My cruise of DOOM! Spirit 2-6-11

[hlb76]

Sorry this has taken so long to get posted. We have been back for a while but of course the real world was waiting for us so we had to get caught up on life.

 

 

First a little background on us. This was our 5th cruise all w/ Carnival. We are a family of 4 from MN. We love our winter cruises to get away from the world for a while and get warm! We have always cruised out of Miami.

 

This year we found some good rates on cruises out of Cali. so decide why not try something new. We where really looking forward to this cruise. We had had a very rough 2010. My DH lost is father, we endured some major flooding and lost our summer home (which is a camper on a seasonal spot) my parents file for divorce, plus many other little bumps along the way. So we where really looking for our relaxing cruise on board Splendor. We also had some good friends traveling again this year. YAY

 

Oh no Splendor has a fire.... That's ok right we have plenty of time before we cruise? WHAT our cruise is canceled?!?! Now what??? We are stuck on our vacation dates so we have to find something to fit into the same dates. Sounds easy right. Well not so much... the cost of switching air fare is well above what CCL is willing to reimburse.

 

OH no our friends back out of cruising w/ us. They have something else in there life come up and decide the stress of rebooking is not worth it. This was very sad for us. We where looking forward to this so much.

 

So now what.... Carnival has a ship sailing about the same dates out of San Diego... flights to San Diego are not too much more.... oh and bonus we have family there that offered us to stay. Now things are looking up!! We decide to book and book FAST!

 

We decided to book ourselves a nice balcony room (normally we are inside kinda people). We decided to splurge as we are now traveling alone plus we where paid in full for Splendor so even after the upgrade of room we still have a small credit coming. I'm so happy things are looking up.

 

OH NO right before Christmas I hurt my back and BAD... during all the work up they find some other issues I have. Right after the first of the year I have to have surgery. Will I recover in time for our cruise? The doctors say I should be fine. I sure hope so..... but if all else fails I will enjoy the cruise on my balcony. Well luckily a few weeks after surgery I feel pretty good again.

 

Fast forward to 2 weeks before vacation. We have are getting all the details worked out. We have a the vet kenneling our dog.

OH no the day I get everything all figured out my vet has a fire and losses there building.... now to find a new dog sitter. Luckily we get that worked out no issues.

 

Fast forward to the week before we leave me and the DH get sick...... I mean SICK!!! We beg the DR to see us since we want to leave for vacation soon. Of course they say it's nothing and wont let us have a office visit. 3 days before we leave I still feel horrible so sneak into Fast Care and sure enough I have strep!!!! Good thing for meds. Let's just hope I feel better before we leave and no one else gets it. And will they let me on the ship if i show signs of being sick??

 

As you can see all signs are pointing to not being able to cruise. What are we going to do if we can't go on our trip?

 

Things start to look up when I get a call from the elusive upgrade fairy! They offer us a Ocean Suite for $400 more. I thought about it and really wanted to take it but another $400 when things have not been looking good already. Well I shoo the little birdie saying no off my shoulder and rebook our room!! I figure if we all do get on the ship and end up sick at least we will have room to spread out! I dont think the DH was too happy for my upgrade but he was supportive.

 

Soon enough it was the big day........... We fly out of MSP so we decided to spend the night at a park in fly as we live about 1.5 away from MSP and have a early flight. Everything is looking good. We get checked in the room is adequate but I guess we can't complain it was a free room.

 

We have a nice dinner at Red Robin....YUM....... and back to the room to head to bed tomorrow is a early morning. The kids work on a little homework to get a head start on that!

 

The wake up call comes to early as always... I hate mornings! But the excitement of heading to warmer weather gets me out of bed. Oh wait what is this? I feel a little bit better. YAY It's not long before we are off to the airport.

 

Checking in was easy..... security was not to bad. Soon we are at the gate! Now this part takes forever we are too excited to wait!

 

At last they call out flight and we board the plane. Flights are uneventful.. but that's fine by me. Quick layover in Denver and we are finally on our last leg to SUNNY CALIFORNIA!!!

 

 

pics are downloading as I type so back with more soon..... let's just hope I can figure out how to add them.

[Nanaimobound]

Please hurry the suspense is killing me!:)

[norcal2]

You had me from the first word to the last word! I can't wait to hear the rest of this story.

[mjl1960]

yeah, I would like to hear the rest of the story.... ;)

[memecakes]

Your killing me! I must know the rest of the story now! lol Its like when they put only one chapter in the back a of a book to get you to run out and buy it....

[Martini Mom]

Can't wait to read more. Hope things get better for you. :)

[cawagner]

OOOhh the suspense!! Can't wait to hear what happens next :)

[Minybear]

This is like reading a good book and all of a sudden you don't have the last couple of chapters! URG!!!!

 

Keep it coming. :)

[Dee777]

Oh, PLEASE hurry!

[cantwait2cruize]

Hurry Back!

[AndrewD65]

Yes do hope for the best in the long run.

[GalFitness19]

This is like one of those "to be continued" TV shows of the 1980's. We don't have to wait a WEEK for the "continued", do we? Cliffhanger, for sure!

[twinklen01]

oh boy , you go tmy attention. I'll be back with popcorn. cant wait to hear more. Hope it gets better and u had a fun trip

[gapearl]

Oh wow, this is gonna be a good one! Keep it coming!

[hlb76]

Once in San Diego we headed down to the luggage claim to find Ross and Gayle waiting for us! It was so good to see them after many years! Soon the luggage came and all of our bags made it. YAY. We changed into shorts and sandals and where soon off to enjoy our first day in sunny California.

I was really glad we took the earliest flight we could in. By the time we got in it was about lunch time. We went to this great restaurant down town near a marina for our first sea food lunch. I did remember this place from the last time I was in San Diego many moons ago.

 

I took the advice from Ross and had the crab salad sandwich and was not disappointed! I still dream of this sandwich.Travis had a cod sandwich that looked yummy. Josh enjoyed a bread bowl full of clam chowder. Ethan nto much of a adventurer when it comes to food or anything else as you will read later had chicken strips and fries.

 

Ethan enjoyed looking out at the boats and to his surprise he found a sea loin right on the shore. This was his first time seeing a sea lion!! It was fun watching him play for a while.

 

We tried to feed him some fries but he was not hungry but the sea gulls enjoyed the treat.

After lunch we started out on our sight-seeing adventure. We first headed down to the tide pools. It was really fun for me to see them again. We spent some time walking up and down the beach and exploring the pools.

 

Then it was up to the light house to do a little more walking and exploring. It's quite a view from up there. But of course I was too busy admiring it to snap pics.

 

Soon it was time to head to the house to get relaxed. We are on vacation let the relaxing begin. Driving to there house was fun. I love taking in all the views and things that are so different than what we have here in MN. I loved all the palm trees, birds of paradise and mountains.

 

I have a small love of mountains. I just can't get enough of them. Maybe it's from being from the flat mid west.

What a nice house Ross and Gayle have, I love it, it's so nice and open and the view is to die for. I felt like I was in a episode of house hunters.

They have a great yard, house with lots of character and the view of the mountains is AMAZING. I could so live there!

I get us settled into the rooms we will be staying while visiting. Now it's time for a dip in the pool and a soak in the hot tub. LIFE IS GOOD!

When we where all pooled out it was about time for supper. First we make a quick stop at Target to get some last minute items and pop for the cruise. I have to mention this Target is super cool it has 2 levels and a escalator that takes your carts up and down. Ethan thought this was the coolest thing ever and had to ride it once! Tonight's dinner was Mexican. It was so nice to sit on a patio and eat, another thing you could never do in Feb. where I live. Dinner was tasty! The highlight of the night was having the mariachi band play for us table side! Travis and Ethan had never seen this before.

After dinner the kids challenged Ross and Gayle to what would be the first of many Mario Cart races! I think Ethan was little taken back by being beat over and over. Ross and Gayle did teach him a new victory dance that will probably never be forgotten. Travis and I where tried and decided to head to bed early. Big day tomorrow as we board Spirit!!

[hlb76]

hmmm the pics did not come through. What am I doing wrong?

 

 

I figured it out YAY

[hlb76]

OH and thanks everyone for the kind words..... I tried extra hard to journal so I could come back w/ a fun review to write. I love reading everyone else's reviews so it's my time to return the favor.

[wrp96]

Did you right click over the picture itself and hit copy and then paste? Or did you just grab the html reference?

[hlb76]

Here are a few more of my favorite's from day 1 in San Diego....

 

WOW aren't they strong!!!

 

Needing a moment to take it all in.

 

Look who ate there spinach.

 

I love the natural beauty!

 

Here fishy fishy...

[truchattycathy]

Enjoying your review. Waiting patiently for more. :D

[Tashak]

Can't wait for the rest!

[hlb76]

Sun Feb. 6 2011

 

I woke up early, still on MN time. I went to check on the boys and find that Ethan and Ross had taken a hike up to the top of Mt. Helix before breakfast. I think they enjoyed it. We had a nice breakfast on the patio. Man this is the life.... beautiful view, being able to eat outside in Feb.

Soon after breakfast Ethan decides more Mario cart is in order. I start to repack our bags. We spent a relaxing morning chatting and hanging out. Before too long it's about time to head to the port! We knew it was time to go as we where starting to get hungry for lunch.

The port of San Diego is very different that the port of Miami we are used too. I'm not sure if this is good or bad quite yet just very different. We find a porter to take our bags, in Miami the are more than plentiful in San Diego we had to seek them. We say a quick good bye to Ross and Gayle and thank them for a great start to our vacation.

We head into find the security lines. Since we where VIP's we get to sneak to the frontish part of the line. It's kind of hard to explain this process. There is a long snaked line for everyone to get stand in, then there is the VIP line. At the front of this line there are more lines for the few x-ray machines and metal detectors.

Everyone cruising that day goes through the same security line, once through security you go off to check in to the different ships that are in port. There was 2 the day we left, Spirit and Zaandam. I would guess it too 10-15 minutes to get clear security.

We found our way to the Spirit check in point. It was a quick and painless process. There was hardly no lines. I really liked this vs the check in's we have had in Miami. It always seemed we had to wait forever!

 

Next stop is the first of many photo op's Carnival has for you. We take the quick welcome aboard picture and get in line to have our S&S card dinged for the first time. With in a few minutes we are on the ship. Now this again felt very different than Miami to me. I can't quit put my finger on why... maybe it was the lay out of the ship or that no one was there to really greet you. Now don't get me wrong there was plenty of staff there to help if you needed it but it was a different vibe than Miami has.

Soon enough we find ourselves a table on the lido deck. AWE~ our 1st lunch and I quickly have my first DOD the Fun Ship!

We like the lay out of the lido restaurants and had no problems finding something to eat. We sit facing the Midway aircraft carrier and enjoy looking at that. Lunch is followed by the first of many ice cream cones. After we are thoroughly stuffed we check out the lido pools and realize it's after 1pm our rooms are about ready.

Our room was very easy to find. We have 6156 a ocean suite! I guess I should give a little background on how we ended up with this room. When we originally booked we booked a standard balcony, port side and now for the life of me I can't remember what deck. Early Jan. I see a price drop and we can upgrade to a extended balcony for $10 more. I called CCL and had our room switched to deck 8. I was excited about this move and though we did well. We have never had a balcony before so was excited for the bigger one. About a week before sailing the "upgrade fairy" made the first call ever to my home. We where offered a OS for another $400. This room would be bigger than what we had, bigger balcony and VIP embark and debark. I got caught up in the moment and took it!

We open the door and walk into our new home for the next 5 days. At first I was a little disappointed in the room, for some reason I had imagined so much more. After all 4 of us where in the room and we explored it I did see how much bigger it is than the standard room. It took the kids a few minutes to realize we had a balcony. Once they did we all headed out to see what having a balcony is all about. It was great, we had plenty of room for us all to be out there. I get all of our carry-on's settled in and we head out to see more of the ship.

[hlb76]

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and they are playing the game in the Pharaoh's lounge. There where already a good share of people enjoying the pre-game show. They had snacks all set up in the entry and where offering special on the buckets of beer. I saw many people taking advantage of this. We find a spot to sit on the second deck and settle in to watch the game. Stu comes out and explains to us that there will be prizes to be given away after each score during the game. They had also set up a special "living room" where 2 people at a time will get to watch the game and get free beer! They have games to see who will win the best seats in the house. It was fun to watch the game on the ship.

4 o'clock comes soon enough, sail away time. Travis, Ethan and I head to the lido to find a spot for sail away. We find a great spot at the front of the ship and soon we where off. We enjoyed seeing the Naval part of Coronado Island. We pass a bunch of sea loins barking away. We spot the subs up close that we had seen from the light house. Travis was excited to see the subs a little closer! Once we where out on open water we headed back into the lounge to finish watching the game.

 

By the time the game was over our luggage had arrived at our room. I decided to do some unpacking. Travis and Josh went to see the comedy show at punchliners. Ethan relaxed in the room. As I was puting everything away I was starting to appericate the room more and more. There was more than enough closet space and drawers for all of our stuff. This made unpacking very easy!

Travis and josh get back from the show and it's about time to get ready for dinner. We all start to change. Ethan was more than beat he was ready for bed and as luck would have it our room steward knock on the door to introduce herself. I ask her to go ahead and turn down the bed so we can get Ethan to sleep. She gladly does gives us our extra towels, candies and copies of the Fun times and wished up a good night. We tried to talk Ethan into coming to dinner but he was ready for bed. We got him tucked in and headed to eat.

HOLY COW was there a line to get into the dining room! It was almost from one end of the ship to the other. We decide not to stand in the line. We found a spot to sit in the lounge and enjoyed the band play as others stood in line. We knew we had a table waiting for us so we where in no hurry to get in. Once we made our way into the dining room we where showed to our table. It was a nice booth for 4. I was wondering if they would seat us alone or with another family. It did not take long to get served once we sat down. I was not overly impressed w/ the dining room. It was huge and it seemed the waiters had to work extra hard. I have never seen waiters have to hussle the way they did. It was also VERY loud. I am hoping tonight is a exception due to all the buckets of beer and excitement of the Super bowl. We enjoyed a nice dinner. My steak was excellent.

After dinner we head back to the room to check on Ethan. We find him sound asleep. We all sat down to check over the Fun Times to see if there was anything we wanted to do but we all feel asleep!

[norcal2]

I totally understand as I do not eat much either though I love food. If you are planning on going there anyway I would just go in as 2 but order for one and explain it to your server and they will take care of you. It would not surprise me if they charged for 1, or charged for 2. You never know. But in any case you will both enjoy the dinner however you do it.

[hlb76]

from the hall looking in

 

bathroom

 

shower w/ doors!! We never used the jetted tub :(

 

dressing room. the bathroom is beyond the door shown. There are 2 big closet opposite of the mirror.

 

main room.... sorry for the mess