Heidi and Ryan Smith

Age: 31
Occupation: stay at home mom to 3 kids
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Ship: Carnival Spirit
Sailing Date: January 14th, 2002
Itinerary: Exotic Western Caribbean

Our 2002 Carnival Spirit Review

Ok…here is our review for what it is worth! We are in our 30’s and can have a good time doing just about anything! We took the Carnival Fly Aweigh Package (we always do) and they put us up at the Wyndham Airport Hotel, which was nice although it cost us 20 bucks to go to Bayside for something to do.

Day 1 – Monday January 14, 2002 Embarkation!

Got up around 9:00 am and went to the Lobby to pre-register for the ship. I think that is one of the nicest things about buying your airfare and night before package with Carnival is the fact that they pre-check you in at the hotel so you avoid the LONG lines at the pier! It still took us about 30-40 minutes to get registered at the hotel and once that was done we went back to our room to watch TV and chill until it was time to check out at 11 am. We had brought some Krispy Kreme doughnuts from home so we ate those for breakfast figuring that we would have a huge lunch when we got on the ship. At 11 we went downstairs and checked out and took our entire luggage outside with us until it was time to go. We sat by the pool and read until about 11:35 and then we headed into the lounge in the hotel to wait until we could get on the busses at noon. At about 10 min until 1200 they started loading us onto the busses. They made sure all the luggage got on the bus, took our transfer tickets and we were off. It took about 10 – 15 min to get to the pier from the hotel. When we pulled in the Carnival Fascination was in port as well as a Royal Caribbean Ship. The Spirit was beautiful sitting in port. Got off the bus and immediately got hit up for tips and got TOLD by the porter that we tip him THEN AND THERE and he stood there until he got it! I thought that was quite rude but we paid him (we would have anyway) and took off towards the pier door. When we got inside we went through one security checkpoint and you could see hundreds of people already waiting in the LONG check in lines so I was glad that we had already done that. They put a sticker on a ticket in your pamphlet and then they know you pre-registered already. We headed up to the 2nd floor where we got our sign and sail cards. I was immediately ticked off to say the least that they had given us late seating when I booked this cruise over a year ago and asked for early seating! I was still mulling this over on the way up to the 3rd floor. Up there we walked a long ways until we hit a long line! There were windows all the way along and you walked along side the ship all the way. The anticipation was mounting but I was still furious about the late/early-seating thing! The LONG line was for the stupid embarkation pictures!! Ours stunk because I was still fuming over the late/early seating thing. Once we got through that long line it was down an escalator where they didn’t have anyone down there directing traffic so by the time we got down to the bottom of the escalator we had nowhere to go! I was annoyed but they finally got someone to come tell people to keep moving! Then it was another long line which moved pretty quickly where you had to have your sign and sail card ready and you insert it into the machine and they take your picture for security checks. Then down a little hallway like an airport jet way and BOOM onto the ship we were! From hitting the pier until stepping 1 foot in the atrium on the ship was 30 minutes so not bad. My first impression was IT WAS AMAZING! I LOVED the atrium décor! It was so classy and not as glitzy as the other Carnival Ships! Lots of dark woods and wood tones! I loved it! There was a HUGE mural from the 4th floor to the 10th floor and it was neat!!! We decided while waiting we would go to the room, drop off our luggage and head straight to the tour desk, then to Nouveau Supper Club and then to the Spa and finally to the Lido deck to eat lunch. We went to our room and they had the tour forms in the room along with a pamphlet about each tour offered. We spent about 10 minutes filling that out and then we headed to the tour desk back on deck 2. We got tired of waiting for an elevator to go to our room, which was the Empress Deck Aft room 6219, and it was a GREAT LOCATION! I LOVED IT! So convenient! We were right by the Atrium and only had 1 balcony neighbor! Anyway we went downstairs to the tour desk and turned in our tour form. Later on I found out that a lot of the tours were sold out BEFORE we even left Miami! I was glad that we put our requests in early! Then we headed up on an elevator thankfully, to the Nouveau Supper Club and got our reservations for Wednesday night! They had to change our itinerary because there were going to be 4 ships in Belize that first day if they didn’t so we went to Panama first and went backwards which was fine with us….we didn’t care! Anyway we got the Supper Club reservations on the night we wanted at the time we wanted and it didn’t appear that many people were in a hurry to book it because the night we went it was almost empty! Then we headed up to the spa to make a couple’s massage appointment! We let the girl there talk us into 2 spa reservations…1 for the next day (Tuesday) and one for the following Monday. The couple’s massage is a 50 minute massage and it cost $170.00 total (VERY worth the money in our opinion). Then we finally headed off to the lunch buffet on the Lido deck! They had really good lasagna and pasta along with Pizza, Chinese, Rotisserie stuff and a Salad Bar. Good variation!! About 2 we went to the dining room to see the Maitre D’ about our seating time and it was a JOKE! I couldn’t believe it took us 45 min to get to see him and then he told us he wouldn’t know until the next day so we had to go to late seating that night which was fine. We were in a booth near the back of the dining room for 4 people, table number 204. About 3 we got all of our luggage so we decided that we would hurry and unpack before the Muster Drill, which happened about 4pm. The drill took until about 4:30 and we ran back to our cabin and headed up to the very front of the ship to watch us sail out. They had scuba divers checking the ship and they finally unhooked us from the pier. We had to go down to the end and turn around and we were being escorted by a Coast Guard Boat and Police Boat who would not let ANYONE in the Channel while we were turning around or heading out to sea! There were National Guardsmen on the side of the road across from the pier with fully loaded guns also! They stopped quite a few boats from going down the channel and I felt completely safe! We headed out to sea and we went down to get ready for dinner and do more exploring! At 7:00 we went to Karaoke for a while and it was ok…lots of blah singing but it was ok for something to do until dinnertime. I was a little mad because they scheduled Who Wants To Be A Millionaire at 8 pm and late dinner started at 8:15 so we missed that! I thought they should have waited until dinner was done for both seatings but oh well. We went to dinner and met our tablemates! Carrie and Mark from Chicago who we just hit it off with right away! We had a great time chatting at dinner. Afterwards we went to the welcome aboard show and I got my first glimpse at Shawn Bussey! I really liked her enthusiasm but I had no idea that would be one of the few times I would actually see her! We had a great time at the welcome aboard show! We were beat so we went to bed shortly afterwards!

Day 2 – Tuesday January 15, 2002 At Sea

Got up at 9:15 or so and got ready to go to our Couples Massage after we ate breakfast. Headed up to the Lido deck for our breakfast and I was NOT impressed here at all! The food was ALL cold and the variety stunk! I did like that they did made to order omelets however! It was cloudy and windy today! We headed over to our 10:30 spa appointment and got checked in. Went to the locker rooms, put on our robes and headed to the waiting area at the front of the spa near the hot tub! Thought that the hot tub looked really nice until some gross guy who had just got done working out came down from the gym, all sweaty and gross and just hopped right into the hot tub without showering! That made me sick to my stomach!! We waited and waited and waited for someone to come get us. Finally my husband headed up to see what was up. Seems that the girl who made the reservations for us messed up big time and put us down for 2 at the END Of the cruise (something she talked US OUT of doing) and so my husband got a little huffy and they offered to give us a massage the next morning at 10:30 for a reduced rate. We went back and got changed and headed out to the cloudy outside. We went to our cabin to get our suits on and got a notice from the Maitre D’ that they had changed our dinner seating to the main seating and how ironic we had the same exact table just the earlier seating! We went up to the Lido deck near the Dome pool, found 2 chairs and hung out pretty much all afternoon. Ate Lunch on the Lido….had Pizza and Salad and it was pretty good! We liked that Carnival only gave out the towels in your room instead of having the bins on deck it seemed to HELP cut down on the chair saving although then people started putting books and stuff on them (seemed to be stuff they didn’t care if they lost or not) but we still didn’t have any problems finding a chair! We headed down to our room to get ready for early seating! We went to the early seating and met Joe and Jackie who were VERY nice people but we just didn’t hit it off with them like we did the first couple! Tonight was the first formal night and it was the Captains Dinner so we went to the Cocktail party first and got our pictures taken. Dinner was the Lobster dinner and it was very good! I can’t remember what else there was but that I do remember was Lobster and Prime Rib. After dinner we went to the crummy show in the Pharaoh’s Palace. It was called Standing Room Only and seemed to be a tribute to Musicals, which, neither of us can stand to listen to so we left! I wasn’t impressed with the costumes or the dancers on this ship. Tonight was the first R rated late night comedy act and we decided to go. We happened to meet our late night dinner seating couple and we all decided to go to the comedy show so we met up outside the show and watched it. It was hilarious! After the show we went to the disco to get a drink since we couldn’t find another open bar. It was so loud and obnoxious in there that we left and went and sat in the Artist’s Lobby. Eddie Capone (the comedian) came by and Mark (our new friend from dinner) asked him if he could buy him a drink. We ended up having quite a few laughs with Eddie and at 2 am we went upstairs to have some pizza. By this time I was a walking zombie so we decided to call it a night and go to bed.

Day 3 – Wednesday January 16, 2002 Sea Day again

Woke up around 9 again to LOTS of sunshine! Today was supposed to be our “makeup” massage for the one they messed up the day before so we headed once again to the Lido deck for some breakfast and to the Library to email the kids and then off to the Spa for our treatment. Luckily this time they had us down and we went and got a great massage. Afterwards we went into the locker rooms to get dressed and I tried out their shower. I want one in my house. They had jets in the sides and then one on top and so it hit your body at lots of angles. It was so nice!! We saw they had a slot tournament and so we decided to enter it. It cost 20 dollars and if you won you won $500.00 so we went for it. We entered and had to be back at the casino at 1:10. We went upstairs and laid out for a while and had some lunch until it was time to go to the slot tournament. Of course neither of us did anything in the slot tournament so we donated 40 dollars to Carnival. Went back to the chairs for more lying out and it was SO windy. The boat was rocking quite a bit and I wasn’t feeling that well even after taking another Meclazine. About 3 we tried to go to Battle of the Sexes part 2 outside Club Cool on deck 2 but I got really sick and had to go lay down. I fell asleep until 5 and then woke up and got ready for the Supper Club. Our reservation was at 6:30 and we arrived on time! I didn’t get all snazzed up but should have I guess. I wore a nice pair of pants and a nice shirt and felt very under-dressed. Next time I will take a nice pantsuit or something. They seated us upstairs next to the railing so we could look down onto the dance floor. They brought my husband Asparagus soup and they brought me a quail egg, which I did not eat. My husband said the soup was very salty and he ate my quail egg, which he said he would never eat again. The waiter brought them as “compliments of the chef” but who knows why. They brought wonderful bread and I had really good French Onion Soup with what seemed to be sweet onions. Husband had Crab Cakes and said they were superb! We had our choice of Caesar Salad or Spinach Salad and we both chose the Spinach Salad. It was really good even if it had mushrooms in it! Then on to the Main course! I had a 9 oz. Filet Mignon that was so tender I could cut with my fork and husband had 12 oz. New York Strip, which he said, was also good. You could choose from a 9 oz Filet, a 12 oz New York or a 24 oz. Porterhouse along with Joes Stone Crab or Lobster Tail. Great presentation and we ordered Baked Potatoes, which came on their own plate with small little individual portions of sour cream, butter, chives, you name it to put on the potato. Finally came dessert which husband had Flourless Chocolate Cake and said it was delicious. I ordered the cheesecake sampler and it was wonderful as well. Then they brought us some petit fours and they were really yummy too! My advice would be to GO HUNGRY that is for sure! I wasn’t feeling very well because of the motion of the boat so I didn’t enjoy it like I wish I could have. They brought us an anniversary cake since it was our 10th wedding anniversary and it was yummy as well. It took about 3 hours from start to finish and it was worth every penny! We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the service was impeccable! We were going to dance but some other couples were trying and they could hardly stand up it was rocking so badly! I wasn’t feeling all that well anyway! We left the restaurant and met our tablemates again. We decided since we left the late seating they didn’t have anyone sitting with them that we would go back to the late seating and be with them who we had a lot more in common with. I still didn’t feel well so we decided to call it a night and I went to bed. We had an early morning the next morning in Panama so I wanted to be well rested and refreshed!

Day 4 – Thursday January 17, 2002 Panama

Set a wakeup call for 6:15 since we had to meet at lounge by 7 am for our Panama Canal tour. Went to Lido deck and got some breakfast and brought It back to our cabin and watched us pull into port on our balcony while eating breakfast. It was really pretty!!! Went to the lounge and we were off the boat by 7:20 and on to the tour busses to take us to the Panama Canal. Took us 1 ½ hours to ride on the bus to the Canal but it was worth it all! In the Carnival brochure of tours it says they will give you a snack. It consisted of a ham sandwich on a bun, a banana muffin and a warm soft drink! It was SO hot…around 90 degrees that day so we were dying! We saw that the sandwich had Mayo on it so we didn’t eat it. After being on the tour for 6 hours we were starving when we got back. Going on this tour was a highlight that is for sure! We went through 3 locks and it was amazing!!!! Got back to the port at 2:30 and did some shopping. Bought some Lladro at a store there for me and my mom at really great prices. Then we got into a horrendous line to get back on board the ship. The Security people from Carnival were wanding every single person going onto the ship so that took awhile plus you put your card into a reader and they make sure you are you! Then the stuff goes through the X Ray machine and you are ready to go to your room or wherever. Went to the Lido deck and brought lunch back to the room to watch us leave. Watched us pull out and sat on balcony for a while and then went to dinner. Tonight was another show in the Lounge called Singing with the Big Band A Tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. It was excellent to say the least!! We really enjoyed it!!! After we headed into the Casino for another “donation” and then headed off to bed. We had another big day tomorrow in Costa Rica.

Day 5 – Friday January 18, 2002 Costa Rica

Ordered Room Service today and ate on our Balcony watching us come into port again in Costa Rica. We decided to go into town right after the boat got into port because our tour didn’t meet until 12:30. We walked quite a ways until we hit the city and I was really nervous to be the only Americans in the city at that time and we don’t speak Spanish. It looked like a very poor place from the moment I started walking into the city and I was sad about that. We wandered around trying to find some stuff to bring home and we also tried to keep ourselves from getting Tourist Brain (where it looks really cool on vacation and then you get home and wonder what on earth you are going to do with THAT!) LOL Anyway we headed back to the ship not realizing that there is a tram that will pick you up at the ship and take you to an open-air market place where you can shop! It of course started to rain and so we got wet making our way back to the ship! We went on the Lido deck and got some lunch and then headed off to the pier because that is where our Off Road tour met. Got there and was told by Tracey (tour manager) that the vehicle would be there shortly! Waited until 1 pm and still no vehicle. Come to find out the Celebrity ship was in port too and they somehow got first billing on that tour and they couldn’t find out where the tour was they had lost radio contact with them so for that reason I am glad we couldn’t go but it was still disappointing! We threw a tour together on our own however that included a site seeing tour, trip to a banana plantation and a trip down the Torturengo Canal all for 25 bucks a person. Carnival refunded our money, which I was happy to hear!!! In the Canal we saw 2 and 3-toed sloths, monkeys, various birds and a baby crocodile. Headed back to the ship around 4 pm and were getting ready for us to sail off when they announced that we would be leaving 2 hours later than expected because 2 of the tours hadn’t made it back. No problem (or so I thought at the time) and so we waited until 7 before we pulled out of port and set sail for Belize. We had a narrow encounter with a cargo ship, which missed the front of our boat by a few feet. We had really annoying balcony neighbors below us that kept giving each other the “play by play” of what was happening to the ship. It got really annoying!! Tonight they played the 3 Bears game but of course we were at dinner and missed it. Tonight was also the guest talent show but we decided to hang out with Mark and Carrie and have a great time together just doing nothing!! At 11 we went upstairs on the Lido deck for a party and it just plain sucked! The band 2 slick sucked too!! It was a joke! It was supposed to be a Mexican Fiesta and we got stuck listening to songs from the Commodores and stuff! The whole thing seemed stupid to us so we left. We decided to call it a night around midnight!

Day 6 – Saturday January 19, 2002 At Sea

Was up all night due to the motion not feeling well and sitting in the bathroom all night long! The boat movement was SO bad today! Worse than any other day so far! Very windy and very rocky and it was hard to walk or do anything. The Captain was trying to make up the 2 hours we were late leaving from Costa Rica in order to get us to Belize on time and it was great except for the movement!! We went to the Lido deck and by this time I had had it with the breakfasts on the ship! I know there aren’t a whole lot of variations for breakfast but they could have at least been “lukewarm” when we ate them! I was annoyed at this the whole cruise! I thought breakfast ANYWHERE even the dining room was terrible the whole week!! We went to the spa again for another massage and it was nice although I got a really deep massage and my back hurt to touch it for 2 days afterwards! We decided to lie out in the sun for a while until lunch. The movement of the ship seemed to get better as the morning wore on so that was good! I was finally able to feel more like myself! We went to lunch in the dining room and it was excellent! I think the best lunch I had all week!! The only downside was the terrible vibration in the dining room! It was worse at that lunch than at any other time! I couldn’t believe how loud and obnoxious it became the longer we sat there! We went back upstairs on deck near the spa and laid out again and it was nice!! Today they did the Survivor Game, a ship wide scavenger hunt, Ping Pong Tournament for the Ladies, Golf Putting Competition, and they also played Sea Feud (something similar we heard to Family Feud). Today was also the Galley tour. We went to get ready for dinner (the days just kind of slip away from you and all of a sudden it is time to go eat AGAIN! LOL) and so we went to dinner and then headed to the Casino. We eventually made our way up to the Shanghai Piano Bar for some singing….which sucked! Too many old songs, not enough life to the party....just all around boring! It didn’t seem like they had a lot going on this ship this time. When we went on the Destiny they always had something going like a Merengue Dance class or something but this ship it didn’t seem like they had a whole lot to do. Of course there was the usual “people making fools of themselves in deck games” and some bingo which cost a fortune! 10 dollars for 3 cards and only 1 game for all 3 cards and whoever won and that was it....you were out 10 bucks! I didn’t like that aspect of it either! To drop 20 bucks to play 1 round of bingo seemed a little pricey to us! It seemed that they were catering to the “older” crowd (no offense to them) and so the stuff stopped about 10 pm. I remember thinking at night….what are we going to do after dinner??? We always found a way to entertain ourselves but they didn’t seem to have much going on EVER!! I was disappointed with that!!! Tonight was Showtime with Amy Van Wyk who we were NOT impressed with at all. She had a screechy voice to us. Headed off to bed around 11:30 to get ready for Belize the next day!

Day 7 – Sunday January 20, 2002 Belize

Ordered room service in our cabin again and it came about 7:15 ish. We ate and we were still sailing but we had to be in the lounge at 8:15 to get ready to go on our scuba excursion. Got there about 8 am and just as we got there Shawn Bussey announced that we wouldn’t be dropping anchor until at least 9 am! We were still an hour behind schedule from the Costa Rica late departure even though we had made up 1 hour we still were an hour behind so we sat in the lounge and waited. Met some other divers and it was nice for me since this was my first open water dive I was very apprehensive about it all!!! Finally at 9am they made the announcement that in about 20 min we would have dropped anchor and that they would start disembarking the tours first!! At 9:20 they called the first tour!! At 10 am we were still sitting in the lounge. They called tours in numerical order starting with tour 801 and ours was 814 so we had a long time to wait. Since Belize is surrounded by barrier reef you have to tender in and it takes about 15 min to tender to the pier and they only had about 8 –10 boats tendering so it took awhile! At about 10:10 they started disembarking people with Tender tickets BEFORE those of us who had spent a fortune on the Carnival tour, which really really really irked me! I was furious at the thought that I had paid almost 200 bucks a person and those who didn’t pay a cent were getting off before me! NEVER in my cruising, has this happened! The tour people were always given preferential treatment since we had places to go and time frames to meet! Went on the Norwegian Norway and we had to tender in every port and they NEVER let those who didn’t have a tour go before those who did!! I was furious by this time!!! Finally at about 20 min to 11 they finally called our tour (out of order….they were only on tour number 807 when we got called) and we headed down to the loaded and busy gangway on Deck A. Thankfully our Scuba boat was waiting for us at the ship so we loaded off on that boat and saved 15 min in tendering and we were off. We went to the Turneffe Atoll and docked. It was about an hour boat ride to get there and we got our equipment set up and ready to go and then we anchored down. We split into 3 groups of about 8 each with a dive master. It was a VERY well organized tour! I was SO impressed with this operation!! I had done research on my own before I found out that Carnival had hired Hugh Parkey to do the scuba tour for them and found nothing but good reviews on them so I was confident that things would be great and they were. We went down 60 feet or so along a reef and we saw some great stuff. We saw a sea turtle; a barracuda only about 10 feet from us (looked more like 2 feet LOL) but it was neat! He was very polite; let us all look at him, showed all of us his teeth and then took off. We got to touch the sea turtle so that was really cool. We also saw beautiful fish!!! Then we surfaced, had a snack of chips and salsa, sweet rolls, orange wedges and pop. Then we had been out about an hour so we got to do again to the other side of the reef and they were only 20 feet apart but completely different places it seemed! On the 2nd side we saw a HUGE grouper in the distance, a Moray Eel, schools and schools of fish and the best part was a baby octopus! It was so neat!!! Once we were done we boarded the boat and headed back to the Ship. We got there and only had about 40 min to go to the pier (one of the major drawbacks to being an hour late arriving and an hour later getting off the ship) so we hurried and tendered to the pier. It was beautiful there! It reminded me a little of Grand Cayman (or what I saw at the pier) with really nice stores and people!! Finally we caught one of the last tenders back to the ship and got to our room about 5 pm. We were exhausted from diving (not realizing how much it takes out of you) and so we slowly got ready for dinner. Tonight was the last Formal night (bad night to do it in my opinion) and so we got dressed and headed out. I found the ship to be VERY cool at night and needed a sweater every single night! Tonight was NO exception! I was freezing and the dining room was especially cold every night! I was miserable to say the least!! I sat through dinner with my teeth chattering and goose bumps all over my arms and I didn’t like that! It seemed our table was right below an air conditioner vent and it was freezing! I also hated having to rush to get ready for formal night after a very exhausting day of tendering and touring. I felt they could have re-arranged the schedule and done that formal night the night before! The dinners have all been ok. Some were very good and some were very poor! I had Prime Rib this night and it was so tough I could hardly chew it, which is something I have never had with Prime Rib. The selections were ok on appetizers and the salad selection never seemed to change ever. It was always mixed greens or a Caesar Salad and those were your choices. The Desserts were ok too….typical Baked Alaska and Cherries Jubilee neither of which I like. They had one night with really good Éclairs and one night with awesome apple pie which we had alamode! The desserts were pretty good in flavor also. We were really looking forward to Key Lime Pie but of course they served that the night we went to the Supper Club! LOL The show tonight was High Spirits featuring Amy Van Wyk and Christopher Alan Graves and the Spirit Dancers. I personally didn’t go to this show but my husband and our tablemates did and said after about 20 min they got bored and left. They said it started out ok and then it went into a “ghost” theme and it wasn’t that great so they left. Tonight they had another adult comedy show in the Versailles Lounge and the comedian was David Saye which none of them thought was worth listening to. He didn’t make any of them laugh!! At midnight was the Gala Buffet and I fell asleep and didn’t make it to see it but hubby did and said it was ok. Our tablemates went to it to eat it and said it looked a lot better than it tasted. They said it was all pretty bland! They let you take pictures from 11:30 until 12:30 am and our wonderful waiter Danillo told us a tip to go UPSTAIRS in the Dining room instead of on the main level and you will avoid the long lines so that is what my husband did and he said he got MUCH better pictures up there although there were probably some heads in the way it was nice to not have to stand in the line for an hour and wait to see food! I fell asleep after dinner and missed all of this but from what I was told by Hubby and Tablemates I didn’t miss ANYTHING!

Day 8 – Monday January 21, 2002 Last and Final Sea Day

Today I woke up to the feeling that I don’t know how people stay on a ship much longer than what we have been on because at this point I was ready to go home. I felt like I had been gone forever which was good because that meant the trip didn’t fly by and I was looking forward to packing up and going home. Woke up about 9 am again (seems to be our magical time) and went up for our 2nd to last yucky breakfast meal on the Lido deck. Off to the Spa for our final massage, which was really good although I felt a little pressure to buy something I withstood it and said no. I felt really bad about saying no for some reason but thankfully after a small no thank you and then a firmer no thank you they let it go. We went and took a shower in the showers in the spa locker room again (anyone can use them not just spa people…should have gone in there before dinner every night because no shower curtains to deal with and large roomy stalls! But anyway took a shower and then headed out to lie in the sun and bake! It was SO hot today in the sun!! Went and got some lunch and tried to lay out some more but we just got so hot we got sick!! Today on deck they did an ice carving demonstration followed by the deck games finale. They also FINALLY did a dance class, which was the Austin Powers Dance Class, but we didn’t go. At 3pm they did the newlywed/not so newlywed game and then at 3:30 they did Up Close and Personal where you can ask Shawn and her staff what life Is really like on a ship! I heard that was pretty cool but we decided to go during that time and pack up most of our stuff so we wouldn’t have to do it later that evening! It took us about an hour to get packed up and ready to go. Sat in our cabin (wanted to use the balcony but we couldn’t because it was just too windy) so we sat in the cabin and read for a while. Time to get ready for dinner again! We went to dinner and had a great time for our last dinner!! The waiter and his helper (cant get used to the new titles!) but they were great!! We tipped them over and above the sign and sail tips on our account because they were fabulous! Our dinner was superb this last night! Tonight the show was Farewell Showtime, which featured the Juggling Entertainment of Steve Athearn and the Comedy of David Saye (who was the comedian the night before or 2 that my husband didn’t laugh once at) so we skipped it. We went to the Casino again and made our final contribution there and then we went to go email our kids one last time. Got to the Internet library about 10:10 and just got online and they kicked me off saying it closed at 10 pm. NOWHERE did I read that they closed that early so I was a little perturbed! We decided it was late and we had to get up really early to make it to our last and final breakfast (thank goodness for that) so we went to finish our last minute packing and put our luggage in the hall and went to bed.

Day 9 – Tuesday January 22, 2002 Disembarkation Day

Woke up this morning to a wake up call at 6:30 and got up to watch us pull into Miami! I was somewhat sad to think that reality was going to set in soon but I was also ready to go home and see my kids!! We went to the dining room and they did the open seating thing which I HATE! We got stuck with some boys who we didn’t know, didn’t care to know and just wanted to eat and get on with it. Finally we saw our dinner tablemates come in just as we were getting ready to order so we bolted and ate with them at a table! POOR POOR POOR service here this morning! It was as if they knew they already had their money and we were leaving so “go away” type of an attitude! I was disgusted by the “smart a$$” comments our waiter made to us and wrote it down in my comment card which I lost later on in the day!! During breakfast they called out 1 lucky comment card winner of a whopping $100.00 just for filling out the card. We headed upstairs to get our stuff and you could sit in the Lounge, on the Lido Deck or on the Promenade deck. This morning we also got our final bill of our sign and sail card and the Spa had made a billing mistake and charged us 150 bucks more than we should have been charged and then only credited us 60 dollars back so we were still short on the money we were credited so we headed to the pursers desk. We got there only to be informed that that would be handled by the Spa people at the spa after 8 am. Went up there around 9 and no one around so hubby went back to the pursers desk and waited until they could find the manager. At about 9:20 they started calling out colors to disembark and our color was the first one to get called. I was in NO hurry to get off the ship and we were still waiting for Spa manager so we waited around until she came. We showed her what the problem was and she fixed it without any problems at all. Gave us our credit and we decided to head out to the airport because our flight was at 12:55 (good thing we did too!). We walked off the ship and since we waited until almost everyone from our color had gone off our luggage was SIMPLE to find!! We walked through customs no problem at all and we went outside to an organized mess! LOL We were told from one man to go to one bus so we started heading there and then we were told to board another bus. We gave the guy our luggage and got on board. We waited about 10 min for the “geriatric” crowd to get their acts together and we were on our way!! It took about 20 min to get to the Miami International Airport and once there, WHAT A MESS!!! There were tons of busses dropping people off at the airport and we waited for what seemed to be an eternity until he could find a spot and unload. He (driver) picked a spot, grabbed EVERY PIECE OF LUGGAGE out of the cargo hold of that bus, put it all in one spot, asked for his tip and he was gone. A real mess! They dropped us off between Us Air and Continental with Delta (our airline) at the end. We smartly chose to skycap our luggage....worth every penny of every dollar because when we got inside they had a HUGE line of people. We started towards security and there was a HUGE line of people and you went through 9 sets of switchbacks before you got to the end. Once there you had to place EVERYTHING ON YOU even your wallet or credit cards in a container on the belt and walk through. My husband had a belt on and of course it beeped so they pulled him out of line, took him to another place, made him take his shoes off, made him take his belt off, and patted him down twice! I couldn’t believe it but it made me feel a little safer (not much but some) then he finally got done and we headed to the gate!! It took us about an hour from the skycap to the gate! I wasn’t prepared for that but thankfully we had enough time!!

Final Thoughts on the Ship and Itinerary!

Bad parts of it all

1. The bar staff in our part of the dining room was horrendous to say the least!! When we confronted the Maitre D’ he promised to make it better the next night and it was a little better but this was night 5. The rest of the nights we had our drinks waiting for us (which is what I remembered that service to be like from previous cruises) but having to wait until ½ way done with your entrée seemed a little long to us!!!

2. The Lido breakfast (as discussed earlier) was terrible! I have never eaten such cool to cold food in my life except cereal!!

3. NO ENTERTAINMENT worth sitting up for in our opinion!!! The shows were all boring, the comedians except for Eddie Capone were lame, the dancers seemed less than energetic to be there and it seemed that during the day there was NOTHING to do but lay in the sun or participate in stupid deck games where you make a fool out of yourself but not enough for all 2000 people to do anything!! I was disappointed in that!!

4. The band selections were poor also! I thought the only good band was the spirit band in the main show lounge! They had classical music going almost every night in the atrium....would have been nice to have a change. They had a guy playing the Artist’s Lobby and he sang the same music set EVERY NIGHT so after 3 days of hearing Brown Eyed Girl I got sick of it!

5. The crowd was MUCH older than we are used to on a Carnival ship and while that wasn’t all bad it wasn’t all good, either!! Some of them were downright RUDE and Crotchety!! One woman went off on me in the elevator for 5 min about how rude “my generation was” and I wanted to yell “BACK AT YA HONEY!” but didn’t!!

6. The food in the dining room had nights where it was almost inedible! Tough Prime Rib and no salad selection to say the least.

7. I hate the new way of waiting on tables with the team concept! It was very impersonal and cold! We never got to chat with our waiter except if we stayed LONG after his other tables had left!! I like to get to know them and them to know me!!

8. The vibration of the ship in the dining room! It drove me crazy every night! It was worse some nights than others but still always there and very pronounced.

9. The toilet flushing! We could hear it VERY loudly in our room and it sounded like it was multiple toilets going and it never seemed to stop! I hated listening to the WHOOOOSH constantly!

10. NO STORES to shop in hardly! They had 2 stores and that was it! I thought the prices were ok but the selection was your typical t-shirts, alcohol and Tommy Hillfiger clothing! I didn’t see anything too eye catching and it was sad that this gorgeous promenade was wasted on NO shops!

THE GOOD parts of it all

1. Taking the fly aweigh with Carnival was great! They took great care of us and let us check in early at the hotel…missed a huge line!

2. Our room location was wonderful! Where the lifeboats are the ship is a little more recessed than where the lifeboats are not and we lucked out and got the first cabin on the jut out right after the last lifeboat and it was awesome! We only had 1 cabin neighbor next to us and then on the left side of the balcony there was no one near us! It was big enough for the 2 chairs and the table but nothing else! We were at the center right next to the Atrium and I thought at first bad place to be but it turned out to be wonderful! We never heard the elevators once!

3. Quiet rooms! Never heard our neighbor! Don’t know if that is because they were older and went to bed early, if they were just quiet or if the rooms were quiet but except for the bathroom noise listed above that was awesome!

4. Getting around the ship was a breeze! I love the fact that the galley was in the basement so that you could have a straight shot on all the floors and not have to go up or down a level to go along the ship.

5. The Nouveau Supper Club was definitely a highlight!! The food and service were impeccable! It was quiet and romantic and a really nice atmosphere!! We enjoyed the fact that we were the only table our waiter had so we got extra attention!! The food was magnificent and the cheesecake and warm flourless chocolate cake were awesome!!!

6. We could ALWAYS find a deck chair on board! Our ship was almost all full! I think they had 2 available cabins Shawn Bussey said and yet when we went up on deck there were still stacks and stacks of chairs not being used and we still didn’t find a problem in getting a chair! I think most of this was because of the older crowd but hey I am NOT going to complain here! It seemed on the Destiny if you weren’t up there by 6 am you didn’t get a chair ANYWHERE!

7. Room Service was wonderful as well. In the morning we wanted fresh fruit and it wasn’t listed on the breakfast list so we jokingly wrote it in and the next morning we had a bowl of fresh fruit! It was great! Our room steward(ess) Patarin or Pat for short brought it to us and it was always on time if not a few minutes early! After going on the tours we were starving so we came back to the boat, ordered a huge amount of stuff from room service, took a shower and it was there and waiting for us!! We tried the BLT’s and they were excellent and they came with CHIPS! We were craving potato chips and they came with them. We also ordered a chicken wrap on a tortilla and it was excellent as well. We had vegetable sticks and the cookie brownie selection for dessert! All of it was wonderful and our tablemates said the same thing!

8. It was nice to be able to wait in more places than just the lounge to disembark this time! We waited up on the Lido deck overlooking the pier and watched all the action going on! They have the process down and once they started calling colors it went very quickly!! We were off in about 10 min and had our luggage 2 min later! Of course some of that was because we waited for a few more colors to be called before we headed down so there wasn’t a whole lot of luggage in our section left.

All in all this was a wonderful vacation and we REALLY enjoyed ourselves! We sat back for 8 days and just relaxed and let others take care of us! The motion on the ship was a lot more pronounced than other ships but except for the one night and next morning I did ok with it! I think that had to do more with I was stuffed silly from dinner and the motion kind of took over the rest! LOL We had a great time and we honestly really enjoyed the ports!! I loved that they aren’t so tourist trapped yet and the tours although they had their problems (but what ship doesn’t have at least one tour have a problem….none that we have been on anyway) they were nice and very well organized in our opinion!! The pier at Costa Rica is kind of yucky because it is a main shipping yard but I am sure that will change with time!! I read tons of reviews where people hated the stops and I was really apprehensive but I LOVED THEM!! I would go back on that ship and itinerary in a heartbeat!!! I would love to go with a YOUNGER crowd and with different entertainment but if someone offered me to go again on that ship, same itinerary, same entertainment I would jump on it in a heartbeat!! I already miss her beauty!!! She was very elegant and very tasteful and I thought that the different themes, in the different rooms, were a nice touch! At least then you KNEW you were in a different room with a different theme and you couldn’t get confused! I loved that the atrium was more toned down although it did seem much smaller than the Destiny Atrium I still preferred the Spirit’s Atrium! I asked a deck mate about the supposed ash problem (Which we saw very little of) and he told me it was because of garbage burning. He said they were now burning garbage AT NIGHT while we all slept to avoid a lot of problems with it and we didn’t see much problem on our balcony. We had one day where it was really bad but I think that had more to do with how badly the wind was blowing than anything else. All 4 days the waterslide was open and operational. I didn’t go on it…. In fact I only went to the very back of the ship on deck 9 once to take pictures….but I went to see if the waterslide was open and it was. They had it open at specific times not all day long but it didn’t look like much of a problem. The slide was open from 10 am until 1 pm and from 2 until 4:30 pm weather permitting and like I said it was open all 4-sea days for at least part of the time. Also if any of you are wondering they have a few NON smoking places and so I am going to list those places for those of us who get really tired of being overcome with 2nd hand smoke! The following are the places that are nonsmoking on the ship (not many):

The infirmary
The Photo Gallery
The Versailles Lounge
The Information Desk
The Empire Restaurant
The Gift Shop
The Chippendale Library
The Pharaoh’s Palace
The La Playa Grill
The Fitness Center and Spa
The Jungle Walk
And The Fun House.

These other places are available to smoke in:

Shanghai Piano Bar
Club Cool
Louis XIV Casino
Dancin Dance Club
Nouveau Supper Club

Cigar and Pipe Smoking is restricted to Open Decks and Deco Lobby is designated as cigar bar.

There is an adult’s only whirlpool on Lido deck aft.

The first day at sea while laying out they came by and told several smokers to put out their cigarettes where we were laying out…I was SO thankful for that!! I don’t care if others smoke but don’t do it around me! I don’t like to smell it or smell like it or breathe it!!!

I hope this review helps others who are going on this ship or on this itinerary or both!! I know reading helped me a lot although I did notice it made me a little more apprehensive about the ports but that was all in vain! I loved all 3 of them! I would like to go back to Belize to see more of it but the impression I got was it was close to Grand Cayman!

Take Care and Happy Cruising!

Heidi and Ryan Smith

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