musicgal Posted June 16, 2012 #1 Share Posted June 16, 2012 We just got back yesterday from the June 5th sailing of the Carnival Spirit to Alaska, and I am in the process of washing clothes and getting back into a routine here at home. I am going to post some of our photos in the next few days- and give an opinion about our room, the ship and our activities. Will also give an opinion about Carnival in general... on the cusp of some of the the new changes, and how they were handled on our cruise. I have to say, that overall- I was very pleased. So, with that said- I will proceed with the room review, and will backtrack to debarkation and other pertinent "stuff" later, as I feel that people will search for this room number and ship name for basic information about a booking. Cabin 8237 on the Spirit is a phenomenal cabin... with a couple of flaws- which if you can tolerate, offers more in the way of compensation than aggravation. As of this time period, it is a Premium Balcony... there are only a handful of these types on the ship and an even smaller number that accomodate only two persons. 8237 is designed for two persons though it has a couch in the room. It also has a chair, a larger than standard balcony, and granite countertops in the sitting area and bathroom. It is basically a mini-suite and there is tons of storage along the walls. Enough closet space to store several suitcases upright... storage is not a problem in this room. The art in the room consists of a nude nymphet... rendered in a pensive mode. Just saying... whoever books the room will be seeing a lot of Lula- she didn't bother us- I'll try to get some pictures of the room up here in the next few days. I found the trim and interior decor very nice- as nice or nicer than our suite on another Carnival ship. While orange and pink are not my favorite color combinations- it works for 7 days. The room was also meticulously tended by LETO, our steward. Best service ever on a Carnival ship... followed by the Conquest aft wrap balcony trip. The room is located behind the aft elevator, Starboard. Up the stairs one floor will take you directly into the Lido dining area where we used the pizzeria and Carvery a lot. We also enjoyed the proximity to the coffee machine and often hopped up there right after getting out of bed to grab something to bring down to the room. It is extremely convenient! It is also close to the Serenity deck which is very nice, even on an Alaskan cruise... we used the hot tub one sunny night:) and had a great time before going off to Karaoke with Jay, one of the hardest working staff members on the ship. Boy, did we have some good talent on the ship!!! More about that later. Starboard side was dockside in Skagway and Victoria, for those of you who like to watch pier runners. There was only a little action in that regard in Ketchikan- guess Alaska draws a more conscientious clientele.:D But the balcony was well worth the extra few dollars we spent as we used it often- and on one sunny day we watched whales cavort in the distance from it while drinking our wine out there. So now for some of the things that were not good about 8237. Noise. Noise is a problem in this cabin, but it is not noise from the elevator or neighbors next door... it is noise from the pizza galley upstairs. This happens in the early hours of the morning- about 3:30-5am. It also happens on debarkation morning from the hallway since so many suitcases are rounding the corner near your door. The noise will become an issue for you if you cannot sleep through it OR grab a nap during the day (which is what we did) when there is ironically, very little noise coming from above. All of that is okay, but as I sit here typing this, my sleep patterns are still pretty screwed up from the napping I did to make up for waking up at 4 several mornings. The other issue, which manifested on the last day in a port, was odor from the grill upstairs. This was honestly not a problem on any of the previous days and I have to say that I believe it was because the air was still for a short period of time that day, allowing the odor to waft down into the room from outside. It smelled like something had been burnt in the oven. Only for a short time- so it was not a problem- but would be an issue for me if it were present for the entire trip. There is no way to guarantee that you will not be next to smokers... we do not smoke and our neighbors did. For the most part, the breeze carried the smoke away and what it didn't, I could handle. I think itinerary has a lot to do with whether or not you will be dealing with odors in 8237- wind and cold will dispell odor and heat and being docked might augment it. Just a heads up if you are sensitive to smells. I think that we would book this same cabin configuration again, but maybe a floor below us if we could arrange it. Australia is very blessed to be getting Spirit- she is my favorite ship so far of the Carnival line. In woman's parlance, she is a "petite" and the crew seems to love her. More later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #2 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I am trying to post photos using Flickr. Great photos from Embarkation-http://www.flickr.com/photos/80549082@N07/7383762884/sizes/s/in/photostream/ Ah well- not working- will try again later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #3 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Embarkation was smooth and painless. We only waited for a few minutes in the holding area before boarding. View from the boarding area. Sky needle in distance. First drink on board- Long Island Iced Tea... that was the last time I wore those sandals:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #4 Share Posted June 17, 2012 A view as you enter 8237. Lula is on the wall over the sofa. The bed and doors out to the balcony. This shot is from in front of the balcony doors looking towards the entrance to the room. You can see the bar setup with our Bon Voyage goodies as well as the amount of space available on the one wall. There was also another small closet to the right as you walked in the room. The male half of the balcony-;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #5 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Wednesday and Thursday are basically sea days onboard. This shot shows the female side of the balcony on a brilliant Thursday morning as we headed into Tracey Arm Fjord. We did not opt to do the excursion boat to get closer views of the ice- liked the views from the balcony just fine. Saw a bunch of whales all Thursday morning. Well- here it is... one of the reasons you go to Alaska in the summertime. The waterfalls from the melt are phenomenal- and we were pretty far away. The excursion boat- Where ice meets water in the Fjord- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #6 Share Posted June 17, 2012 So, just a little background on the beginning of the trip. Embarkation was very efficient. People were hospitable and the wait on the Lido was made enjoyable by the presence of family and friends. When we got to our cabin, we unpacked immediately- and started exploring the ship. We had anytime dining... which I don't know if I would do again. Will go into that later on in the review. One of our first stops was the Nouveau Steak House- we had reservations there for Thursday evening. There is another- better- picture of us on the glass staircase, but this is just exploration day:) Glass Staircase- Serenity deck was not crowded at all- too cold for sunbathers but hot tub was in use and bar was open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #7 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Picture of one of the pools around embarkation. You can see how uncrowded this part of the lido deck is- it didn't get much more crowded throughout the trip. We always like to watch the bags come onboard- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsfan Posted June 17, 2012 #8 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I am very excited for your review. Cruising on the Spirit 7/31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlelion Posted June 17, 2012 #9 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Keep it coming. Will be on the Spirit when she finishes her Alaska run and heads back south to Hawaii and on to the winter in Australia. Will have cabin 8234 port side so the smells should not be a problem but I hear that the employee area right next to us will be a noise factor. Glad to hear it is easy to get to Serenity from here. Husband needs this daily hot tub for mobility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeccaBecca1713 Posted June 17, 2012 #10 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I was in 7301 on Miracle last year (exactly one deck below, same ship class). LOVE LOVE LOVE the 9B cabin!! But like you, the only issue I had was the grease smell! Especially at peak eating hours, including late at night when they would have the late night eats. Each day I had our steward de-odorize the room. It would smell great but then slowly as the day progressed, the fried chicken/rancid grease smell would return. Glad to know I wasn't the only one that smelled the grease! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
campdaan Posted June 17, 2012 #11 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Great review ! I had 8237 on the Miracle, and loved it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising3times Posted June 17, 2012 #12 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Loving your review, thanks, keep it coming, we will be on the Spirit Sept. 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustyroad Posted June 17, 2012 #13 Share Posted June 17, 2012 thank you so much for the great reveiw. what a great cabin. as you can see from my post i love the spirit and alaska. having pix like these posted will keep my addiction too the 2 satisfied since i wont be able too be on her again when she repositions too austrailia. thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aprilftay Posted June 17, 2012 #14 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I will be sailing July 24th in cabin 8237. Thank you for posting pictures of room..looks like a great cabin..looking forward to reading more of this review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #15 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Here is a shot of the new Green Thunder slide on the Spirit. The pipeline looks like it's taking you out over the water slightly- we saw several people ride down the slide even though it was cold in that water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank12 Posted June 17, 2012 #16 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Great Pics. We leave for this same cruise in 2 days. Did you get far enough up Tracy Arm to see the Sawyer Glacier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #17 Share Posted June 17, 2012 DH and I just woke up from a 4 hour nap. Our sleep patterns are pretty messed up but it was all worth it. Happy Father's Day out there- I wanted just to talk a little bit about the past guest party on the Spirit. We were invited to this party, so I guess we made it under the wire as it pertains to our status. We will book one more cruise and be at gold again anyway, so platinum status and any perks that come with that are a long way off. We were well supplied with spirits on the Spirit, having ordered Crown and Vodka from Bon Voyage back in February before the price increases. We also ordered a 5 wine package which we used at dinner every night. We never bought the "good" coffee- the regular coffee was just fine for us. We used room service frequently- though the regular room service menu was not in our cabin. I don't know if that was an oversight but it didn't prevent us from calling down for sandwiches and chips. Having room service on the balcony is a BIG treat when there are whales blowing right outside your window. We had a small CC group meet and greet and slot pull on Thursday morning. I was at the bar area on the Serenity Deck asking everyone that came by if they were CC:p Got a lot of strange looks;) doesn't bother me- it's good being sanguine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #18 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Great Pics. We leave for this same cruise in 2 days. Did you get far enough up Tracy Arm to see the Sawyer Glacier? We got pretty far into the arm- close enough to see South Sawyer well. The excursion boats got a lot closer than the ship- but as I mentioned, we were surrounded by ice just sitting on deck. I've done an Alaskan cruise before and we went into Glacier Bay then. This was different- no glacier calving noises onboard. Very beautiful nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #19 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I will be sailing July 24th in cabin 8237. Thank you for posting pictures of room..looks like a great cabin..looking forward to reading more of this review. We liked this cabin a LOT- we used the balcony space more than any balcony we've ever had. Can't beat the proximity to breakfast and Serenity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #20 Share Posted June 17, 2012 thank you so much for the great reveiw. what a great cabin. as you can see from my post i love the spirit and alaska. having pix like these posted will keep my addiction too the 2 satisfied since i wont be able too be on her again when she repositions too austrailia. thanks again. Australia is very blessed. Spirit is definitely NOT on her last legs... she's still a pretty girl. There's really only a few things I'd change about her physically. Her crews love her, and it shows. I'm glad that we were able to sail on her before she repositions as Australia probably is not in my near future;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvercrikhix Posted June 17, 2012 #21 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Thanks for sharing your experience. Totally looking forward to it! Started the single digit dance today and we'll see it for real soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #22 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I was in 7301 on Miracle last year (exactly one deck below, same ship class). LOVE LOVE LOVE the 9B cabin!! But like you, the only issue I had was the grease smell! Especially at peak eating hours, including late at night when they would have the late night eats. Each day I had our steward de-odorize the room. It would smell great but then slowly as the day progressed, the fried chicken/rancid grease smell would return. Glad to know I wasn't the only one that smelled the grease! :) Yes- that ONE day was pretty bad. I was actually napping that afternoon and thought there was a fire somewhere onboard... then I realized what it was. We looked at 7301 for our trip too- looks like a great cabin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trptplayer22 Posted June 17, 2012 #23 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Did you have a live band? If you did how were they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 17, 2012 Author #24 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Thanks for sharing your experience. Totally looking forward to it!Started the single digit dance today and we'll see it for real soon! Love the anticipation of that last week before a cruise:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicgal Posted June 18, 2012 Author #25 Share Posted June 18, 2012 So going on... I don't believe in purely positive reviews- not that I can't qualify as a cheerleader sometimes, but I want to give people information about the trip that may save them from consternation. So, I want to move on to Thursday night at the Steakhouse and Skagway. We had already had our 1st formal night on the Spirit on Wednesday and our party ordered prime rib and lobster for the most part. I ordered the pasta carbonara just to see what the options tasted like... it was not very good. We had "your time" dining, and our servers on that night were fairly passive aggressive... that is, they subtly made fun of my food choice. they would set down a plate of prime rib and say to my family member- here's your carbonara... in other words, they knew my choice wasn't so hot. I did too- the point was to try the alternatives so I could review it. And I'm glad I did. I ordered the prime rib on the 2nd formal night and enjoyed it. But the attitude bothered me... we did not have that team again for service, and most of the other teams were wonderful. Thursday was all about Tracy Arm and we had pretty weather topped off with a steakhouse reservation at 6:30. Service up there was impeccable and the food was of the highest quality. I had a lovely bisque and filet mignon... and the entertainment was a whale that breached outside the window. It's really a step above the MDR... when we took the behind the fun tour we saw why- the chefs who work up there mean business;)The young lady who sold me the wine package in the atrium worked up in the steakhouse and she was the epitome of professionalism. A note on Carnival... the price of the steakhouse went up to $35 dollars per person during the week we were getting ready for the trip. They honored my reservation at $30 per person. Not a really big deal, but it made me think well of the Spirit's management. Yes, we do notice these things. A little aside- our friend was brought the biggest piece of cheesecake I've ever seen in my life... and I've seen some whoppers. Just sayin... So... we wake up the next morning in Skagway. It was a foggy, coolish misty day down in the harbor. We had two excursions planned: "To the Summit" and the brewery tour:p This is also where you can do the Yukon train excursion and the "goodtime" ladies tour- I believe they are offered in a variety of combinations. So we boarded our bus to the "summit". The driver was very apologetic because we really couldn't see diddly because of the mist. People on the train probably had the same issue. People ahead of us on the road encountered a washout where the road was closed due to heavy rainfall- so, this part of the day was a bust. As I reflect upon it, I would not do something like this again... even with the view- it would not have been my cup of tea. Since we'd actually taken the dome train to Denali a few years ago, we did not want to do a "train to nowhere" kind of thing- and were fairly glad of it when the weather turned out like it did. This is part of the runoff from the rainfall that closed the road- So after being dropped off back in town, we ambled over to the Red Onion, which I'd seen before on our previous cruise. I treated everyone to the "quickie" tour of the place for $5 apiece and we had a nice lunch of appetizers there, as we were on our own. Our guide there was a substiute teacher/librarian at the Skagway school and a good-time girl in her parttime. She was cute and personable. This is me on the stairs going up to the girls' rooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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