Spirit Inside Passage NB 8-11-04 to 8-18-04

[Elliern]

Retuned last week from Alaska Cruise on the Spirit. Really enjoyed ourselves. Will just post the good and not quite so good experiences on the Spirit.

Room: Much smaller than most of the other cabins. No sofa, did have a stool that could slide under the desk/vanity. The air conditioner never gave us cool air. Someone looked at it but said there was nothing they could do. The only saving grace was that the air vents were aimed at the bed so at night we did have air that was blowing on us. Our steward sweated bullets! So did we when we were up. We just dressed quickly and left. The room was kept very clean and we were given towels in various animal shapes at night along with our mint.

 

Food: The dining room served excellent meals for breakfast and dinner. The dinner staff was funny, attentive, and provided great service. There was a variety of food offered at both meals. Loved our dinners and the evening staff! Michael from India was great!

The breakfast staff was unfriendly, unattentive with poor service on 3 of the 6 days we ate there. 3 of the days the staff was excellent. The food was always good.

The buffet on the Lido deck was plentiful, but not very good. There was also a limited variety. The staff on the Lido deck appeared to speak very little English, had difficulty answering questions.

 

Shows: Only went to 3. Two were excellent and one was just ok.

 

Crusie Director: Shawn - she was "ok" did not know the answers to several questions that were asked the first day. On the next to last day when she gave information on disembarking did not allow for questions. She just did not seem to be really enjoying her job. Her cheerfulness seemed forced. Was surprised at how much she "didn't know" about the ship, itenerary and where places were located on board. I thought she might be new, but that was not the case.

 

Naturalists: Michelle & Amy: Excellent! Michelle gave two outstanding talks the 2nd day out answered everyone's questions. They were on the bridge and telling us all what and where we should be looking at whenever the ship was sailing. Spotted whales and eagles and kept everyone informed about what we were seeing. They were great!

 

Shops: I thought there would be more, but what was there seemed to be reasonably priced with good stock.

 

Activities: Seemed plentiful with something going on for everyone. Plenty of deck chairs and lounges.

 

Casino: Seemed ok to me...didn't win, but enjoyed it. Had a variety of machines and tables. Could be smokey at times. But that is true of many.

 

Purser's Office: Very helpful when ship was 2 1/2 hours late to port. Very polite.

 

Ship's cleanliness: Really clean most places. Very surprised at how dirty the carpets were. That is what we saw first when we boarded...really dirty carpets! One person we met complained of dirty and stained bedspread.

 

Ship Decor: OK..not elaborate, not fancy but mostly nice. Liked the dark wood. Public areas comfortable and clean.

 

Ship's schedule: Very late getting into Juneau, this has been an ongoing problem according the prior accounts, yet nothing was done to let passengers know ahead of time. Our itenerary said we would arrive at 9am, the schedule handed out on ship said 11 am, then we were told that was wrong it was really 9 am, then later we were told no, it would be 10 am, We arrived at 11:30.

 

Since this was our first cruise, not sure if our complaints were really valid or our expectations just too high. Either way, the good out-weighed the bad. We enjoyed ourselves and the cruise and ports were great. Wish we had longer. Will definitely consider Carnival again.

Ellie

[akeka]

Thanks for the Spirit review. I'm curious about your room was smaller than others? Did you have a 1A?

 

Thanks.