Carnival Spirit Review - 3/28-4/5/09

[cathyz]

DH (Wolfie48) and I just returned from a cruise on the Spirit with 26 of our friends. Here is a review of some of our activities, but with such a large group, we tend to do less around the ship and spend time with our group

instead.

 

Embarkation was really easy, we left the Holiday Inn Bayside about 10:00 and parked across the street from the pier and walked over, dropped our checked luggage with the porters in the middle of the pier (the ship was on the far side of the pier away from the building). We waited inside for about 30 minutes and then started going through security and checking in. Fortunately we were in the first row of seats so were able to check in right after the VIPs and handicapped and since the computers were down and they were doing everything manually. I think the people at the end of the lines had to wait quite a while. We then waited for 15 minutes or so inside and then they started boarding, we had to walk back outside across the pier to the ship. We had several cruise newbies in the group and

we were hoping we could enter directly into the lobby for the wow factor, but that was not to be. Since the Spirit had just returned from dry dock, there were no passangers disembarking, so we were able to go right to our cabins and drop off our stuff and then we met up at the fantail bar for drinks and lunch.

 

The ship was in really good shape and had new carpeting almost everywhere (lots of carpet fuzz balls all the time). Some said the mattresses were not new as promised, but our bed was very comfortable. Everyone in our group was very happy with their various cabins (several suites, but mostly balcony cabins, and one interior). We had happy hour

every day, mostly in our cabin (7258 with the extra long balcony), but also in a couple of the suites. We were very near an elevator/stair area, but heard no noise. Since we've never been on the Spirit before (the Pride though), it was hard to tell what was new as a result of dry dock. There are 2 new flat screen TVs at the fantail bar that had sports and/or news on all the time. The aft adult hot tub was out of service after the first day, but the pool was working. The weather was pretty cold the first and last days, but quite warm in the ports. The ocean was extremely smooth, almost lake glassy sometimes. There was a bit of movement on the last return day, but not bad at all.

 

The whole group sat together at late seating in the dining room every night (except an occasional group or couple that went to the supper club on certain nights). Everyone in our group thought the dining room food was excellant. Several in our group ordered the premium wine package, and found some good wines to enjoy with dinner. We all ate

breakfast and lunch in various places. DH and I mostly ate at the grill, or pizza, or deli, or salad bar and everything was really good. I asked around our group for their opinions and only had a couple folks say the bread

on their deli sandwiches was a little stale, otherwise, everyone loved the food. And there was the ever popular soft serve ice cream!

 

The passengers on the cruise were of all ages, babies to seniors. Even though this is considered spring break, there were no problems with any spring break groups. The CD, Marky Marc, said there were 350 kids on board, but we saw very few of them except in organized Camp Carnival activities. Marky Marc was a good CD, not overwhelming, but there when you expected him to be. His morning show with Brandon was pretty funny, lots of corny jokes. We hung out at the casino bar after dinner several nights, the entertainer there, Doug, was good and quite entertaining. DH and I didn't go to the new show in the showroom, but many in our group did and said it was excellent. We went to

both the Captain's cocktail party (drinks but no appetizers anymore) and the past guest party (drinks and appetizers) and had a good time at both.

 

Debarkation was also relatively easy. Most of our group had debarkation number 18 (except the suites who got number 2) and we were off the ship by about 10:00 which was a little late only because several of the non-U.S. citizens were paged over and over to meet immigration so they could clear the ship for the rest of us. They had to make 2 announcements in German because a German man never showed up, the 2nd announcement for him was when they called our number. The Elation was also in port, so it was pretty crowded on the pier and street, but since we parked just

across the street, it was easy to get to the car and out of the area. A friend who had to catch a shuttle to one of the cheaper airport parking lots waited an hour and a half to finally get on a shuttle. Once we got our luggage we had to wait in a huge line just to hand in our customs declaration forms to a Carnival employee and get out the door, as usual there were no customs people there checking people through.

 

There is a link to our pictures in my signature, but they still need a little more work (sub-titles and rearranging).

[Fazzdaan]

Thanks for the review and the photos. I want to do the galley tour next week.