Gary Miller

Age: 57
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Ship: Carnival Spirit
Sailing Date: March 27th, 2002
Itinerary: 8 Day Southern Caribbean

I recently completed my first cruise on the Carnival Spirit on 4/4/02. This cruise was referred to as an "Exotic Caribbean Cruise".

The Spirit is a beautiful ship. The cleaning staff were continuously involved in keeping everything clean and pleasant for the passengers. My cabin steward Teofilo was absolutely wonderful. My cabin, 8114 on the Panorama deck, was always made up promptly. I never returned to my cabin without finding it in top shape. The towel animal creations were really a delight. My cabin was quite large and although it was an inside cabin, I always found it to be a pleasant respite when I wanted to be there.

I was seated at table 217 on the main floor for the early seating which was 5:45PM. My table mates were very nice and I ended up spending quite a bit of time with them during the cruise. There were 4 of us, single men in our 50's. Our waiter Mario from Guatemala, and Mariya from Bulgaria, were charming and very helpful. We all looked forward to seeing them at dinner. Their service was excellent and they were more than eager to please us and our various requests for extras. The food was varied with no repeat dishes other than the salads. All the food was served at the appropriate temperature and with little waiting time between courses. I only ate in the main dining room for my evening meals simply because the alternative dining on the Lido deck was outstanding. I found that I could eat anytime and in any attire and could always find a place to sit and watch the ocean while enjoying my meals. I especially liked the Deli and it's variety of sandwiches. Juices, punch, tea were free but you had to pay for any colas that you wanted. Don't buy the beverage card if you're an adult unless you drink a large number of colas per day. At 2.50 per drink plus 15% gratuity, you would have to drink more than 2 colas per day to make it worth buying the card. The kids cola card is cheaper and probably worth it.

The shows were very good and well attended. I did hear a few complaints about one show, "The World's Fastest Banjo Player", as being not very good. I believe it was more a matter of those individuals personal taste rather than the performance. I thought he was outstanding. He played several Banjo standards (Dueling Banjos from Deliverance) as well as Broadway show music from Cats, Godspell to name a few. The Spirit Dancers were awesome and their lead vocalists were very good.

I found the on board duty free gift shops to have a nice selection of items and many good sales going on continuously.

On the negative side, I found that there were more children on the ship than what I had been led to believe. According to Devin the cruise director, there were over 700 on this cruise. The younger children were mostly in Camp Carnival and did not cause problems. The main concern were the ones from 9 to 12 or 13 years old. They were constantly riding the elevators and many times would get on at a lower floor, punch the buttons for every floor and jump out of the elevator before the doors closed. The extra large number of children also made the pools very crowded especially when you considered the rest of the passengers wanting to swim also. Actually, you couldn't swim--only sit in the water while the kids were jumping over you. This was also true of the hot tubs. Add to that the continual deck chair saving by the adults who felt it necessary to save spots for their children even though the children rarely used them. Unless you got the pool area before 8:00AM, you didn't stand much of a chance to get a deck chair by any of the pools.

On the morning of the 2nd day we received the newspaper with the Excursion listings for the 3 islands. However, there was also an insert informing us that "Due to the Easter Holiday the following excursions have been cancelled on Barbados and Martinique". There were 4 excursions cancelled. I selected my excursions from the remaining options and went to the excursion desk to reserve my place only to find out that everything that I wanted was already sold out. In fairness, I might have been able to get a spot if I had gone down on the 1st day at sea, however 2 of the ones that I wanted were cancelled. Anyway, I decided to make the best of it and concentrate on shopping and see the local sites on my own.

Our first stop was St. Maarten. There were an incredible number of shopping opportunities and the people were very friendly. I enjoyed visiting many of these shops and walking around the area. Back on ship that evening, before the start of one of the shows, our Cruise Director Devin was on stage going over our itinerary for the next day and made the announcement "Due to the Easter Holiday in Barbados and Martinique, the shops in town are closed". He did say that a few of the shops on the duty free pier had agreed to open for the Spirit passengers. On Barbados there were quite a few shops in a nice terminal area but not a lot of variety. On Martinique, there were 2 shops open, one for booze and cigars and one variety shop with a very limited number of items. Had it been announced about the shops being closed on Barbados and Martinique before we left St. Maarten, I would have done all of my shopping on St. Maarten.

I am sure that I made some mistakes due to my status of first time cruiser. However, I feel that as large and experienced as Carnival is, that they should have known in advance about the Easter Holiday closings on Barbados and Martinique. While I probably would have still chosen Carnival for my first cruise, I would certainly have selected a different date and/or destination if I would have been more adequately informed. All in all, it was still a good time for me, just not the best time. I think that I will try a different cruise line for my next trip and certainly ask a lot more questions.

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