Welcome to Dana's review of the Carnival Cruise Lines, Carnival Spirit. ReviewThatCruise.com is first for Carnival Spirit Reviews & Carnival Spirit ship reviews.
Carnival is only for the 1st time cruiser that does not know what is possible. Having traveled several times on both Princess and Disney, I was very disappointed in the service, the written promises not kept & especially the food.
I am a single 50 yr old who travels with my 11 yr old son and 8 year old daughter for lack of another travel mate. I had to select a desitnation and cruise line that might keep them intertained. I guess I have higher standards that they do because they were almost satisfied on this trip.
Positives
Most of the crew was polite and attempted to please.
On this cruise aprrox 20% of the passangers were of india decent. Carnival did adjust their food offerings to appreantly accomidate them quiet well. Even had special seating to keep them all together ( large tour group)
The bus ride from Witter to Anchorage was very informational
DEBARKATION was very quick and smooth.....they already had your money so they were happy to get rid of you!
Negatives
DEBARKATION: was a mess! Paperwork said those having purchased a suite should report to the VIP desk for IMMEDIATE check in. THERE WAS NO VIP DESK. We stood in line with 100\'s of others for over an hour.
THE SHIP: is all done in dark tones, the only lit up area in the ship was the casino.
THE FOOD: carnival is trying to save money by having EVERYTHING portioned out to you. The food is acceptable if you like your scrambled eggs so wet they should be served in a cup. They did not advise that they had kid menus until the 3rd night
Of 6 hot chocolate machines around the LA GRILLE on deck 9, 2 will always be empty,, of the 8 soft serve ice cream machines on board only 2 will be working and one has yogurt in it!
The LA GRILLE is posted to be open till 9:30 pm however they don\'t tell you that they start closing it down at 8:30pm.
GLACIER VIEWING: On the past cruises with Princess the ship is pulled within 2-2.5 miles of the glaciers where you get a breath taking view. This trip the captian stopped us 6 miles (they advised distance) and we stayed there for 45 minutes while a tender was lowered so some of the crew could go closer to get pictures. WHAT\'S WITH THAT!!!!! this disapointed my son the most.
CHILDREN: the care of kids was definately and after thought for Carnival. The kids area is stuffed up under the bow of the ship, the room was very warm and stuffy. Don\'t plan on leaving your kids for any length of time..... you have to retrevie them several times during the day so that the crew can have breaks or meals.
For kids cruising STAY WITH DISNEY
