We've done a number of cruises - with P&O Australia, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Carnival. We've had a wonderful time on all of them... except on Carnival Breeze in the Mediterranean last October-November. That was such a horrible experience that it shook my confidence in ever cruising again (and I love cruising!); I vowed never ever to sail with Carnival again. We actually came home from that one feeling sad and discouraged. I won't go into that cruise, but if you're interested in the performance of Carnival international check out Carnival Breeze (brand new ship last year) reviews for 25th October 2012. It will be enlightening how bad a cruise company can perform.
There were a few reasons we chose this 11 night S. Pacific cruise on Carnival Spirit:
1. We'd cruised on the Spirit before, two cruises back-to-back, Vancouver to Alaska and Vancouver to Honolulu. We had a great time. So when Carnival Spirit came to sail out of Sydney we wanted to try it for old time's sake. We love this ship.
I'd studied the online deck plans for Carnival Spirit and noticed that some inside cabins (ours included) looked squarer than most. After a lot of googling I found actual photos of the inside of one of these cabins and it looked a better layout so I booked cabin number 2177. It definitely was better. It wasn't quite as long but was wider, so that the queen sized bed went across ways instead of the end facing the door. That gave room for a very long bench/laptop space/dressing table, wider than the bed, with drawers and lots of usable space, and ample room either side of the bed for the bedside tables. It just had a more spacious feel than the other inside cabin layout and I recommend it. Bathroom and clothes storage space was ample, same as other same-category cabins.