Embarkation and access was easy and smooth. Cabins were not ready but that was to be expected. Went straight to the pool and bar while waited for rooms to be ready. The weather was perfect every day and just hung at the serenity bar away from screaming kids. Noumea, Isle of Pines and Mare Isle were great snorkeling excellent. Food in all areas was good Main restaurant and Lido deck there was always plenty of variety and choice. In general the fish wherever you were was excellent and perfectly cooked. The cabin "Grand Suite" was very comfortable and steward Dennis very obliging. All in all a very good value cruise if you are on a budget. This is our second Carnival cruise it just happens to be 1/2 price of same excursion with Celebrity which would have been our preferred choice. We wanted to go to Isle of Pines and that is what we did. Celebrity is a great choice if you have kids and want value for money. Though they try and gouge you at every corner so watch your bill. Read Less

Last Cruised in - 1980 , P & O Oriana, Catch up with friend on short cruise from back then. Find out what Cruising in 2018 Was like. Excellent time on Carnival Spirit, All Service was good , ship was good , Crew Good, Ship was easy to get around on , to all relevent facilities.food in buffet area very good. Especially enjoyed made to order Omletes for breakfast, Empire Restaurant excellant with Your Time Dining option. Drinks a little bit expensive side , but what heck most pubs in Sydney charge too, Carnival bars catered for Aussie Beers , on Tap , which was a plus , Tooheys , VB , xxxx, Plus their own brew Thirsty Frog. ALL bars had table service for lazy time people , Only one disapointment, was Shore Excursion to Cascade Brewery facility was not operating, but was a Saturday. $100.00 ouch. Cost of cruise was good. Good time had will cruise again. On Carnival or P& O etc Read Less

This cruise was a short break to visit Tasmania with another couple. On arrival we went to our room to drop off our hand luggage. Trouble and time wasting with the safe is detailed in the cabin review. Cleanliness of the room was a huge disappointment and is also detailed in the cabin section of this review. This lack of cleanliness was a bit of a theme throughout the cruise. Table tops in the buffet often dirty as were the bathrooms in the public areas. Rarely did we see a buffet steward doing anything other than collecting dirty crockery- no wiping of table tops and no attention to detail. There seemed to be a huge lack of staff in public areas to enable standards to be kept up. My husbands suitcase still had not shown up 4 hrs after embarkation. After a call to the front desk with no satisfaction we found a letter on our bed telling us we had contraband in the suitcase and we needed to go to the front desk. We did this and were then sent to security on another level only to find out from a smart alec security officer that we had a power board in the suitcase. We have used this exact power board on many cruises with no problems. More time wasted. Getting a drink was a matter of lining up at the bar. Rarely was there any table service which seems odd to us as alcohol and drinks are a huge money spinner for any cruise line. Certainly at the huge prices being charged on this ship if they had more staff performing table service they would have made a lot more money. The food in the buffet was less than ordinary. Long lines, difficulty finding a table, tepid food and poor selections made it a disappointing option. This was the first cruise where staff were not serving the food in the buffet especially for the first couple of days to prevent the spread of Noro Virus. Many passengers touching serving utensils is a recipe for disaster. Some of the food was so far back that people were putting their heads into the warming area to reach the utensils. Very poorly organised. It works much more efficiently and hygienically when staff do the honours. Less wastage also when staff serve hungry passengers. By contrast the food and service in the dining room was lovely. The line up for the anytime dining was very frustrating. At breakfast one morning there were over 100 passengers waiting in line to enter the dining room. After returning 15 minutes later the line had not shrunk. At dinner we were often supplied with a beeper (after a long wait in line) only to find on entry to the restaurant that half the tables were empty. The only possible explaination for this must have been a lack of staff to serve these tables. The child free Serenity area was a great place to avoid the many children onboard. Although we had no children there appeared to be lots of places to entertain the little ones as well. Entertainment on this ship was pretty good. We frequented the Red Frog bar which had excellent service from bar staff and great music from the band from Manila. Whilst we did not join in with the bingo/trivia/ games on offer there certainly did seem to be lots happening. We did not use the gym but it certainly had prime position at the front of the ship with the best views available. Most ships have a large bar in this position and not sure why Carnival chose to put the gym here- only saw 1 person using it. We did not try the specialty steak restaurant which we usually do on our cruises. The reason for this was the price-$45 a head. Never paid more than $25US on our many other cruises. Another elevated price for the Aussie travellers. We spoke to a passenger who was a regular with Carnival and she said all prices had dramatically increased over the last few months. She too was disappointed. I believe many of our disappointments in this cruise directly reflect staffing levels on Carnival Spirit. After almost 20 cruises around the world we have never experienced this lack of staff and service on all levels. We have come to realise Australians pay highly for cruises and in return are provided with a second rate service. American cruisers would not put up with either the lack of attention or the high prices that we have come to expect. Our first cruise on P&O 20 years ago with our children was amazing but expensive given there was no competition. Now there are so many cruise ships based in Australia and much more competition but we have a reduced level of service with no reduction in price. Read Less

We chose this cruise as a short break to a place we'd always wanted to go... Tasmania. The fact that there was one day in Port Arthur followed by two in Hobart (the ship overnighted there) offered us more time in ports we wanted to go to than other Tassie cruises we considered. We'd cruised on Carnival Spirit 3 times in the past: to Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands before the ship made Australia it's home port, and then to the S Pacific soon after it moved to Australia. We loved all those cruises and had no hesitation in booking this time. This was our 18th cruise. We've cruised with P&O in the early 2000's, Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean. I love any cruise and all have some more positive features and some more negative. I don't nitpick as I feel we're fortunate to actually be able to cruise. Someone who hasn't cruised before, or who has only cruised on Carnival out of Australia, is probably going to rate a cruise differently than someone who has cruised more and on various cruiselines. I am writing this review from the point of comparing to the 3 other Spirit cruises we've done, and comparing to other cruiselines' offerings. The staff and service on Carnival Spirit still impressed me. There's a happy friendly vibe, especially in the main dining room. Our cruise director Gary was also a standout - he was temporarily replacing Eli, the regular cruise director and was pretty new at the job, but he was brilliant. On sea days I try to go to the gym so I was able to go twice on this cruise. I don't use the equipment, but do my own pilates mat routine. The gym is bright and at the front of the ship, and seems to have plenty of equipment though my husband complained to me that none of the bikes were working on either day. What I found a pest was that there was no real floor space for mat work. You have to find a little corner or thoroughfare and plonk your mat down there, hoping you won't be in anyone's way. I'm used to finding in ship gyms an entire alcove or room that's devoted to fitness classes or seminars and being able to workout there. I know I'm in the minority as most people seem to head to the gym to use the bikes or treadmills but some dedicated floor space would be wonderful. I was underwhelmed by the entertainment. Some nights there wasn't even a show and this was incredibly unusual from my experience. Having cruised on NCL for our last 4 cruises I guess I'm influenced by the NCL entertainment which is top notch, with superb dancing, large variety of production shows, various "fly-in" entertainers, etc. The nightly entertainment is something we usually seek out but on this ship it was disappointing. By day there were the usual trivia sessions, bingo, pool area activities, etc, but so many slots in the programme were devoted to sessions such as "Improve your metabolism", "Hair tips and tricks", "Look younger in 5 minutes", "Detox". These were actually Spa selling sessions! This seems to be the trend on many cruise ships, not just Carnival, but it would be nice to have some genuine sessions that provided information and fun and not presentation of the Spa's products. It was disappointing that the Versailles Lounge was no longer used for dancing. On my S. Pacific cruise there was regular dancing in that lounge, with a versatile group playing there on many nights. As dancers we loved that. Now it seems to just be used for the comedy club. Perhaps the fact that our cruise was only 6 nights didn't show us the full range of possibilities... I hope so as last year we also booked on the Carnival Spirit for its 19 night cruise to Singapore in May this year. Now I'm actually a little worried and hoping I'll have a different experience from this time. My other real peeve was the food! Dining room food was okay, but only okay. Once again I'm probably comparing to past cruises, but I'm also comparing to past Spirit cruises and the quality and range has definitely dropped. Dinner is something I usually happily anticipate but not so this time; it was average. The service in the dining room, though, was very good and there was a fun vibe there. As for the Lido buffet, what on earth has happened there!!??? Back when I last cruised on this ship, mid 2013, I was as happy as I'd been when I cruised on the Spirit when it was still sailing in international waters. Then there was heaps of choice and no vast snaking queues waiting to reach the food counters. I don't know why this happens... you can wait in a queue for what seems like 20 minutes and probably is, just wanting to grab one item and move on. But you have to stand and wait whilst every person in front of you deliberates about what they want on their plate and - sometimes painstakingly - fills their plate. I might want only one item but naturally I wouldn't push in so the only alternative is to stand in those queues. I keep puzzling why the queues. In all my other cruises it wasn't such torture to get food. Sometimes on this cruise I gave up! No chance of weight gain there! I'm used to food bars where you can approach without inconveniencing anyone, get your food item, and leave. It's easy to see the choices and easy to access them. You might have to wait for an occasional person to make their choice but that's not a problem; you don't have to wait for a huge line of people to serve themselves at a small food area. To new cruisers or those who have only cruised out of Australia on Carnival: It doesn't have to be this way! Pizza... I'm not fond of it but my husband decided to have pizza one lunchtime. You firstly place an order and then join the throng at the other end of the counter who are waiting for their orders. Carnival, why? I suppose the idea is that you are getting pizza as fresh as it comes, but you can still get that by having large pizzas cooked, sliced and laid out on a decent sized accessible foodbar. That way you can get a single slice if you want (I woudn't mind a single slice but not a WHOLE pizza). Pizza is popular so when I've seen it done this way, those already cooked pizzas are gone before they have time to cool or dry out, but they are constantly being replaced by more pizzas. I think Carnival should look at other cruiselines and how they do it. Norwegian cruiseline, for example, and RCI. I can only hope that the configuration and procedures in the Lido buffet will be upgraded when the ship is in for refurbishment. Why isn't "washy washy" being encouraged? There are hand sanitising stations here and there, but this is the first cruise I've done in years where there isn't a staff member stationed at the entrance and requesting hands be sanitised upon entry. So the positives for this ship: Cruise Director Gary, staff and service, roomier cabins. Negatives: Lido buffet and food in general. Only average entertainment. I can't comment on the ship's tours as we always organise our own tours prior to a cruise, or pick one up when we disembark. It's cheaper that way and you're more likely to get an individualised and happy experience. Read Less

This was a 6 day cruise on carnival Spirit from Sydney to Tasmania and back to Sydney. Departing 11th February 2018 from the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay. The ship Visited Port Arthur and Hobart. We were in a standard balcony cabin 7253.Type 8F I last travelled on Carnival Spirit in 2016. 2016 was my first cruise and I enjoyed myself so much I didn't want to get off at the end of the cruise. I was worried that with this cruise the allure would have faded and the experience would not be as enjoyable. I need not have worried! I enjoyed the experience immensely and again did not want to get off the ship on Saturday back in Sydney. For embarkation, we caught the train to Circular Quay and walked to the ship from there. It is a very short walk.You can get good pictures of the ship from the platform at Circular Quay. Here is my not so good picture as an example https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28056722_10155302534000754_2635054478436950925_n.jpg?oh=e4dd6ea9125146b5bf53ce4b22f8cdb7&oe=5B169D4A Our assigened boarding time was 1am but we were ready to board at 11.30am. We decided to drop off the luggage at the drop off point and wander around but as we were dropping off the luggage, they announced they were operating under general boarding and we could board straight away. From dropping off luggage to getting on the ship took maybe 15 minutes. It would have been longer for an international trip. And we helped the whole process go quicker by checking in online and having all our paper work completed. At the check in desk, all they had to do was confirm our identity then they handed over our sail and sign cards and told us we could board. Carnival Spirit is for EVERYONE. No matter how old or young, you are catered for on carnival Spirit. Our cruise had babies in strollers to elderly family members assisted by younger family members. There were also multiple people getting around the ship in motorised scooters, wheel chairs and walking frames. Under 18's have a club specific to their age group with their own activities. For the young or young at heart there is a waterpark and 2 waterslides. The ship has 3 swimming pools and 3 spa baths (whirlpools). One Spa bath and swimming pool is in the adults only Serenity area. One swimming pool is also the dive in movies pool with cinema screen for watching movies at night. One spa bath is inside the gym which is for use only by people over 16 years of age. You can take part in trivia competitions multiple times per day. You can sit in the sky box sports bar and watch sporting programmes. A lot of people did this on my tour because the Winter Olympics were on. You can relax in the Red Frog pub and watch bands at night. You can watch stage shows such as the Miss Hodini magic show. You can laugh your head off in the comedy club. By the way, for the R rated comedy shows, the F word is not the worst thing you will hear. You can party the night away at the disco. You can sing karaoke in the Shanghai Bar. There is other live music through out the ship. Our cruise had a string trio playing classical music in the Alchemy Bar. The ship has an impractical jogging track on deck 11. Deck 10 makes a much better jogging track. There is a sign on deck 10 saying a complete loop is 452.3 metres. The sign on deck 10 also says Jogging is allowed before 8am and after 8pm. You can play basket ball or mini soccer at the basket ball court. Play 9 holes of mini golf before breakfast. Play table tennis if not too windy. Play cards games such as Bridge or Euchre in the Monarch room. Get a book or a board game from the library. Say a prayer in the Chapel. Attend an ART auction. Play Bingo. Buy duty free in the shopping arcade. Gamble all your money in the casino. Meet up with other like minded people at pre arranged get togethers such as LGBT, Singles or Alcoholocis Anonymous. Attend dancing lessons. Get a massage, a haircut, acupuncture or a facial in the massage spa. Have a a special evening all dressed up, and meet the Captain, on a Cruise Elegant Night. Relax with friends in quiet corners all over the ship. And more! I decided I will film any changes and add them to my Carnival Spirit playlist on Youtube. There were no changes, the ship was the same. Just a change of staff, except for the Captain. So, if you want to see what the ship looks like, go to my playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEP0E3q2UiAPoYTsVgiM5d-BmH4dWYLWa My cabin was a standard balcony cabin. It measured 635cm x 275cm or 17.5 metres squared. The balcony measured 288cm x 135cm or 3.8 Metres squared. For a total of 21.3 metres squared. The balcony had 2 chairs and small table. The balcony wall facing the sea was clear so the view was unhindered while seated. The room was set up on arrival as a queen bed but changed to 2 singles when it was explained I was travelling with my sister. The room had a small but adequate sized bathroom with sink, shower and toilet. There was a small fridge. a 21cm flat screen TV. A sofa. A safe. 3 wardrobes which could be configured as all hanging or with some shelves. A bible. A hair dryer. Multiple drawers and small cupboards for storage. The room had 2 power points, American style with 110v and Australian Style with 240v. There was another multiple input power point in the bathroom labeled shavers only. I filmed my cabin and will upload the video to my Carnival Spirit Playlist on youtube, when I have edited the footage together. I prefer to dine in the Lido Deck bufet for all meals. It means I don't have to be tied down to a meal time. I can arrive when I want to eat, grab what ever i want and be off to the next onboard function on my list. There is so much to do on board that I don't have time to do everything I want. I get a newsletter in the evening telling me what is on the next day. I tear of the daily list circle everything I want to do then go back through and cross off the the least favourite thing that clashes with something else. Disembarkation was easy. we were automatically assigned an 8am disembarkation. However, I went to guest services and told them I would rather get off at the latest possible time. They assigned me to 9.10am. However, at 8.30am, we were ready to get off. We went to deck 3, there was a small queue of people waiting to get off. I was told we could join the queue. As we had already been told that Circular Quay railway station was closed because of track repair, we had made the decision to catch a taxi. Because it was a domestic cruise, there was no immigration. So on the same level we entered the Overseas Passenger Terminal. Level 2, I think. We followed the taxi sign and exited the door right at the taxi rank. Time from departing our cabin to getting in a taxi was 10 minutes at the most. Every singe staff member I came in contact with provided exceptional service!!!! Here is an update of pricing LAUNDRY (no change in pricing) - $3 for 40 minutes to wash clothes. - $3 for 45 minutes to dry clothes - $1.50 single use washing powder - $1.50 single use fabric softener - Free use of iron and ironing board. Iron was on a timer so it could not be left on accidentally VALET SERVICE examples (no change in pricing) - $7.50 wash and iron a dress - $4 wash and iron a shirt or blouse - $5 wash and iron trousers or slacks - $2 wash undergarments PHONE HOME to Australia (no change in pricing) - $1.99 per minute from the phone in your state room MINI BAR examples - No more mini bar. There are still fridges but the fridges are empty. They still had bottled water in the cabins at $4.50 for a 1.5 litre bottle IN ROOM SAFE - Some other ships apparently charge to use the in room safe. It is free on carnival Spirit ROOM SERVICE examples - There was no room service menu so not sure of latest prices. IN ROOM MOVIES. A selection of comedy, action, drama and family movies (no change in pricing) - $4.99 on demand to watch a movie on your TV in your cabin - Free....One family movie and one movie from the other categories, played all day, every 2 hours. FOOD - Free soft serve ice cream and frozen yoghurt 24/7. I couldn't have ice cream last trip but am sure there was only a choice of vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Now it is Vanilla, chocolate or straberry ice cream and frozen yoghurt. Just help your self. Use a cone or use a cup and spoon. - Free pizza 24/7 - Free food in the dining room. Order as much as you could eat. One meal I had 2 entres and 2 main corses. - Free food from the lido deck buffets. Eat all you can. - Free hamburgers at Guys burger joint until 5.30pm. Add all your own toppings from the toppings bar - Free barbecue food at Fat Jimmys on deck 10 at lunch time. - There was still food you could pay for in the Fountain Cafe (cakes and desserts), Bonsai sushi bar, the Freshies corner (fresh seafood) and Nouveau Restaurant but again I didn't try them so don't have the prices. DRINKS - For free in the morning there was juice at the lido deck buffets - For free all day from the lido deck buffets, there was ice, water, real lemonade, iced tea, coffee, hot tea, dairy milk, soy milk and hot chocolate. - Bottomless bubbles $7.25 per day (no change in pricing) but you can't just pay for one day. You have to pay $7.25 per day for the whole cruise. I paid $43.50 for 6 day cruise. Bottomless bubbles is available in the dining room and at every bar on the ship. The bottomless bubbles includes coke, sprite, fanta, dry ginger ale, orange juice, pineapple juice and cranberry juice. No need for water as it is served free at every bar and in the the dining room and lido deck buffet. - Coca cola product soft drinks unchanged at $2.75. - Ginger Beer $3.50 - Energy drinks $5.50 - Fish bowl from the Red Frog pub. Basically a fishbowl is 8 full nips/shots of rum with a selection of juices and lots of ice in a very big glass bowl . Now $26.95 - Every standard cocktail was $12.95. However, I had a cocktail at the Alchemy bar that cost $15.95. The alchemy bar make cocktails based on your mood. They kept saying do you like this or do you like that. In the end, my cocktail had about 10 different ingredients in it including cinnamon, coconut, strawberries, cream or something creamy, several different juices and several different types of alcohol. - They offered alcoholic Icy inventions at $10.50 - Smoothies and non alcoholic versions of cocktails and icy inventions was $6.50 - Martinis $10.50 - Thirsty frog ale unchanged at $8.95 - Cheapest beer now cascade premium light at $6.50 - Cans/stubbies Tooheys new, Tooheys Old, Tooheys extra dry, XXXX Gold, XXXX summer bright lager, carlton dry, carlton draught, crown lager, fat yak pale ale, pure blonde premium and VB all $8.25 - Stubbies of Little creatures pale ale, James Squire 50 lashes pale ale, Krombacher pils, Corona, Heineken, Stella Artois and Strongbow cider all $8.50 - Beer on tap in a 15 OZ glass. Tooheys new, VB, XXXX gold, Tooheys extra dry, Carlton Draught all unchanged at $8.25 - New since my last trip. I call them beer towers. They call them beer tubes. They hold 3 litres of draught beer and have a tap in the bottom so you can serve yourself. Available from the Red Frog Pub for $45. Very good value for an evening in the Red Frog Pub while watching the band. - 4 stubbies or 4 cans or 4 glasses of beer in a bucket of ice. $2 discount - Glasses of wine ranged from $8.75 for a Sea Horse Bay Shiraz to $14.25 for a Shaw Family Cab Sav. - Glasses of Port ranged from $7.50 to $22 - Vodka $8.75 to $10.75 - Gin $8.75 to $14 - Rum $8.75 to $12.75 - Tequila $8.75 to $18 - American Whisky Jim Beam $8.75, Jim Beam Black $10.75, Jack Daniels and Jack Daniels Honey $8.75, Wild Turkey $9.50, plus other American whisky ranging in cost up to $14 for The Duke - Scotch from $9.50 for Cutty sark to $15 for 18 year old Chivas Regal - Single Malt from $9.50 for 10 year old Glenmorangie to $18 for 18 year old Aberfeldy - Hennessy Cognac from $9.50 for VS to $30 for XO INTERNET (wireless from your phone, Ipad, laptop or from an onboard computer at the fountain cafe - SOCIAL for social network sites such as facebook, instagram, pininterest, twitter and other social networking but no access to a standard website. $63 for a 6 day cruise and a complete waste of time and space. My sister loaded a photo to facebook that took 12 hours. - VALUE all sites except for streaming sites such as youtube. $30 per day or $125 for a 6 day cruise - PREMIUM for everything including streaming from youtube. $50 per day or $210 for a 6 day cruise SNORKEL HIRE ( not part of this cruise) SPA SPECIALS. Again I didn't use it but with your daily newsletter, there were SPA specials every day. My sister used the Massage Spa and paid something like $820 and spent about 6 hours or so over the 6 day cruise having multiple treatments such as 3 courses of acupuncture, teeth whitening, a hand and leg massage which included manicure and pedicure plus other treatments. OTHER FACILITIES, unchanged, still all free - All the usual gym facilities plus a large spa bath in the Gymnasium, all for use by over 16 year olds. - PG and R rated shows in the comedy club - Stage Shows in the Pharaohs Palace such as Miss Houdini magic show - Basket ball court - 9 holes of mini golf - Trivia. There were about 5 trivia competitions per day. The prize was a piece of shi(p) on a stick. Except one trivia competition was an adults only competition held in the Red Frog Pub. The prize was a choice of fishbowl or beer tube. - Free use of Monarchs room to play card games and board games. - Free use of books and board games from the Library - Three swimming pools and 2 other spa baths. One of the swimming pools and spa baths is in the serenity bar area for use by adults only - Water park and 2 water slides including the Green Thunder water slide. I was told on board that a passenger used a GPS and was clocked at a maximum speed of 60kph in the Green Thunder Water slide. GAMBLING. You could lose your money - Playing bingo - Betting on the Melbourne Mug (Melbourne Cup). They still have a horse race decided by the throw of a dice. - Gambling on the poker machines and gaming tables in the Casino. It was only open when at sea. - There is a billiard/pool table in the casino, it cost $10 per hour SHORE EXCURSION - I paid $190 for a 7 hour tour of Best of Hobart and Historic Scene but it was cancelled due to lack of numbers. I was told on board by another passenger that their $160 shore excursion was available for $60 if they arranged it themselves. As I got past the taxi queue after getting off the ship at Hobart there was a man yelling out "3 hour tour" for from memory $30. I can't wait for my next cruise! I will be happy for people to PM me and ask questions about carnival Spirit. Read Less

This was a six night cruise to Tasmania from Sydney. Compared to the other 10 + cruises we have been on: Buffet food was very poor. The food choice seemed to include a lot of sloppy stuff with little variety. Not even any roast meat carvery. Luckily the salad bar was OK. Long lines at buffet and poorly organised food serving made it very frustrating. Dining room food was hit and miss. No encouraged hand sanitising like on other ships. It seemed like they were into cost cutting. There seemed to be less staff than any other ship we had been on doing things like cleaning tables in the buffet and serving drinks at the venues etc. Staff were very good though and entertainment was still OK. Overall we still had a good time. We traveled on this ship about five years ago and that was the best cruise we have ever been on. Chalk and cheese compared to what this ship provides now. Read Less

This was a good short cruise to Moreton Island. There were heaps of first time cruisers on the ship which was good to see. I didn't even bother getting off the ship when we got there so I had the ship to myself. Was able to do mini golf without heaps of kids and could hang out in Serenity without heaps of people there. Was even able to win a couple of rounds of Trivia due to most of the people getting off the ship. I took full advantage of the SPA so that I could have a bamboo/stone massage. Pro's - Good value for money and yummy cocktails. Con's - People taking their kids out of school to do a cruise, but that happens a lot these days. Best part is they showed the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics so I was able to see some of that before I went off to see a show. Read Less

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The embarkation and disembarkation was smooth and quick. Very well organised. Very little to fault on this ship. It was our first cruise and the staff on Carnival Spirit we have awarded 5/5. They couldn't do enough for us. Our cabin steward(s) were excellent, hosts were very helpful and every activity run to clock work. The Playlist Performers were excellent. We particularly enjoyed the 80', and Epic Rock. The talents of the 8 dancers/singers were so professional. Meeting them all they were so friendly and accommodating to fans wanting photos taken with them. Bingo was great fun and the host was very entertaining and made it fun. In our opinion the only slight down fall was the cabin ceiling which looked tired and had paint flaking. There was a join in the ceiling which looked rusty. Apart from this everything else we have scored at a 5. We were disappointed with the dress code regarding the dinning as a lot of people turned up in the incorrect dress code and looked as if they were going to deck 9 rather than dinning. However, the food and service was excellent. Read Less

We just got back today (28/1/18). You know you have had a GREAT time when the family are depressed it is all over and the realities of this daily world start to set in. First thing that must be said is the Spirit crew work incredibly hard at keeping the passengers happy. They all do it with a smile on their face. They all seemed very motivated. The food, particularly in the Empire Room was mostly at the 5 star level. Each day there was different menu set. No mean feat for 12 nights. Spirit, while aging a little now, was very, very clean. Once again this goes back to the work ethic of the crew. The decor is not as grotesque as some other reviewers have made out. It varies around the ship depending on the theme. Generally it is a combination of Roman and Egyptian themes but that isn't everywhere. One area of improvement Carnival could work on/change policy on are the pools and controlling teenagers + pre-teens, keeping in mind the PEAK school holiday season. While there are rules about jumping/diving into the pools, they were rarely enforced (with the exception of the Serenity pool where kids were strictly not allowed.) Too many times we watched kids jumping, bombing into crowded pools, splashing other passengers. It was unruly to say the least and not pleasant at all for our 10 and 12 year old girls plus many other passengers. I got to the point where I had to warn off some of these kids. We managed it overall by swimming earlier in the mornings (7.30am-10am) where the pools were not crowded and were cleaner. Carnival would do well to follow the lead of P&O plus RC where kids are kicked out of pools if they muck up. At times I thought the kids clubs for the teens could have been better organised with more to do for them. Then again perhaps it was just some of the kids. Fortunately the water-slides saved the day. Despite being a full capacity ship in the summer holidays, the queues to get on the Green Thunder were not bad at all. At worst we waited 15 mins and that was on day one at sea in the first hour of its opening. There after the max waiting time was just 5 mins. And for those reviewers complaining about the Serenity area being too close to the slides?? Really? It's like 30 meters away and well above the Serenity deck area. Any screaming heard seemed like miles away. My wife and I loved our time in the Serenity pool and the pods. Watching the open sea go by, the blue sky.. the clouds form and reform. The passenger demographic was mixed. I was warned the ship would be full of bogans with their tatts well and truly out. And we had some additional trepidation of the Jan school holidays. Well, yes there is an element of "boganism" but there is also an element of the quiet book readers, the well behaved families and good kids, the couples, the retired, the singles, the friends, the refined. Overall, everyone was positive and just wanted a good holiday. It was easy to make new friends. At times some of the less thoughtful passengers got to us. Some passengers around the bistro had very poor hygiene standards, though I note Carnival has hand sanitisers everywhere and once again, work hard to keep the bistro area clean. The shore excursions were fun and were well organised. Getting off and on the ship, whether in port or by tender, was stress free. For the first timers, I can vouch it is important to book the shore excursions in well before the ship departs. The best ones will sell out very quickly. The ship handles high seas well. On our first night we had 6-7 meter swells once leaving Sydney heads. This came from a vicious low hovering in the North Tasman Sea. So as the ship was heading towards Noumea, it was hitting the starboard, aft side of the ship, creating a bit of a roll. But not as much as you would expect given the size of the seas. I guess the large size of the ship helps in this regard. The next days the seas started to ease and the seas remained fine for the rest of the trip. So there you have it. We loved our time. We will be back. Thank you to the crew of Spirit for making our holiday GREAT. Read Less