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Live from The Spirit 10/27/08

KLLund

By KLLund,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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KLLund

KLLund

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Hi all .. I promised to do a live from thread and here is the start of it .. I will try and keep it up daily .. but who knows :rolleyes:

Embarkation

Well it finally arrived .. today we fly south or our adventure (or misadventure if you insist) on the Carnival Spirit. The flights went off without a hitch, met up with Chris and Claudia (son and DIL) in Sacramento and arrived in San Diego for our night at the Holiday Inn on the Bay. When we got to the hotel, our CC buddies were waiting for us and we had an interesting evening at Dick’s Last Resort (food is nothing to write home about but the waiters make it special in their own way.)

Finally, Finally it is here the morning when our ship will come in and we can sail away to the Mexican Riviera. We woke up at o’dark thirty to watch her dock … and wait a minute what is this??? Where is the Dock???? Where is Anthony’s ?? For that matter .. who moved the BAY!!! It was totally fogged in. We deduced (with, I might add an bit of discussion) that the ship might be a teensy bit late .. the fog would have to clear somewhat. Little did we know that the ship would not dock until 10:00AM and that is when the fun started. The Elation had docked about an hour earlier and were still disembarking passengers and now the Spirit had many anxious guest who where going to be in flight H*** if they didn’t get to the airport SOON. It quickly became a madhouse with the line for the embarking passengers stretching past the Maritime museum. We elected for the sunny patio at the Holiday Inn on the Bay and a few more drinks while we watched the Teeming hordes continue to line up in the slowest moving line I had ever seen. We had 8 people and all of the luggage so we had decided to take the shuttle. We talked to the shuttle driver about 2:30 and he said .. I just went up in the elevator and you don’t want to go yet .. I will come an get you. About 2:45 he deemed it appropriate to cross the street and we began the process.

Husband and I had a suite so we were able to use the VIP line which went rapidly, however from the very fast and efficient check in .. we needed to wind our way through hundreds of passengers with zone numbers and for some reason most of them seemed to feel that it was important to carry their own luggage on board futher jamming the limited space. We finally made it about 3:30 on board and headed straight for the nearest DOD.

Son and wife and Daughter and Husband were not so lucky. They were in fact among the last to board the ship and crossed onboard as they were announcing Muster Drill.

Finally all the formalities were over and we could start to relax as we sailed out of San Diego on a lovely warm evening. Oh yes, we had late seating for dinner which worked out well, since we sailed at 6PM and those with early seating had dinner at 6:15. To say there was much discussion and grumbling would be to put it kindly but then this is going to be a kinder gentler review .. heck I am on Vacation on a cruise ship under blue skies and warm sunshine .. I can’t really find much wrong in my world. More about the first sea day goings on later.

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Kurbanfan

Kurbanfan

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Wow rocky start....who would have thunk fog:( It must have been bad, your hotel is just across the street. Beautiful blue clear skys out our way:D Was the Elation and Spirit the only ships in town:confused: Hope the rest of your cruise turns out better.......I'm sure it will:)

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scperk

scperk

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Hope you have no problems that we had last week..The reason the ship was late was we had engine problems saturday night..They shut down both engines for at least three hours as we drifted 50 miles to the south..We docked at 10:00 and they let no one off till almost 11:45...We had great weather the whole 9 days and you could not ask for a nicer casino staff....Have fun and look for Lu at the Fantail bar.....Dennis

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Bucky3

Bucky3

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THANK YOU for posting from the ship! We've been waiting for recent cruisers to report on the Spirit and "live" posts will be wonderful in preparation for our December cruise. Enjoy and check in when you can! Thanks again.

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fpslim

fpslim

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Thanks for the play by play! I'm so looking forward to the Spirit in Feb, as it will be my first time on her class...

I'm hoping for info on the Piano Bar!! Who's playing and if he/she will still be on the Spirit in Feb.

TIA

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izzyvet

izzyvet

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As I am one to cruise on Spirit in a few weeks, I am also anxiously awaiting a "play-by-play". Sounds like the first day was eventful enough, and I hope you get to relax for the next two sea days. Have fun!! Wish I were there right now!

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MDavis23

MDavis23

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KLLund, thanks for posting while onboard! We are cruising on the Spirit December 6th and it is nice to hear about the cruise. Question, was the pool filled with water when you got onboard? I have read people saying to make sure you pack your swimsuit on your carryon, but then have also read that the pool is not filled until the ship is at sea. What time did you get your luggage? We also have VIP boarding, but would love to have our bags before our early seating for dinner. Again, thanks for posting! Have a great cruise! :)

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KLLund

KLLund

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Sail away and First Sea Day

We do plan to upload some pictures today, so stay tuned!

Speaking of which, we have cabin 6260 which is the Port Aft Wrap and we were told that we would not get wi-fi access here. Apparently they don’t know that in fact the access here is much faster than we found on decks 2,3 or 9, which is where we were told access would be. They do sell internet packages, and I post those prices as soon as I remember to write them down.

We are all safely aboard, and apparently instructed in all we need to know in an emergency in the fastest lifeboat drill known to man and we are ready to Party !!

Our group for CC friends, the majority having sailed together last year, met up with many more of our Roll Call at the aft bar. We partied for an hour or so and got acquainted with the ones who didn’t sail last year and although there was an exchange of information regarding what we had all individually experienced at embarkation, there was no real complaining or wringing of hands, we were all to happy to be on a cruise.

About this time, someone casually said “Did you have anything booked independently that you will need to change because of the itinerary change?” Ummmmmmmm, excuse me what change?? Apparently at embarkation some people were informed that the itinerary had changed and some of us were not. Oh well, I thought , something will be waiting for us in the cabin I am sure. Well, I guess they did inform us, if you looked at the shore excursion booking form in the cabin it did reflect that we would be in Manzanillo on Thursday, Acapulco on Friday and Zihuantenjo in Saturday. I was able to get a fishing trip in Manzanillo rescheduled so no problem, right ? Well sort of, turns out the Halloween party, for which some of us had made some elaborate costume plans, may be held at 11:00PM after we sail from Acapluco. I confess I have not had time to get a confirmation on this one yet.

After some re-arranging ( thank you Stacey) we did get three tables assigned together in the dining room. Most of us were very tired by then, remember it had been a long day and not many of us stayed up much longer that night.

On to the first sea day! We woke up to lovely warm mostly sunny skies on our trek southward, and there is that silly smile again. You guessed it, I am on a cruise! Bill and I sampled some breakfast at the buffet, but when we got there the omelet stations were swamped so that will have to wait for another day so I ate lightly and went in search of the rest of the family to be sure all was well. We pretty much spent a leisurely day with not agenda other than a Meet and Greet at Club Cool.

Even more of us attended this meet and greet and we had a great time getting re-acquainted and getting to know the new people. A few drinks, a lot of laughs and a few surprises. This was a very nice function and it was lovely of John Heald to arrange for us to have a place for it when we did not seem to get a response from Carnival.

This was the first Cruise Elegant evening and you know how much primping that can take. Tonight was also the Captains cocktail party, but the majority of us elected to forgo that in favor of drinks in the Lobby Bar.

The Lobster that we had for dinner tonight was among the best I have ever had on a cruise ship and the prime rib looked very good too. Of course it was about this point that Bill’s batteries gave out so we didn’t get pictures of it, but I suspect with the number of camera’s in our group we will have some to post.

Off to see what is brewing today .. more later.

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KLLund

KLLund

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Hope you have no problems that we had last week..The reason the ship was late was we had engine problems saturday night..They shut down both engines for at least three hours as we drifted 50 miles to the south..We docked at 10:00 and they let no one off till almost 11:45...We had great weather the whole 9 days and you could not ask for a nicer casino staff....Have fun and look for Lu at the Fantail bar.....Dennis

We did finally hear this from the crew. SO far so Good this time out.

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KLLund

KLLund

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Thanks for the play by play! I'm so looking forward to the Spirit in Feb, as it will be my first time on her class...

I'm hoping for info on the Piano Bar!! Who's playing and if he/she will still be on the Spirit in Feb.

TIA

The piano bar is in our plans for this evening.

 

KLLund, thanks for posting while onboard! We are cruising on the Spirit December 6th and it is nice to hear about the cruise. Question, was the pool filled with water when you got onboard? I have read people saying to make sure you pack your swimsuit on your carryon, but then have also read that the pool is not filled until the ship is at sea. What time did you get your luggage? We also have VIP boarding, but would love to have our bags before our early seating for dinner. Again, thanks for posting! Have a great cruise! :)

The pool did have water, but we were so late embarcing that I didn't see anyone in the pool. Our luggage was actually very prompt, we dropped it off about 2:50 and it was all in the cabin by 4:30, although we did hear that some of our group that embarced early didn't have their luggage until after that.

 

MMM no posting today..

 

Best guess's, either drunk or locked in the brig.

 

Yes I am still being a jealous bitch, twice as much as it turns out we could of been on this cruise :(

Dave, don't worry we are having lots of drinks to you and Jenn. We miss you!!

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7toEleven

7toEleven

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We did finally hear this from the crew. SO far so Good this time out.

 

 

Kathy;

 

It is so fun to be reading this since we just got off the Spirit as you were getting on. It makes our vacation last longer!! Hope all goes well with your cruise, the Spirit is a fantastic ship!

Have to tell you, my "ship" still occasionally rocks. As I sit here typing I can feel the gentle rolling, sigh!

Have fun!

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sheistheboss

sheistheboss

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Kathy,

Thanks for the " Live post ". I don't know if you are sailing with kids or not but DW and I are bringing our 2 ( One is 17 the other 7) with us. I just booked the Supper club for the Manzanillo night at 7:30. The question is do you know if the Camp carnival kids can eat with the group for dinner every night ? We make our kids eat with us for dinner but this night is " JUST FOR US ! " If she can't I guess we will make DS take her to main dinning or the Lido but that would cramp his Club 02 time.

Thanks

Mike

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olaydt

olaydt

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Hey Kathy,

 

Did you meet Amy, Jim and boys? Just wondering. Were they at your second meet and greet? I know the first one must have been very short for them since they have early dining and to their great disappointment they are seated at just a table for 4. So, they won't be meeting any new people and I am sure they are sick and tired of just looking at one another!.

 

Justbeau's Mom

 

O

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