Dan Michels

Age: 32
Occupation: Sales Executive
Number of Cruises: 17
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Spirit
Sailing Date: November 24th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

PRELUDE
This was my 17th cruise and my Dad’s 35th or so (we lose count). We have cruised Carnival, Celebrity, RCI, NCL, Princess, and Costa over the years, all of them multiple times. We have seen a lot of changes to the industry over the years, most of them bad, some of them good. For the most part, Carnival has definitely improved their product over the years. What I write is objective based on my past experiences, I am both critical and praising where it’s deserved. I hope you enjoy the review.

EMBARKATION:
After 30 plus years Carnival has yet to get the embarkation process to run smoothly. Sorry to say it that way, but it’s just the facts. I imagine this is partly because the port facilities in Miami are too small to handle the megaships that Carnival has produced over the years, yet there seems to be no look of change for the future. Nothing is more frustrating than having to walk back and forth through lines like being at Disney World, people become impatient waiting for their turn to get to the representative and start their vacation. Other cruise lines I have been on have adjusted their embarkation process over the years to make it a more streamlined process, I just wish Carnival would do the same. So after you get checked in, finally….you proceed up the escalator to a table where you pick up your cruise card….then up another escalator to walk for what seems a mile to get to the photo opportunity. Ahhh, but that’s not all, then you have to go down a flight of stairs of course showing your cruise card to security at the top, the first landing, and the bottom of the stairs…uggh! Now it’s onto more meandering lines as you wait to have your photo taken for the A-Pass (honestly the greatest innovation in cruising) before you can finally walk the gang plank onto the ship. My Dad and I arrived at the port around 11:30 and were on the ship by 1:00pm….

THE SHIP
One word describes the Spirit – beautiful!! Thank God they finally got away from the gaudy neon and fitted out the Spirit class in elegance. If the ship didn’t have the trademark Carnival funnel, you wouldn’t know you were on a Carnival ship. Spirit is in the same décor class as the Grand Princess and Century type vessels. The layout of the ship is also very accommodating. Traffic flow is very seldom congested, accept around the photo gallery and the lounges outside the dining room.

The theater has been well thought out and designed. There truly isn’t a bad seat in the house. The Pharoah theme is well done and not overkill. Also, look for the hidden elevators inside the theater that can take you from the Versaille Lounge below to the top deck of the Pharoah Lounge. I didn’t notice it until mid way through the cruise.

The casino is probably the best one I’ve ever seen at sea. There is a nice bar area within the casino that flows with the entire room. It is well lit and you never have that cramped feeling or leave the casino smelling of smoke. The table layout is excellent as they alternate between blackjack, Caribbean poker, 3 card poker, and roulette which makes the casino look more active than it is sometimes.

The dining room has also been well thought out. The server lines are behind the line of booth tables, so you don’t have to watch the waiters preparing your dishes. I just wish they would stop putting booths in the dining room and go to just tables and chairs to add to the elegance.

THE ROOM
We had a balcony room on deck 6. The room is more than spacious and probably has the nicest bathroom layout I’ve ever seen. Finally a bathroom that you don’t have to sit at an angle to use, and better yet, a shower curtain that doesn’t hug you while you wash….

The room is accented by wood veneers and eye pleasing colors. I only wish they would have designed the rooms to have the seating area next to the balcony doors instead of placing the beds there instead.

SERVICE
Carnival is trying to upgrade their image with the Spirit class ships, and have with the acception of the service on board. They are close, but still have a long way to go. Our room steward was excellent and was always pleasant. We also had excellent dining room service from our assistant waiter, Radka. Our waiter was relatively new so he fumbled a lot, yet he was always accommodating and did his best to please us.

The photo staff was excellent and beyond taking a variety of superb photos, they were very talkative and proud of the job they were doing. My Dad and I were talking with the photo manager one night about the Panama Canal and he actually went into the photo studio and brought out photos he had taken during transit that they did not sell on the ship. He also told of his adventures through Panama to catch the ship as she sailed through the canal river.

The biggest problem we had was bar service, whether it was poolside, in a lounge, in the disco, or the casino. The barstaff was not friendly at all and I noticed how the waiters and waitresses would take an entire trays worth of orders before going to the bar to fill up the orders. Sometimes this would take 30 minutes or so until you were refreshed. This may not seem to be a big deal to some, but when you are used to being pampered by bar staff on other cruises, you begin to expect the same everywhere. One day I ordered a Pina Colada 15 minutes before the pool games started, and when the drink actually came, the games were just finishing….that’s too long. The bartenders were also very stand offish and not overly friendly. For what they charge for drinks and tips, they need to address this. Also, in order to have dark rum poored on top of your Pina Colada, be prepared to pay and extra dollar.

Finally – the cruise staff!!!! UGGGHH!!! Our cruise director was Amy from Wisconsin..and I had read reviews about her prior to the cruise. All the reviews were correct, she is terrible!! She also only has a staff of 3 others to accommodate 2,100 passengers that are craving activities. Fun ship? I don’t think so. We had 5 days at sea over the cruise because we didn’t stop in Costa Rica, and there were literally no activities planned for those sea days outside of bingo and art auctions. When we didn’t stop in Costa Rica, it took Amy until NOON to come up with activities for our sea day, which of course was Jackpot Bingo!!!

FOOD
Better than I could have ever expected from Carnival. Kudos to them for putting together excellent menus and selections. Even the Lido grill area had a variety of selections daily that were very tasty. The only bad thing was breakfast in the Lido was the same thing every day…no variety at all.

PORTS
Panama – we took the canal tour on a tour boat going from the Mira Flora locks to midway through the canal river. Awesome experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone. A little pricey at $ 155 each, but a once in a lifetime tour. We passed the World when we were in the river, nice to see the all condo ship up close.
Costa Rica – well, we almost docked there, but since the swells were so large, the captain decided to pull out and go to sea. We watched the cargo ship next to us rock back and forth even though it was fully tied to the dock…
Belize – We took the Alan Ra Mayan Ruins tour. They are restoring the ruins now and it looked like they were using modern techniques. If you go to ruins, check out Chachoben in Mexico our of Costa Maya port…those are much better. It still wasn’t a bad tour, it’s always interesting to see the past.

ENTERTAINMENT
The comedians were excellent, Eddie Capone was on board and he was great. There was also two guys, the Village Idiots that did a midnite show which was hilarious, only no one was there to see it but a handful. They did perform the last night in a regular show and were excellent. I only saw one production show, and it was okay, but had no continuity to it….lots of effects, no substance.

Of course we missed the Newlywed Game and another one time show because “AMY” planned them during 2nd sitting dinner so the ones fortunate enough to dine late could not attend those shows.

Other than that, the ship literally died by midnite. The disco was seldom full and the only other place of activity after midnite was the casino. What happened to the Fun Ship of old?

THE CRUISE
Okay, straight truth on the ship movement…she rocked and rolled, pitched up and down the entire trip. The only day she didn’t move a lot was the last day at sea. Granted we had 30 knot winds all the way from Miami to Panama and up to Belize, the seas never had white caps, just swells. I personally like the movement of a ship at sea and feel it’s part of the experience, but a lot of others didn’t which was evident by the vomit bags staged throughout every stairwell and elevator.

I was under the impression that the azipod system allowed for a vibration free cruise. I guess I was misinformed because the entire back of the ship consistently vibrated back and forth with a lot of noise to accompany the vibration. The vibration was worse on the top deck aft…so I imagine the ones staying in the aft cabins had that comforting vibration to help them sleep the entire trip.

DISLIKES:
Spray on decking around the pool areas…ugggh!!! This stuff always gets slippery and there are constantly “caution” signs on the deck

Pool attendants pick up all the deck chairs at 4:00 on the dot every day and rope them down so you can’t get them down to sit on

Lack of shipboard activities to keep people busy

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