge I would recommend both of these items.

[jam19872016]

There is a cooking demo at 11 that I was going to attend but I can't possibly eat anymore so I am going to skip it. This is the first time I've seen it offered since the restart.

 

Going to the casino for real now.

[Cushing985]

On 9/11/2022 at 1:53 PM, jam19872016 said:

Thanks! Good to hear good things about the ship. I'm pretty good at going with the flow but my mom can be pretty fussy.

 

The whole ship transfer was handled very poorly by Carnival at least with my reservations. I'll go into the whole story later but it's been a mess. 

 

I know I am in the minority buy I prefer bigger ships with more options. Freedom for 33 days was already iffy....spirit for 33 days yikes.

 

Going in with a good attitude and honestly I need some down time so I'm OK with less amenities but would like more food options to keep it interesting for a month. But when I think about it there isn't really much missing from Spirit compared  to freedom food wise.

We're doing this next year and can't wait!  I was a bit worried when they switched ships (Freedom to Spirit) but everything turned out great.  Initially they had us in different cabins on the two legs.  I called up our PVP and told her I didn't want to deal with moving.  So, what did she arrange?  We went from an Outside cabin to a Balcony for the same cost!  Can't beat a good PVP!

 

We were on the Spirit last back in 2014 for a R/T cruise from San Diego to Hawaii...one of our favorite cruises.  Not a fan of the Farcas interior but after a few days didn't notice it.

[allinwonderland]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

Brunch today was fantastic. Best meal I've had in a very long time. That's the good news. The bad news is I ordered from the upcharge items not the free brunch menu. Circling back to good news, at least if you are paying extra the food food good. I always worry about paying and then not liking what I order. 

 

This was way too much food and I need my scale more than ever, I did not realize at the low price point how big the servings would be.

 

Shrimp and grits $6

 

 

Crab and avocado sandwich $8.

 

 

This was a beautiful messy mess of a sandwich and I would also order this again but again this is a meal on its own.

 

THANK YOU for the first picture I've seen of this new extra-pay item on the sea day brunch menu. I was curious about this (love crab) but had no idea what it would look like. Is that a poached egg on top of the crab on the lefthand side of the sandwich? So almost like crab Benedict? I would definitely pay a few bucks extra for that.

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, Cushing985 said:

We're doing this next year and can't wait!  I was a bit worried when they switched ships (Freedom to Spirit) but everything turned out great.  Initially they had us in different cabins on the two legs.  I called up our PVP and told her I didn't want to deal with moving.  So, what did she arrange?  We went from an Outside cabin to a Balcony for the same cost!  Can't beat a good PVP!

 

We were on the Spirit last back in 2014 for a R/T cruise from San Diego to Hawaii...one of our favorite cruises.  Not a fan of the Farcas interior but after a few days didn't notice it.

I love the farcus style lol. I find this ship pretty tame compared to most of his. Except for the exposed breasts everywhere 😆. 

 

What makes the PVP thing so bad is I did have a good one. I remember once I didn't book a casino offer event before the deadline and she said she would take care of it and get my name added to the list.

 

I get onboard and guess what? Not on the list. I plead my case to the casino host who had zero interest in what I was saying. As soon as I said my PVP's name her whole attitude changed. She practically fell over herself apologizing and said she would get in contact with her personally immediately to verify I should have been included.

 

Fifteen minutes later I was on the list.

 

This booking was so screwed up I have unfortunately had to fire her as my PVP. Although I believe technically she fired me as her customer. I got four sea days I'm gonna get the whole story typed up eventually lol.

[Cushing985]

On 9/20/2022 at 2:53 PM, jam19872016 said:

Took some convincing but got my nice new card. I'll probably wait to use my free dinner until Celebration and see if I can use it at Rudi's.

 

Did muster now checking on the room.

 

New signs are posted. 

 

 

 

I hope they get rid of that mask requirement (for cruises over 14 days) by the time we do this same trip a year from now.

[jam19872016]

39 minutes ago, allinwonderland said:

THANK YOU for the first picture I've seen of this new extra-pay item on the sea day brunch menu. I was curious about this (love crab) but had no idea what it would look like. Is that a poached egg on top of the crab on the lefthand side of the sandwich? So almost like crab Benedict? I would definitely pay a few bucks extra for that.

Yes that would be a better way to describe it I think.

 

It's a crabcake with poached egg and hollandaise sauce on the one bun. On the other bun a very generous portion of sliced avocado sprinkled with some sliced cucumber which gave it a nice crunchy texture against the softer crabcake and avocado.

 

Finally topped up with half a salad that Just gets in the way. The avocado/cucumber medly was pretty enough I don't think it needed a garnish.

 

It was very good and at $8 a pretty good bargain if you want an elevated meal over what the brunch menu has become.

[Cushing985]

2 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

I love the farcus style lol. I find this ship pretty tame compared to most of his. Except for the exposed breasts everywhere 😆. 

 

What makes the PVP thing so bad is I did have a good one. I remember once I didn't book a casino offer event before the deadline and she said she would take care of it and get my name added to the list.

 

I get onboard and guess what? Not on the list. I plead my case to the casino host who had zero interest in what I was saying. As soon as I said my PVP's name her whole attitude changed. She practically fell over herself apologizing and said she would get in contact with her personally immediately to verify I should have been included.

 

Fifteen minutes later I was on the list.

 

This booking was so screwed up I have unfortunately had to fire her as my PVP. Although I believe technically she fired me as her customer. I got four sea days I'm gonna get the whole story typed up eventually lol.

 

I'm looking forward to the story!  Our balcony is an "obstructed view" but I've seen enough YouTube videos of this cabin and it shouldn't be an issue (lifeboats are just below the balcony so can't see the ocean looking directly down but a clear view straight out).  Can't whine too much about it since I got it for the price of an Oceanview.

 

[jam19872016]

3 minutes ago, Cushing985 said:

 

I hope they get rid of that mask requirement (for cruises over 14 days) by the time we do this same trip a year from now.

I think it will. I also thought it was 30 days to flatten the curve though and here we are 2.5 year later so what do I know?

[jam19872016]

Just now, Cushing985 said:

 

I'm looking forward to the story!  Our balcony is an "obstructed view" but I've seen enough YouTube videos of this cabin and it shouldn't be an issue (lifeboats are just below the balcony so can't see the ocean looking directly down but a clear view straight out).  Can't whine too much about it since I got it for the price of an Oceanview.

 

I got "upgraded" to ocean view on three of the four legs. I actually prefer an inside for the dark lol. I'm learning from those onboard I am not alone, there were many many people who had their reservations messed up with the changeover. 

[jam19872016]

I still didn't make it to the casino. When I got there my card was declined because I hadn't set up a card in file. I thought I had $400 obc but I forgot I had used some to purchase internet.

 

I went back to the room to grab my card to out on file. When I returned every machine I wanted was taken. I took it as a sign I do not need to gamble this trip. 

 

I'm heading out now to get my exercise in I definitely need it after that hearty brunch.

 

I'm happy to see the steamroom open also. I wasn't sure if it would remain open with the stricter protocols.

[labseldest]

Good afternoon!  I stumbled on to this string and sat down to read every single entry.  Now I'm caught up.  I think it's great you are able to spend time with mom on this adventure. Good for the two of you.  I will be doing my first B2B on the Panorama in January.  Again, thanks for all of the commentary and pictures of food and menus, as well as your treks.  I have a question though, you mentioned this a few times in the last 10 pages of discussion but I am confused....tell me about this duck hunting!  

 

Anyway, I look forward to following your other legs. 

 

BTW, when I start the B2B, I will be Gold but in the middle of the 7-day second leg I earn Platinum.  Will I get that upgrade at the beginning of the second leg?  What was your specific experience? 

 

Thank you.  

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, labseldest said:

Good afternoon!  I stumbled on to this string and sat down to read every single entry.  Now I'm caught up.  I think it's great you are able to spend time with mom on this adventure. Good for the two of you.  I will be doing my first B2B on the Panorama in January.  Again, thanks for all of the commentary and pictures of food and menus, as well as your treks.  I have a question though, you mentioned this a few times in the last 10 pages of discussion but I am confused....tell me about this duck hunting!  

 

Anyway, I look forward to following your other legs. 

 

BTW, when I start the B2B, I will be Gold but in the middle of the 7-day second leg I earn Platinum.  Will I get that upgrade at the beginning of the second leg?  What was your specific experience? 

 

Thank you.  

People hide ducks around the ship usually with a tag on it with the family's name that hid it and the ship and sailing date and instructions to keep or rehide as well as to post it to one of the Facebook pages dedicated to the duck hiding.

 

You could probably Google cruising ducks to find one of the groups I don't actually belong to any my mom just gets a kick out of finding and collecting them. She's a big kid lol.

 

If you remember the friendship rocks from a couple years back it's like that but with ducks.

 

You will move up to platinum the first day of your second sailing but you may have to have your card reprinted because they are printed before the system counts your first leg.

 

The same thing happened to me when i did a b2b on my milestone cruise. They gave me a white card for that then my second cruise I still had a white card, I did not correct that one lol.

[jam19872016]

Checking in for dinner now. It is formal night and there is a 50-60 minute wait. 

[labseldest]

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

People hide ducks around the ship usually with a tag on it with the family's name that hid it and the ship and sailing date and instructions to keep or rehide as well as to post it to one of the Facebook pages dedicated to the duck hiding.

 

You could probably Google cruising ducks to find one of the groups I don't actually belong to any my mom just gets a kick out of finding and collecting them. She's a big kid lol.

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

WOW!!!!  I have only cruised on the west coast but so far I have done about 10 of them and I am just now hearing about this really cool adventure.  I love it.  Thank you very much for the education.  I will certainly Google it and check this out on my three cruises in January and the one in April

 

Thanks for your insight on the Platinum card too

 

David. 

 

[jam19872016]

The sun was setting as we made our way to dinner.

 

 

This one was taken from our window.

 

 

[jam19872016]

The wait for dinner was only about 35 minutes so not as long as it said. The dinner menu in the app had been updated to reflect the menu I expected it to be.

 

This is the normal night 2 menu and the one I forgot to post last week.