This was our second cruise to Alaska. Our first on Carnival. Without question, Alaska is still just a beautiful. The ports of call are wonderful. The shore excursions, especially those from Allen Marine Tours, are great. We were disappointed in our time on the Carnival Spirit. Since we enjoy looking at the beautiful scenery in Alaska we expected a ship sailing there to have a lounge with great vistas off of the front of the ship. The only nice place to look out over the front of the ship is the space used by the workout area. Certainly not a relaxing place to enjoy the scenery. The only nice place to look out over the back of the ship is the outdoor smoking area. Once again, not enjoyable for a non-smoker. This situation caused those cruising on the ship to congregate, chat, play cards, etc. in the seating areas of the buffet dining area which did have a lot of windows along the side of the ship. With so many cruisers using the dining tables to relax, it was often difficult to find a free table to use for dining. Several times, we walked around for so long looking for a table that our food was cold.

We often ate at the buffet for breakfast and lunch. The menu items rarely varied. The same items were at the same place day after day. Every time that we visited the buffet dining area, employees were chatting, laughing and looking out of the windows and not keeping tables clean and restocked with napkins and silverware. One morning when tables were scarce, we found a dirty table and asked an employee to please clean it. The gentleman removed the dirty dishes and then placed clean napkins and silver without ever wiping the crumbs and smears from the previous diners. We have not seen this on our many previous cruises on three other cruise lines. The soft serve ice cream and yogurt were great, but the only time that the topping bar was open was from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. We did not understand why it was only open so late and close to our early dinner hour.

The formal dining room service was slower and less personal than the other cruise lines that we have traveled. The food was mediocre. Service from the bar was interesting. There were thirteen members of our extended family on the Spirit. One evening, two different groups ordered bottles of wine to share. One bottle arrived immediately while the other did not arrive for another twenty minutes. Each time we ordered beer, it was served in a bottle with no glass. We have never been expected to swig beer from a bottle in a formal dining room and always had to wait for quite some time to get a glass. Read more