Carnival Spirit Review

Carnival Spirit Hawaii Cruise 12.2.2011-12.17.2011

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Carnival Spirit
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2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Dec 2011
Cabin: Extended Balcony

This part is going to be mostly about the ship. The review of the ports are below.

Let me start out that over all we enjoyed our trip. We LOVED Hawaii and hope to go back. We felt that for our first visit this was the way to see some of the best of what the islands had. Definitely not enough time on them, but gave us a good taste of what they had to offer.

I'll start with the not so good for the ship. It's quite the story. From the start it had some faults. Check in was horrible. The lines were so long and we got there when our papers said to be there (at 1:00). There were computers not in use, which I think is not right when you know you have about 2,000 people you are trying to get on board. If you are a VIP, frequent cruiser to Carnival, then I'm sure this process is much better, but for those of us that aren't its pure torture!

Cabin Review

Extended Balcony

Cabin 8K

Our cabin was 7237. It was a very good position for us. It was close to the stairs and elevators at mid-ship. We had no excessive noise from this area, in fact actually heard no noise from either at all when we were in our room.

Our extended balcony would have been nice had the chairs on the balcony been a little wider so we could sit in them (actually DH could; however, I have a DVT in my groin and it was too uncomfortable for me).

We were above a life boat, but you could still see the water below. You could see to the front of the ship; however, you could not see to the back. The very next room going aft was jutting out so no vision back there. That was fine with us because all we had to do was go out on deck or turn the tv to the channel that showed the aft section. We didn't get any second hand smoke in this area either.

We had 2 full closets for hanging clothing, one had one rod and the other had 2 rods (one higher and one lower). The third closet had shelves from top to bottom. We felt we had plenty of closet room for the 15 day trip. We were even able to fit our luggage into the bottom of the 2 full closets for storage.

It would have been nice to have a chair in the room, but the room was too small to add that to it. There was a little stool under the dresser counter and we had the couch/day bed area to sit on also. We didn't realize that the table had a lever so you could raise the table up and down until half the cruise was over.

The bed was very firm, but for us that was a good thing. It felt very comfortable to us and we had good night sleeping. That is a per person issue. Some like firm and others like soft, so if you like a soft bed, it would not be comfortable for you.

On first look the bathroom looked small, especially the shower. Once we got all settled in, the bathroom was just fine. I did bring along an over the door shoe organizer and that helped to keep many things organized.

The shower was actually very nice. There was much more room than I realized and the curtain didn't stick on you at all. The shower head was also good. It was an adjustable one so you could adjust the type of spray coming out of it and it also detached so it made it easy to spay off your legs, etc. The power of the spray was also very good. The only thing to watch for is the temperature did fluctuate, but not dramatically.

The room was very well lit and I loved the feature of having the button to turn off the lights right over the bed. I did bring along a night light and used that so we could see for those late night bathroom visits and wished I would have taken others advice on purchasing those little battery candles to put into the bathroom too since there was no outlet to plug in a night light in there. That bathroom light at 2am is pretty bright!

Speaking of bathroom, we had some pretty high seas and there was a noise coming out of the sink. It sounded like a ping pong ball in there moving around and it really got on my nerves. I soon figured out if you put the stopper down on the sink you no longer hear the noise, so that took care of that problem.

The decor in the room seemed a little dated; however, that's not really an issue with me. As long as it's clean, I'm good, but felt I needed to mention it for those that do have issues with it.

The tv was very dated. We are usually big time tv watchers and thought we would be bothered with the older tv; however, it turned out it wasn't an issue either. We didn't spend much time in our room except for sleeping or getting ready for dinner, etc. I think there was maybe one day that we spent quite a bit of time in there and it was because of the bad seas and being very gloomy outside.

Speaking of tv. We did not know and didn't find it written anyplace, that when the cruise director or captain spoke over the loud speakers that you could tune them in on the tv on the channel that showed the front of the ship! We could never hear what they were saying without jumping up and opening the outside door or the door to the hallway until someone mentioned this to us!

Also, the door for our balcony was not a sliding door. It was an actual door that opened out and had a window next to it. The door slams shut, so be careful to hold it until you are all the way in or out, it might clip your heel if you don't! You can also really hear the wind whipping around when the seas are wicked...sounded like a huge snowstorm (for those that live in the Midwest you know what I'm talking about) going on outside with all the whistling going on!

The room was not very big at all; however, it was adequate. We didn't feel like we were on top of each other all the time. I thought we would being in there for 15 days, but we did just fine (there was just 2 of us, if it was 3 then I think we'd have another story).

You did have to wait for one person to pass at the end of the bed to go to the balcony or to head to the bathroom, but no different than being in a hallway passing someone. It was a little tight by 2 of the closets. Only one person could be over there at one time and only one closet opened at a time too.

We did not have any excessive noise from the floors above or below us. Very occasionally you might hear a thud from above, but nothing from below. Even for our next door neighbors you didn't hear much of anything from them and actually the only time I did hear from one neighbor was in the bathroom. Could never make out what he was saying, but I would imagine he was in there with the door closed and yelling out to someone else..never heard anything else.

We encountered some high seas so there was a lot of rocking and rolling back and forth. We were told that being in an upper floor we would be feeling it a little more than those that were lower. If this sort of thing would bother you, then I'd look for something a little lower.

We did rock and roll quite a bit and DH did get sea sick from it. I got him up, got some food in his belly (green apple, dry toast, and ginger ale, along with a Dramamine) and got him down to the Atrium area where it's more wide open and also a lower floor. All of this seemed to help and he felt better the next day (we were told to try to stay out of the bathrooms...the smaller the area the worse you will feel..just an FYI).

If we cruised on the Carnival Spirit again I would certainly choose this room again. I might want to give the room next to us a try too (the one that jutted out a little and didn't have the life boat under it). I believe it is the same size, just no life boat under it and you would be able to see in front and back (from the sides).

I hope this helps you decide if this is the room for you!

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