Live B2B2B2B Carnival Spirit Alaska/Panama Canal/Caribbean

[jam19872016]

Almost through the sea of ships waiting to enter the Canal from this side.

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

I really enjoyed the experience of sailing through the Canal. 

 

In addition to the lecture we had the day before, we also had a naturalist come onboard as we sailed the canal and explain what we were seeing as well as some of the history of the Canal. It is truly an engineering marvel to behold.

 

It takes longer so I know for everyone it is not possible, but if you can do it, I highly recommend taking the full transit of the Canal and not the partial. I also feel like you need to use the old locks and not the new ones that the bigger ships use and for that reason I am glad we got bumped from the Freedom to the Spirit.

[jam19872016]

Im off now to the VIFP party. Strange it's on the next to last day, I wonder if there are two parties again this week.

[jam19872016]

Judging by the line, I am going to say yes, two parties. Five minutes till and already stretched almost to the casino.

[jam19872016]

Guess it was just the one party. I enjoyed my free drinks and clapping 👏 for my ships.

 

Now I'm back in the room relaxing for a few until dinner.

 

Tonight is formal night and I need to send out laundry so a lot of work tonight 😁

[jam19872016]

No wait for dinner tonight. Everything was very good.

 

Crab cake.

 

 

Stuffed mushrooms.

 

 

Teriyaki salmon.

 

 

Greek spinach pie.

 

 

Key lime mousse.

 

 

[jam19872016]

Last casino drawing of the week and still no luck.

 

Going to sleep now.

 

Tomorrow will be my last day before its time to close the book on one heck of an journey.

[jam19872016]

Good morning. 

 

I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. It felt like the last night where I tend to toss and turn in anticipation of having to get up early the next morning.

 

Hopefully that means I will sleep good tonight.

 

I'm leaning towards a breakfast  burrito for breakfast. I've not had one yet this entire cruise 😯

[jam19872016]

 

Wah wah wah, no burrito for me. Maybe I have gone Loco but i am 98% sure the breakfast hours have always been until 1030. Not so anymore, I checked the app and it closes everyday at 10.

 

😓

[jam19872016]

Fifteen minutes after opening and the deli still isn't open.

 

I'm getting hangry.

[jam19872016]

Food acquired.

 

The deli has updated its menu again and now matches the menu John Heald had posted. 

 

 

I got the veggie burger.

 

 

That was actually pretty good. It's not going to win a taste test against a real burger but I was impressed. 

 

The patty had a good flavor and it had a number of crispy toppings to give it some texture. Even the bun was slightly crispy without being dried out and hard.

 

It could use just a little bit of ketchup or mustard but overall a very good burger alternative 😋. 

[jam19872016]

They are getting setup for the chocolate extravaganza.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Just looking at those cakes is adding calories. Heading to the gym to work them off.

[momof3cruisers]

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing all the different views through the canals. That was very cool!  

[jam19872016]

At the theater for the Q & Awesome with Erin.

 

Caught the end of the Carnival Caper. I would like to play sometime but it's a little too drawn out.

 

The winner did get a ship on a stick. Maybe I should do it next time. Hopefully it's not the same answer each time.

[jam19872016]

45 minutes ago, momof3cruisers said:

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing all the different views through the canals. That was very cool!  

Almost hit a new step record that day just running around the ship 😆.  Thanks for following along glad you liked it. 

[jam19872016]

Going to bed unreasonably early so I might not be so tired tomorrow when I have to leave the ship.

 

Good night 😴. 

[jam19872016]

Good morning from Miami. 

 

We're gonna go grab some breakfast and use express walk off.

 

I've got some more pictures I have not posted yet. I will have that and my final thoughts posted once i get settled.

[natefish95]

Morning Jam! I enjoyed reading your posts throughout the week. I'm going to do a rollup post of my own highlighting the good, the bad, the ugly. Overall, it was an excellent cruise. It was my first time on the Spirit and really love this class of ship now. 

I will disagree with you on the Deli! I got the buffalo chicken sandwich, the turkey sandwich and the chicken salad sandwich and they were all so bread heavy with no real flavor. Also, I swear the deli used to have fries. I'd rather have fries with my sandwich than chips. 

 

I did make sure to check our the Chopsticks section and it was consistently delicious! 

 

Thanks again for all your posts!

[labseldest]

Thank you for the detailed and humorous accounts of your trip.  I completely enjoyed hearing about everything you two experienced.  I have five cruises lined up on the horizon, and you have given me enough info about menus, excursions, and events that will help me make decisions for my trips.  And thank you very much for taking all the pictures you took, they brought to life your descriptions.

 

[jam19872016]

On 10/16/2022 at 10:37 AM, natefish95 said:

Morning Jam! I enjoyed reading your posts throughout the week. I'm going to do a rollup post of my own highlighting the good, the bad, the ugly. Overall, it was an excellent cruise. It was my first time on the Spirit and really love this class of ship now. 

I will disagree with you on the Deli! I got the buffalo chicken sandwich, the turkey sandwich and the chicken salad sandwich and they were all so bread heavy with no real flavor. Also, I swear the deli used to have fries. I'd rather have fries with my sandwich than chips. 

 

I did make sure to check our the Chopsticks section and it was consistently delicious! 

 

Thanks again for all your posts!

Thanks for reading along!

 

Deli is always so hit or miss. I had a turkey sandwich again on the last day, and it was terrible. They always have so much bread, I usually have to pull some off. Way way too much bread. I was happy to see the line was always short for the deli at least. Fries made a return towards the end of the cruise. 

 

Wish chopsticks was on every ship that doesn't have a Mongolian Wok. That food was delicious and always more popular than the buffet line.

 

I read your review - the roaches! EEk! Glad that I did not experience any of that.

 

On 10/16/2022 at 3:50 PM, labseldest said:

Thank you for the detailed and humorous accounts of your trip.  I completely enjoyed hearing about everything you two experienced.  I have five cruises lined up on the horizon, and you have given me enough info about menus, excursions, and events that will help me make decisions for my trips.  And thank you very much for taking all the pictures you took, they brought to life your descriptions.

 

Your very welcome and thanks so much for reading along!

[jam19872016]

So I mentioned earlier about the issues I had with this booking and with my former PVP. After what turned out to be a great cruise, the issues seem irrelevant. But I will sum it all up since I teased at the issue a couple times.

 

As we all know, this cruise was supposed to be on the Freedom. I spent a great deal of time researching to find a room in a desired location that was available for all four sailings. I then gave the booking numbers to my PVP to finalize the booking.

 

That is the relationship we had, I did the leg work and gave her the credit and she handled any issues that came up after booking. Since I do mostly casino bookings, she was very valuable and had connections as she mostly specialized in casino bookings. Ask for a PVP recommendation in a casino group, and I guarantee her name will be given multiple times.

 

As we also all know, with Covid we ended up playing the cancel and rebook game - many times. Rebooking meant extra OBC. The first two legs came with the extra OBC, $900 in total. The last two sailings were out of Florida and were not part of any rebooking and just came with the normal OBC that came with the casino promotions I booked them under.

 

Then the ship changed to Spirit. I heard nothing for the longest time about my new room assignment. I knew the layout was very different and I was not necessarily going to end up in a cabin I would consider "desirable". I did expect that B2B would be given the same cabin across sailings. That was of course not the case.

 

I sent an email to my PVP and asked if she could find an available cabin across all sailings or at least some of the sailings so we could avoid having to move as much as possible. I got an out of office response with an extension of another PVP to call for emergencies. I had a great relationship with her and trusted her to be able to handle my issue better than anyone else despite the fact the deadline was approaching for rebooking a Covid canceled and still getting the extra OBC.

 

When she returned she informed me there was nothing she could do as two of the bookings were completely sold out and the two remaining cruises had no like cabins. I indicated I wanted to cancel my Alaska and Panama Canal cruise and gave some new cruises I wished to have the reservation booked to. There was only 48 hours left to do so before I would not receive the extra $900 for rebooking.

 

Crickets.

 

I could have followed up with another call to Carnival's main line or some more follow ups to her but I was sad to let those two cruises go and sort of wanted to keep them and was partially in shock that she stopped communicating with me. In the end I am so glad I did keep these cruises, but very disappointed in the way the situation was handled from both her and how Carnival handled the ship change to begin with.

 

But wait, it gets worse. There was still one more hiccup. A couple weeks before the final payment was due I started getting emails that if my reservation was not paid in full I would be canceled. My bookings are always set to automatically bill my card on final payment so I ignored the warnings. 

 

I bet you can guess what happened. The booking was canceled. I called Carnival and explained what happened. She put me on hold a few times while she spoke to a supervisor and in the end she was able to get me reinstated. There were no Ocean View rooms left and I would have to be downgraded to interior which I was fine with since that was what I booked originally and what I preferred anyway. I was unsure exactly how much OBC I was still going to get since I no longer had the booking offer for $500 and the $600 for rebooking offer had also expired. I was very happy to see that the $1100 was all reinstated and the price had even come down slightly.

 

It was explained that the autopay box had gotten unchecked during the switchover. It was strange though that it only happened on the first two cruises that I tried to cancel originally. The final two out of Florida were still set to autopay. I was just happy at this point the booking was saved because I was several days past when it was canceled before I realized what happened.

 

I know longer use a PVP and I was very happy the cruise that I took even if it was not the one I booked.

 

[jam19872016]

Final Thoughts:

 

Dining:

 

Spirit doesn't have all the options the newer ships have but overall I was impressed with what they did have available.

 

The dining room at dinner had some of the best meals since the restart. It wasn't five star dining by any means, but it was the best execution of the meals I've had on Carnival in a while. Over the course of 33 days there were some duds, but overall I enjoyed the MDR for dinner.

 

During the journey cruise, they opened the MDR for lunch and I thought most of the food there was better than the brunch menu they currently serve and would like to see that rotated in more on the weeklong cruises.

 

Brunch and breakfast were ok. I'm going to give the brunch issues more scrutiny in another section. The pay options were good and a good value other than the $18 lobster benedict which was tasty, but simply a money grab.

 

The buffet was mostly a bust which I have come to expect from Carnival, thankfully they have many other included casual choices.

 

Chopsticks was delicious. I only had one bad meal there and I probably ate there at least a dozen times.

 

The deli started out strong but did have a couple sandwiches towards the end that were just not good. I enjoyed the new chicken salad sandwich, the turkey sandwich the first time I got it, and the veggie burger. I'm sad to see a few of my favorites no longer available.

 

Guy's fries were amazing. I don't notice a difference from the way they used to be personally but maybe that's just me.

 

I did not try the pizza but there was almost never a line except on the 2 day booze cruise. They even had a bell on the counter to ding because it was so empty they didn't even stay behind the counter working. It was crazy. 

 

Also didn't do seafood corner, Blue Iguana, Bonsai, or Steakhouse. I heard many complaints about the steakhouse but did not experience it and I'm sure those who did enjoy it didn't go around telling everyone. The ones who did not did, and I heard many random people complaining about the food and service there.

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

After reading some less than flattering reviews about the condition of Miracle and Pride, as well as my own experience on the Conquest which is newer than this ship, I was worried about how well the ship was being upkept.

 

I found almost no signs of neglect or even normal wear and tear. The ice machines on Lido were down a lot and the ATM stayed broken the entire time. I noticed looking at the balconies that I could see onto, they looked in need of some sprucing up. But other than that, the ship was clean and well maintained and anything that was broken was fixed quickly.

 

The ship was easy to navigate but if I'm being honest, I found it odd when anyone holding a red card or higher says Carnival's ships are hard to navigate because you can't walk the entire length of deck 3. After your first cruise, isn't that easy to figure out? But I digress.

 

Lines were rare even in spots you normally expect them like Pizza and deli and GS. Guy's and Blue Iguana were the exception they did tend to have long lines. The buffet was cramped so although the line was short, any line created bottlenecks quickly.

 

There was nowhere near adequate seating in Lido and everyday felt like embarkation day in there. Dinnertime thinned out, but even during off peak hours for breakfast and lunch, seating was hard to find even for two people.

 

The two day cruise, all bets were off. There were lines and crowds everywhere. Except the dining room - almost completely empty.

 

Overall though, I agree the Spirit class is much roomier and easier to navigate than the other classes of ships in the fleet. 

 

I had four different cabins and other than a maintenance issue at midnight I had no real problems with any of the rooms except my two Ocean View rooms. I never did figure out exactly what it was, but there was an awful banging noise outside the windows every day as soon as we entered port and sometimes while at sea. It made sleeping in impossible on port days. Thankfully there were not many ports on the 16 day cruise 😆

 

Avoid booking even cabins from 1120-1140. They are right under the Red Frog Pub and very noisy with the worst being the even cabins from 1128-1134. If you got moved to those cabins, I would try to get moved unless you plan to be out late every night. The noise in the hallway from this area was bad, I imagine inside the cabins was probably the same.

 

[jam19872016]

Entertainment:
 

I felt like for the Alaska cruise the ship did a fantastic job with the programming. They had a number of themed activities for Alaska and a wonderful series of lectures from a naturalist.

 

Panama Canal journeys cruise felt a little more phoned in. They had a speaker who did 9 lectures in total. He had four that were each done twice. Topics like, art history, photography, food, and astrology. You know, things we want to hear about twice on a cruise to Panama.

 

Then he had one lecture on the Panama Canal. In the small lounge where they hold the comedy. During this time the big theater was being used for a shopping talk on Colombia. He said he usually has three seminars on Panama instead of one but this was the schedule and location he was given. They did add an additional seminar so that others could get a chance to see the show.

 

Multiple events were started late because the host of the activity was just finished hosting something else. One seminar started late because it was booked to close to another event in the same lounge. 

 

They also ran very light on things to do for 16 days. If you like trivia and dance classes you are good. Otherwise, pack something to keep yourself entertained and don't rely on the internet to entertain you. It may go out for days at a time lol.

 

I hope that wasn't too negative sounding, I really did enjoy myself and I understand that they don't have a lot of experience hosting a cruise that long and hopefully they will learn what they can improve on and do even better the next time they offer a 16 day Journeys cruise.

 

Beyond that, Spirit had the normal entertainment offerings you expect from Carnival. I heard lots of good things about the comedians. The music around the ship I heard sounded good.

 

The playlist cast. Well, they are starting vacation in the next week or two so I won't bother describing the one performance I saw.

 

The piano bar was closed for most of the final leg of the trip because the performer was sick. I don't know with what but we can speculate.

 

Erin the CD, I absolutely loved her! She is perfect for the Alaska itinerary. She is very entertaining and a great host without being loud and gimmicky like most of the CDs. With the exception of her vacations, she will be CD on Spirit through January 2024. She leaves in November for a vacation but if you get the chance to sail Spirit with her, you are in for a treat. Very sweet lady and an awesome CD.