jam19872016

The ship is definitely rocking as we sail into open waters. Heading to chops now for my 530 dinner reservation.

Im happy to report the room has cooled down nicely. The people before me must love hot stale rooms because that was the result of having the ac turned off. I never know how the Seas will affect me but the captains continued safety announcements have me taking a pill just to be safe. He says Seas will quickly deteriorate after leaving port and to expect 10-12 foot Seas until tomorrow morning. I'm heading out for sail away now.

Gonna get unpacked and settled into my room now. The plan is to catch sailaway from the helipad. Always a great spot for sailaway.

Rooms opened up by 1:15 so I got to my room a little early. The first thing I noticed when I walked in my room was how warm it was. No, make that hot it is hot in here. I cranked the air down and i can feel cold air blowing so hopefully it will cool off. A warm room will be miserable for me. I ate a couple of my diamond cookies but saved some for later so I don't spoil my dinner.

I always feel like I forgot to pack something. So far it seems I forgot to pack my patience. There was a line to enter the Windjammer thanks to the handwashing station. I went in the exit disregarding the sign and crew member. I feel kinda bad now hope he is not dealing with too many jerks like me. For the record I used the sanitizer but skipped the sink. Despite the trash talking about chops, I did book it for dinner tonight and Jamie's tomorrow. I had just a small bite for lunch so I can make a pig of myself at dinner. The sausage was very good and I love the boardwalk doghouse on the pool deck. Much better than the pay fish n ships that takes this space on indy. Waiting on deck 9 for rooms to open. Looking down on the non listing Promenade.

Heading up top now for lunch and to book my bogo dinners.

Thanks for following along 😀

Testing to see if I can post my pictures directly to CC or if I will need to upload to my photo host first. Will the Promenade be upside down, or will being locked out of CC for four days mean they fixed the photo bug they had? Well, the ship is not listing as it would appear in the photo, so photo host it is.

Liberty will be new to me but Mariner and Indy feel like comimg home 🥰. My mom loves these so I am always on the hunt when I travel with her. I'm solo so won't be doing any major hunting but sometimes they are not hidden very well so if I happen to spot one, I will be sure to post it.

I live exactly half way between Port Canaveral and Port Everglades so I will be going back home for two days then joining Liberty. Unfortunately I don't have any hotel recommendations. They are not close enough to walk in port canaveral. I suspect royal will offer me a complimentary transfer based on past experience (all the way from Miami to Ft.lauderdale) but I do not know that for sure. If they do not I will see if my parking shuttle will allow me to take a round trip ride with them. I use them very frequently so I don't think they will tell me no even if that is not customary. If they do, well I guess I will see about paying an uber driver cash to take me, but hopefully it will not come to that. In Miami, walking from terminal A to E is very doable if you do not have mobility issues, but i wouldn't plan to go any further than that. For parking I used park port canaveral. They are not the cheapest option but I have always had A+ service from them and highly recommend them. Very continuous shuttle service where the cheaper guys seem to take forever to show up. https://www.parkportcanaveral.com/ Parking for 6 days (they charge for 6 days on a 5 night cruise) was $83.40 after all taxes and fees. Daily rate goes down if booking 7+ nights.

I will check that out and let you know.

I don't even pay attention to the itinerary most of the time. In fact I had no idea where I was going on Mariner until I looked it up to post here 😆. I do love coco cay and feel bad for those missing it but of course safety first. I will be solo as well! I absolutely love my solo cruises! I wasn't sure the first time if I would like it, but now I'm a big fan.

Muster is done. Tried to book my bogo meal at Izumi sushi but they said it's not valid there. That is what I thought, but I read a review somewhere where they were able to use it there. Now that it is a set price I don't see why not, but it was a no go. I will probably do Jamie's twice because even at bogo, Chops is meh. After I mustered and got denied bogo sushi I stopped at Cafe Promenade for a coffee. I did not have to sign a slip even though I used a voucher. Now I'm sitting in the library for a few minutes enjoying my coffee before I brave the crowds for lunch.

Check-in was pretty smooth. I made it onboard at 11:27. Arrival appointments were not checked. The ramp was very slippery from the rain so be extra careful especially if you are maneuvering luggage. Our itinerary has been changed. Coco cay has been replaced with another sea day which I suspected may happen. The wind is already whipping here on the Florida east coast and it is getting soggy out. To go bags have already been placed on the stairwells. I have sea sick pills that I will take if I start feeling queasy.

Didn't quite beat the rain. I hope I at least beat the crowds. Last time I stood outside in a never ending line for over an hour and a half. I really hope to not add rain to the equation.

Getting checked in at the parking lot. Next stop, Mariner here I come.

I finally gave in and bought a powerball ticket. $35 in gas and a $20 donation to the state's education fund and I'm back on the road.

Good morning everyone. Running just slightly behind my 8am plan at 822. I got one stop to make and I am on the way.

The plan is to be on the road by 8am. I don't always stick to that plan when i can't get out of bed early enough, but Im thinking back to the last time I cruised Mariner. It was one of the worse embarkation experiences I've ever had so I am going to try really hard to rally to beat the crowds. I'm all packed except for my last minute items and I am going to bed. See you all tomorrow for cruise day!

I'm always impressed when I read a review from someone who cruises a lot who still keeps a full schedule of activities. That's not me 🤣. I'll try my best to do enough to keep some posts going but I tend to get lazy and just chill. I also have to spend a couple hours a day at least pretending to work 😄. If anyone has anything they would like to know about any of these ships, ask away and I will do my best to find an answer. I can't really help with the ports, I will probably do very little port exploring instead spending that time remote working.

Hello all. I'm heading tomorrow to Pt.Canaveral to board Mariner of the Seas kicking off my Royal November consisting of 22 days onboard something with "of the Seas" in its name. Best part of side to side cruising these days? No pesky covid tests hanging over my head 😁. Here is my itinerary: 11/7-12 Mariner of the Seas. Coco cay and cozumel. Weather dependant of course. 11/12 and 13 I will be dry docked. Boo 👎. We won't talk about that. 11/14-18 Liberty of the Seas. Nassau and coco cay. 11/18-11/21 Independence of the Seas. Nassau and coco cay. 11/21-12/1 Mariner of the Seas. Two more coco cay and cozumel runs.

I wasn't even trying and I found Waldo! A post you made on a social media site made it into my feed (those algorithms are creepy, I've had it pick up posts made from other people who I have followed on here before). You did not match the picture of you I had in my head AT ALL. I figured you were not large because you walk a lot and spend a lot of time at the gym. But I thought you must at least have a large frame. So wrong and so jealous that you can eat the way you do and be so fit. Thanks for another great review and I look forward to the next one.

Overall this was a great cruise and my worries about being on a smaller ship especially for this long were no problem. I don't think I would pick Spirit over a bigger ship for the Caribbean, but for Alaska and other specialty cruises I think it was a great choice. Over the course of 33 days I got to meet a lot of wonderful crew who sort of felt like an old friend by the end of the trip. I really hope to run into them again someday. Now for the negative. I wanted to put this in its own section because it has nothing to do with Spirit. I don't like the constant complaining about cutbacks but here I am. I'm doing it too. It seems like everyday there is something new that they have eliminated or reduced. Its just becoming too much too fast and it is simply not the same experience it once was. I'm not talking about some cruise taken in 1990 that cost $899 PP back then. Obviously that is not reasonable to expect. I'm talking about a cruise in 2022 compared to a cruise in 2019. Or even 2021. I don't accept Covid as an excuse, and neither should you. If you do, businesses will never be held accountable to provide a quality product. I look at my experiences sailing with other companies, and I don't see where they are needing to make the same cuts to service or offerings. Of course YMMV, and if you enjoy your Carnival cruise by all means continue to enjoy it and I will continue to try and enjoy mine as well but it is quickly reaching a point where I don't feel like I am getting good value for my money. And worse, because the price keeps bottoming lower and lower its attracting more and more .people who don't know how to travel and who are not enjoyable to travel with. Then they have to make more cuts because the lower prices mean they still are not making money. This is a bad business plan and they should really rethink it. But I do still have many Carnival cruises planned and I feel like I've lost sight of the point I was trying to make so I am going to get off my soapbox now. I have a few more pictures to post that I will post in the coming days as time allows. Thanks for following along everybody!

Service: I found the majority of the crew on this ship to be excellent. Crew staffing ranged from 92-95% on the different legs of the voyages and nowhere seemed short staffed except guest services after midnight. Dining room service was quick and efficient with the exception of a couple nights which over the course of 33 days is pretty good. Breakfast and brunch were a bit more hit and miss which I have found to always be the case. I think it must be where crew get their start as servers. The room stewards. I know I am in the minority, and I could certainly never do their job. But I just don't see this "they are stretched so thin" thing I see posted all the time on here. Four room stewards. One did not offer am or pm just came in the morning. One offered but still came in the morning after we requested pm service. The other two tried the same thing, but we put our foot down and insisted on PM service. We were obliged but instead of the old days where the steward would sneak in the moment you left your cabin, by 6:15 we had a knock on our door asking if we would be going to dinner soon so they could clean. I never saw them in the hallway at night except the last leg. A group of them would be huddled up chit chatting in the halls most of the night. The floors looked like they had not been vacuumed since that morning. This has been the same on every cruise I have taken since the restart with Carnival. More than a dozen times. Not used to brag, but to point out this is not an isolated incident or something going on with this ship. RCL cabin stewards work till usually 1pm and are back around 5pm servicing the rooms and halls until after 9pm. They make less in gratuities since they do less rooms. I think they should be looking at coming to work for Carnival. Rory, my steward on the Panama Canal cruise was very good at doing little things for my mom to make her feel special and I did appreciate that. He gave very good service, even if he did knock on the door every night to see when we were leaving lol.

Entertainment: I felt like for the Alaska cruise the ship did a fantastic job with the programming. They had a number of themed activities for Alaska and a wonderful series of lectures from a naturalist. Panama Canal journeys cruise felt a little more phoned in. They had a speaker who did 9 lectures in total. He had four that were each done twice. Topics like, art history, photography, food, and astrology. You know, things we want to hear about twice on a cruise to Panama. Then he had one lecture on the Panama Canal. In the small lounge where they hold the comedy. During this time the big theater was being used for a shopping talk on Colombia. He said he usually has three seminars on Panama instead of one but this was the schedule and location he was given. They did add an additional seminar so that others could get a chance to see the show. Multiple events were started late because the host of the activity was just finished hosting something else. One seminar started late because it was booked to close to another event in the same lounge. They also ran very light on things to do for 16 days. If you like trivia and dance classes you are good. Otherwise, pack something to keep yourself entertained and don't rely on the internet to entertain you. It may go out for days at a time lol. I hope that wasn't too negative sounding, I really did enjoy myself and I understand that they don't have a lot of experience hosting a cruise that long and hopefully they will learn what they can improve on and do even better the next time they offer a 16 day Journeys cruise. Beyond that, Spirit had the normal entertainment offerings you expect from Carnival. I heard lots of good things about the comedians. The music around the ship I heard sounded good. The playlist cast. Well, they are starting vacation in the next week or two so I won't bother describing the one performance I saw. The piano bar was closed for most of the final leg of the trip because the performer was sick. I don't know with what but we can speculate. Erin the CD, I absolutely loved her! She is perfect for the Alaska itinerary. She is very entertaining and a great host without being loud and gimmicky like most of the CDs. With the exception of her vacations, she will be CD on Spirit through January 2024. She leaves in November for a vacation but if you get the chance to sail Spirit with her, you are in for a treat. Very sweet lady and an awesome CD.