This was our 7th cruise, 5th with Carnival & our 3rd on a Spirit Class Ship. Though we live in New York this was our 1st cruise out of New York. We were a little nervous and to help others like us I offer the following info. We took Skyline car service to the Port, cost from the Northeast Bronx was $33 with tip, compared to $ 25 per day parking. We arrived at 10:15 A.M. We were checked in and sitting by 10:40 A.M. and was on the ship by 12 noon. Excellent.
If you were on A Spirit Class Ship before, no more to be said. The Captain Was Roberto Volpi who we sailed with on the Pride. He is friendly, funny & the best Captain we had so far. The Cruise Director was Brent Mitchell, funny & young, no Troy and did not get as involved as other C/D. Though his Assistant Jen was great. Unfortunately the food was.....excellent, though we did not gain to much weight. Our dining room staff was good as was the Cabin Steward and we had a great Bar Steward at the Follies Lounge. Due to the weather the ship was rocking and at times we thought we were on the Poseidon, despite that, great ship and a great time.
When we left Tortola(a bore)2 passengers had heart problems(later we found out they did fine) we had to detour back to St. Thomas and did not arrive back to New York till 3:30 P.M. The Captain and Brent were constantly apologetic and kept us constantly informed. We got almost another full day at sea with activities and YES food.