Carnival Spirit Review
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We chose Carnival for this trip because of price, itinerary, and the kids program. We're a family of 3; My husband and I are in the mid-late 40’s with a 9 year old daughter. We've been on Carnival before, and were not particularly impressed. Still, we decided to give it another try and we're glad we did! We shared the ship with hundreds of boat dealers, as a group called "Tracker Marine" had their annual Sales meeting aboard. That kept the numbers of kids WAY down in Camp Carnival, and added greatly to the enjoyment of our cruise. A VERY nice group of well mannered and seaworthy folks.
Embarkation: We left Colorado on July 30th. Easy flying to Vancouver. Easy finding the right place to catch the bus. Thrilled that our luggage would go to the ship without our needing to haul it along. A short tour of Vancouver on the way to the ship. Easy stopped right there. LONG lines, little organization, and a good hour before we got to our cabin. Not a pleasant way to start our vacation. Then, the mandatory lifeboat drill (having been on a couple of other cruises, I find that safety is not as good on Carnival as it is on NCL).
Cabin: Plenty of storage space. Two doubles could be made up as a king, though it took our room steward 3 days to do this, even after repeated asking. (More on the room steward later). We were in a partially obstructed balcony (#5143) which I'd book again in an instant. Yes, there was a lifeboat there (one of the few that they used as tenders in ports), but it was not covering up any view for us. (I'd be REALLY careful about booking any of the cabins on the level under us....every 5th partially obstructed French door might have had a bit of a view, but not much!) Nice bathroom, plenty of room in the shower. Oh, the blowdryer took me about 30 minutes to find...it was in the topmost right-hand drawer in the cabin...not in the bathroom at all. That bottle of water is NOT free, though we had no sign telling us that. I'd rather drink lukewarm tap water (fine water, by the way) than pay for a bottle of water.