We Love Our Cruise on the Spirit...Mobile, AL Not So Much w/Pics

[grima625]

I enjoyed your review. Thank you for sharing it. 

[Noledad77]

We cruised out of Mobile in July of 2019 and it was absolutely seamless. We drove over the morning of and had no issues with parking (which I had arranged about a month ahead of time), even with a 12-passenger van and parking in a handicap accessible spot.

Once inside, everyone was very friendly. Even gave me a bag to carry the 3x 12 packs of sodas around (which I will NEVER do again). Checked in just fine, security was great and didn't have to wait a long time for boarding. I guess it's all about when you cruise out of there. I've only sailed from there and Port Canaveral and both were equally simple and well-organized. Sailing from Tampa this summer, and hopefully it will be a piece of cake (who doesn't love cake??).

Anyhow, great detailed review! Thank you for sharing!

[F27TW]

 

 

Uhhh ..     🤭

[marsh-angler]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:52 AM, Oakman58 said:

Feb 10      Sea Day last day of the cruise

 

I was up very early today.  While my wife slept, I went out to take a few pictures of the ship before everyone else got out and about.  I loved the seating in the theater, the lower level had bench type seating with a table and the upper level had very comfortable high back seating.  I didn’t get the connection of the Egyptian theme of the theater to the rest of the ship if there even is a theme.  Even the tables on the lower level of the theater had the Egyptian motif. 

 

 

 

Even though we never use it, I wanted to see what the laundry room on our deck looked like.  I was surprised it was being used so early in the morning, and on the last day of the cruise at that.  The laundry room was absolutely spotless.

 

When I got back to our cabin my wife was awake so we headed to the buffet for breakfast.  I was happy to see they had bacon available.  After eating we headed outside to the pool area and ordered a couple of, what else, Banana Daiquiris.

 

The Fun Times mentioned the shops were having a $10 sales event, but we went there we were told all the sale items were up on the Lido Deck.  Back up on the Lido Deck we were disappointed the only things on sale were cheap watches and T-shirts. Oh well, we decided to get another “breakfast of champions.”

 

I’m sure by this time, when we ordered our banana daiquiris this cartoon typifies how the crew viewed us.

 

We went back to our cabin before going to lunch and our cabin steward had left us a towel heart on the bed.  That was a nice touch.

 

After lunch my wife went back to the cabin and I wanted to look at deck 10 by the steakhouse.  When we went to dinner the previous night I noticed some picnic tables outside on the deck.  Somehow I missed seeing these tables when I explored the ship on the other sea days.  The tables were on both the port and starboard side of deck 10.

 

Back in our cabin we enjoyed our balcony for a bit and then decided it was time to start packing for the trip home tomorrow.  We took a break from packing and watched the Jimmie Stewart movie, Harvey, on Turner Classic Movies.

 

We knew Mardi Gras parades were scheduled for our port day tomorrow so we decided to do the self-assist debarkation with our luggage.  We scheduled our walk off for 7:30 AM.

 

We ate dinner in the Main Dining room and then went back to our cabin to finish packing and chill out.  We loved this cruise, but we were ready to get back to the comfort of our home.

 

Feb 11th     Mobile Alabama

 

I think it was around 6 AM when we arrived back in Mobile. 

 

We didn’t realize we had been assigned to a specific self-assist group number/letter when we scheduled our walk-off.  We went down to debark at 7:30 and we were asked what group we were assigned.  We had no clue and the crewman looked at our app and told us our group hadn’t been called yet. We were apparently too early to leave the ship.   It turned out we were assigned to group E.  We had to wait until our group was called for walk off.

 

By the time they called our group to disembark it was 8:10 and we must have been among the last to do the self-assist walk off.   Going through customs was Facial Recognition and was a breeze.

 

Outside the terminal we expected to get a cab at a cab stand.  That’s when we found out there was no cab stand and by the time we left the ship all the cabs and airports shuttles were gone.

 

With the noise outside the terminal and me being hard of hearing, calling a cab was an exercise in comedy but we finally caught a cab to the airport.  The ride to the airport took about 45 minutes and we were charged $65 which I thought was high.

 

In the airport at the American Airlines counter there was one employee checking passenger luggage.  There were two kiosks for checking in but those machines didn’t issue luggage tags, we had to check our luggage at the counter.

 

There were only 5 people in front of us to check in but it took forever because a group of 6 family members who were currently being checked in all had overweight luggage and kept shifting clothes around and reweighing over and over to avoid paying extra.  That went on forever and it took over 45 minutes in line before we finally had our luggage checked.  Man, as far as I’m concerned Mobile Alabama ain’t ready for prime-time cruising.  That’s just my opinion.

 

Our flight back to St. Louis via Charlotte was easy but we did experience heavy turbulence on most of the flight from Charlotte.  And that my Cruise Critic friends is the end of this cruise report.

 

We will be on the Spirit again in March 2025 when we take her from Miami, FL to Seattle, WA for her Alaska cruise season.

 

I'll be with you on the March 2025 sailing from Miami. It will be the second half of a B2B from Barcelona Transatlantic crossing.

 

[Oakman58]

16 hours ago, marsh-angler said:

I'll be with you on the March 2025 sailing from Miami. It will be the second half of a B2B from Barcelona Transatlantic crossing.

 

 

That's very cool.  I hope you have smooth sailing and a great cruise crossing the Atlantic

[Oakman58]

I forgot to include this photo in my report.  The folks in this cabin not only had great door decorations, they also put little candies out in two holders for passengers to take and enjoy.  That was really a great idea.

 

[1st]

Does anyone know if this ship is similiar to the Miracle?

[tha sista]

8 minutes ago, 1st said:

Does anyone know if this ship is similiar to the Miracle?

Yes it’s a sister ship. Same class. My fav