Ken Harmar

Age: 51
Occupation: General Contractor
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Spirit
Sailing Date: June 30th, 2004
Itinerary: Alaska

We have cruised several times with different cruise lines. Alaska was the cruise we had looked forward to for years. We booked back-to-back 7 day cruises on Carnival’s Spirit. She sailed from Vancouver’s Canada Place Pier on June 30th.

Right from the start we noticed that the cabin was smaller than similar bookings on other ships; our last cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas.

Spirit is a beautifully decorated ship with some nice lounges and bars. The two-tiered dining room is among the nicest at sea. The location boards showing the deck plans were poorly done. It took almost five days to learn the ship’s layout. One had to rely on

a paper map from the Purser’s office to find the different areas. Voyager, while being almost twice Spirit’s size ,was actually much easier to find one’s way about. It took about two days to learn.

The shows on Voyager were like Broadway productions, whereas Spirit’s were lesser attempts. There were very few shipboard amenities: 1 ping pong table, no roller rink, no basketball court, no miniature golf, no rock wall, to mention a few.

Breakfast was a real free-for-all. The lines at the buffet were thirty or more people long. This line was held up by someone waiting to have an omelet or fried egg cooked at the far end. We were told to cut into line if you only wanted bacon or hash browns etc. Anybody doing this was not very popular. On Voyager there is a separate line for omelets with little or no waiting. We were 2nd seating for dinner and I’ not sure that 1st seating didn’t get the good food because we sure did not. A Russian couple seated across from us ordered the Duck medallions and said it was rubber ducky and sent it back. The food certainly left much to be desired. The wait staff was very friendly and helpful.

Believe it or not, our cabin was crawling with ants and when we mentioned it we were asked by the room steward if we had brought them with us. They fumigated the cabin for the next two days. I don’t know what was worse, the ants or the smell of the fumigation.

Upon arriving in Whittier we tried to get on another ship for the return trip, but couldn’t. When I approached the Purser about the problems she asked if we had cruised before. When I told her our last cruise was on Voyager she stated that Carnival was not Royal Caribbean but was a Cruise for the masses.

When reading these reviews notice that many of them are written by people who have only cruised once and have nothing to compare to. They have rave reviews only because they have not experienced other cruise lines. Maybe we were spoiled by other cruises but, I would never cruise with Carnival again and have suggested the same to our friends.

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