9 Days on the Carnival Spirit -- October 7th to 16th

[iggy's mom]

DH & I returned home today after spending the past 9 lovely days on the Carnival Spirit.

 

In August of 2010 we sailed on the Carnival Spirit in Alaska and had a great time. When we returned home I started looking for our 2011 cruise. I detest flying so I started coming up with options for us leaving out of southern California and finally it was narrowed down to the Spirit or the Splendor (which we sailed on in 2009 and loved). I somehow was able to get DH to agree to a 9 day cruise on the Spirit.

 

Here's my review of our cruise (hopefully with pictures). If you have any questions, please let me know & I will try to answer them.

 

When we first booked this cruise, the itinerary included a stop in Mazatlan. When Mazatlan was dropped as a stop, Manzanillo was added. Little did we know that once the cruise started, we would have a few more changes.

 

Clair

[iggy's mom]

Day #1 -- San Pedro

We left home in south Orange County around 9:30am and made it to the parking lot of the terminal at San Pedro by 10:45.

 

After parking and making our way into the building it was now about 11am. The check-in line wasn't too bad. While waiting in line, I checked a few emails on my blackberry and then went to Facebook. I noticed that John Heald had posted on his Facebook that the Spirit's itinerary had been changed due to Hurrican Jova. I found it funny that as I was reading that, the lady in line behind me was on the phone with someone who was reading the exactly same thing to her.

 

The check-in process wasn't bad at all. From the time we got in line until we were checked in was less than 30 minutes but it didn't really seem that long. We were in Zone 19 for boarding.

 

After checking-in we went into the waiting area. After 20 minutes or so, there was a general announcement that boarding was being delayed due to the Spirit embarkation starting late.

 

Around the same time Carnival reps starting passing out flyers that had our new revised itinerary on it. The revised itinerary made DH & I happy as we would now be starting off in Ensenada (the port we were least looking forward to) instead of ending with it. The new itinerary was Ensenada - Sea Day - Cabo - La Paz (and added port) - Cabo #2 - Cabo #3 (added) - Sea Day - Sea Day - Home

[iggy's mom]

The Zones started to be called around 12:15, maybe a little later & we were on board about 20 minutes later. We went up to the Lido deck purchased our soda cards, took some pictures and then made our way at 1:30 down to the dinning room to see if we had a table for 2. We did not, so we put our request in to be moved. The next morning we got the confirmation that our request had been granted.

 

We made our way down to our cabin (8168), dropped off the backpack we had carried on and meet our room attendant, Rohan who was friendly. Next up was muster drill and that was painless.

 

Sailaway was delayed a bit and we started to pull away from the dock at around 5:30.

[iggy's mom]

Some port and sailaway pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

[iggy's mom]

Room pictures:

 

 

 

[iggy's mom]

Pictures from around the ship:

 

 

 

 

 

[iggy's mom]

 

 

[iggy's mom]

After sailaway, we decided to eat dinner at the buffet that night and then we went to the Internet Cafe where we signed up for one of the packages.

 

The main show for the night was the Welcome Aboard Show and I enjoyed the 4 main singers and the dancers were good as well. We stayed for the majority of the show, however toward the end the CD ("Sparkles") seemed to talk on and on and on but we started tuning her out and we decided it was time to call it a night.

 

Our first towel animal of the cruise was this guy...

[cathyz]

Thanks for doing the review so quickly, we'll be on the Spirit this Friday. Do you know if they had a VIP lounge in the berth 93 building?

[iggy's mom]

Thanks for doing the review so quickly, we'll be on the Spirit this Friday. Do you know if they had a VIP lounge in the berth 93 building?

 

 

Sorry, but I don't know the answer to this. Since we were not VIP, it wasn't something I was looking out for.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

 

Clair

[sunny4jj]

Enjoying your review and pictures.

[iggy's mom]

Day #2 -- Ensenada

 

On Saturday, our port of call was Ensenada. We docked around 8:30am. Having been to Ensenada several times in the past, I knew there was really nothing DH would be interested in seeing, so instead of booking a shore excursion we decided to treat this basically as a ship day. We did get off of the ship briefly to walk around the dock and just to say we did actually get off in Ensenada.

 

Today was also the first day of the many announcements made by the CD, Sparkles. I don't usually mind the announcements made by the CDs as I know it's part of their job to let the guests know what's going on. What got really irritating quickly, was the fact that she seemed to shout into the microphone instead of simply speaking into the microphone. I did actually start to feel bad as the week went on as it seemed that other guests were also not in love with the shouting and the crew seemed to giggle about it as well.

 

Anyways, we watched the docking from the upper decks and then watched as our fellow passengers went ashore. After the rush to get off, we then walked ashore, walked around the little building at the dock and then came back on board ship for lunch.

 

In port with us was the Carnival Paradise.

[iggy's mom]

Port pictures:

 

 

 

 

[r&rlovescruising]

Great review so far! We were on the same cruise and have to agree about Sparkles:rolleyes: She really got on our nerves but we had a wonderful time!

[iggy's mom]

Bunches of sea lions:

 

 

More port pictures:

 

[iggy's mom]

After our little jaunt a shore we came back on board for lunch and then I went to the spa. I decided to treat myself to one of their "in port specials." The one I did was for $79 and included a mini facial, mini foot massage and mini shoulder massage. The treatment was lovely and Victoria was fantastic and she didn't even try to sell me any products. :)

 

Ship pictures:

 

 

 

 

[iggy's mom]

Enjoying your review and pictures.

 

 

Thank you!

[iggy's mom]

Great review so far! We were on the same cruise and have to agree about Sparkles:rolleyes: She really got on our nerves but we had a wonderful time!

 

 

We had a great time too! :)

[iggy's mom]

 

 

 

[southbayer]

Hi Cathy, I asked this question before too, cause I'm sailing in a couple weeks on Spirit as well, and Host Mach said that all ports have a VIP section, so i guess, yes.

 

Let us know when you get back, and maybe a couple of photos of this port, VIP section, or terminal entrance areas if you could...

Thanks for doing the review so quickly, we'll be on the Spirit this Friday. Do you know if they had a VIP lounge in the berth 93 building?

[!David!]

Thanks so much. Great pics and love your stories and info.

[gelo7]

Great review.

[!David!]

Do you notice if you could buy room service bottles of alcohol ? How did you like the new menu in the MDR ? ?

[cathyz]

Hi Cathy, I asked this question before too, cause I'm sailing in a couple weeks on Spirit as well, and Host Mach said that all ports have a VIP section, so i guess, yes.

 

Let us know when you get back, and maybe a couple of photos of this port, VIP section, or terminal entrance areas if you could...

I read on a different thread that berth 93 has a VIP lounge (which is the berth the 9-day leaves from), but 91/92 doesn't (which is the berth the 5-day leaves from), so we'll see. I will definitely take pictures, hopefully inside the building too, but you can't take pics inside the dome at Long Beach, so not sure if they have the same restrictions at San Pedro. If not, I'll definitely take pics of the VIP lounge and anything else I can.

[iggy's mom]

Great review.

 

Thanks!