Our 12 day cruise started in Honolulu, toured the Hawaiian islands for 7 days, 5 days at sea and ended in Ensenada, Mexico. We had cruised often before but not for 12 years, we had retired young and moved to Mexico so always seemed to be on holidays. Anyway after 10 years we decided to take a one month holiday, 2 weeks touring islands in Hawaii and end with this 12 day cruise on the Carnival ship ...
We are a married couple in our sixties living in Orange County, CA. Even though we are not retired yet it was our third vacation this year. We had also a Princess cruise in January and a resort stay in Mexico in May of this year. It was our fourteenth cruise, fifth cruise on Carnival, and the third one on Spirit.
We booked this cruise well in advance - in February. First, I do research on ...
Hawaii - Carnival Spirit - April 23-May 5, 2010
Overall, this was a wonderful cruise on the Spirit. This was my 8th cruise and the fourth time on a Carnival ship (second time on the Spirit). I was travelling "solo", however, it was nice to meet many wonderful people (a number of whom were Cruise Critic members).
THE SHIP:
The Spirit was a large ship, but smaller than many of the new ships ...
This cruise allows you to see all of the major Hawaiian islands, which was the selling point for us for our honeymoon, and did not dissapoint. The islands are amazing.
We left Philadelphia at 7:30 AM on April 17, 2010 and had a 6 hour flight to Seattle...a layover in Seattle...and then another 6 hour flight to Honolulu. Very long day of traveling was worth it. We started our vacation with 5 full ...
Our only other Carnival cruise was 15 years ago, a 4 day to the Bahamas. Decided to "jump ship" from Royal Caribbean because of price and itinerary. We got 2 more days and one more port for abour $1000 less per person. Didn't know for sure if we would regret it or not.
No regrets! The ship is smaller that what we are used to, and the decor seemed dark, but I quickly got used to it. Preferred it ...
Embarkation was a breeze, taking less than 20 min. to get through security, receive our room card, and up to the Lido deck for lunch!
We had arrived in Honolulu 3 days prior, and stayed at the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber, a newly renovated hotel located above Macy's Dept Store. The room was cheery, comfortable and reasonably priced ($129 per night) considering it's location on Kalakaua Ave. ...
Third cruise in two years, 2nd on Carnival. Embarkation was a breeze unlike last two cruises. Luggage was at cabin when finished with lunch on Lido deck. Food was average at buffet entire cruise, not quite hot enough. Cabin was on deck 6, a balcony cabin with sufficient room and clean. Steward was very attentive to freshening cabin and also personable. Entertainment was adequate in theater ...
We were a party of 7 spread through 3 cabins. 2 with balconies, 1 inside cabin (it was the tiniest of any of the 5 cruiselines we have been on -- though it was well-organized and kept neat by our stewards).
We flew straight to HNL and arranged for our own transfer to the embarkation area. Which entrance to use? No signs or markings on various entranceways -- tried asking a surly Carnival-attired ...
We chose this cruise for its itinerary, which suited us perfectly. We drove from our home on Whidbey Island, Washington to Vancouver on Tuesday, April 29, for an overnight stay at the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel, where we were able to leave our car for 15 days as part of our overnight stay there. Wednesday morning we took the shuttle to the airport to board WestJet for our flight to Honolulu. ...
This was our second cruise, and our second with Carnival. When choosing to cruise again after our Mexican Riviera cruise in Jan 07, I did not consciously pick Carnival, they had the itinerary I was looking for. We wanted a longer than 7 night cruise this time around, so we chose the 12 day Hawaii cruise back to Vancouver, perfect for us as we live in British Columbia. We flew from Vancouver to ...