Great cruise. Great people. The staff on this cruise made the trip awesome. Room was tidied every day by happy people, the service staff at the bars and seating areas could not be faulted. The dinning restaurant has the best staff. We were served by Kosta, Bahri and Saiful, these guys went out of there way for us at every meal. Best service ever. Our Holliday was with a group of 17, enjoyed by all. We arrived early and were aloud on straight away with questions. All the port stops were handled very smoothly. Our time on board was well spent with the kids in the pools and on the slides and the for the adults there is always things to do (trivia, performences, and shows). Would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in cruising and will surely do it again myself. Carnival you sure do it well. Just perfect. Read Less

I chose the 3 night four day Carnival Cruise out of Sydney because it was my first cruise and I wasn't convinced I was a 'cruising' kind of person. I was right. I'm not. At least I'm not a Carnival Cruise kind of person. The embarkation was horrific. Loaded like cattle, they crammed us all into the buffet area because their determination to get in and get out as fast as possible means they get you on board before your rooms are ready. EVERYONE - and I mean every 2,124 passengers - are crammed into the buffet area waiting for their rooms to become available. There's not enough seats and tables. People are pushing and shoving. It was horrendous. That was bad enough but then we had to do the muster. Unlike other cruise lines that 'muster' in lounges in a calm and serene fashion, Carnival herded us onto decks. They forced us to stand in 34 degree heat, shoulder to shoulder FOR AGES until blasting a horn and letting us free. More shuffling in long queues as again we depart our muster locations like herded cattle. Still the rooms aren't available. The lifts aren't available either because of the baggage being brought on board so it's all stairs (with a torn meniscus so that just added salt to the wound). I'll summarise the rest because the first day was by far the worst but not the only disappointment. The spa massage was a constant up-sell. Even mid-massage so not exactly relaxing. The chat app (which isn't free) wouldn't work properly and we had to queue (again) to get help from guest services. I say help but "it's probably just your phone" wasn't that helpful. The son never managed to get his phone connected but I still paid the $9 - YES NINE - to NOT be able to chat with him while on board. Unless you're a kid or an adult with no personal space requirement DO NOT EXPECT A SWIM! There aren't pools on the boat. There are oversized spas masquerading as pools. Look closely. The promise is luxurious. The reality is the pools are TINY. They make them LOOK big buy surrounding them with overflow areas twice the size of the pool. Day two they closed one of them so that left us with 2,000 people and one 18+ pool and one family pool. Do the math! Disembarkation is the reverse order of the unpleasantness getting on. We had to rush breakfast, rush packing and rush to get off the boat by 8am. Why? Because they're ready to cram on the next load of victims of course. We left a phone in the room in our rush to get out on time. How we lost something in a room that was 2m x 1m I'll never know. The highlight was the dining room. The food was first class. Really amazing. There was a little wobble on the last night with a couple of dishes that were below their unusually high standard. If it wasn't for the food, I'd be demanding my money back. The staff are 97% wonderful. A couple of individuals who probably shouldn't be cruising but the vast majority are friendly, professional, helpful and the saving grace of Carnival Cruises. Clearly some people have no problem being crushed, and queued and rushed. I don't. I like space. I like peace and quiet and I expect a pool bigger than a spa bath.The images on their website are mis-leading. I'll post pictures of the pools. Judge for yourself. It was extremely hard to find anywhere with a calm, relaxing environment. The Sun Lounge area was my version of hell on earth. Loud DJ music, people and kids running around everywhere and everyone jammed into close quarters. Don't go expecting to have a comfy sun lounge in a quiet corner of the boat somewhere. The rear of the boat was largely devoid of crowds but there was nowhere to sit and relax so that was yet another disappointment. There simply isn't enough boat and there's too many people. Read Less

We chose to get away from the hustle & bustle of Christmas preparations and relax with the family (kids & grand-kids) on a Christmas cruise. The children went to kids club, some enjoyed it, some didn't. If you don't like lots of kids then this is not a cruise for you. There was plenty to do (if you want to) things like trivia, dance lessons, crafts, games,swimming, water slides, shows, parties. The food choice is very good. We ate breakfast mostly in the buffet which we found better than in the main dining room. Evenings we preferred the main dining room. The Nouveau Restaurant, for that extra special gourmet food was excellent. The staff everywhere were generally friendly and offered great service. We had a couple of things wrong in our cabin which our cabin steward got the maintenance crew to fix within an hour. The entertainment was very good with a good variety of entertainers (jugglers, magicians, comedians, acrobatics, dancers, singers. The ports were all tender ports (using lifeboats not a wharf to disembark). At Lifou we chose the Jinek Bay Marine Reserve excursion for great snorkeling. Numbers are limited so need to book as soon as you can after boarding ship. $26 p.p. There is no beach at Jinek Bay so not suitable for children unless they can swim/snorkel. Isle of Pines is beautiful where you land there are white sandy beaches within a short walk with lots of sea life (turtles, coloured fish, coral. Where you land on Mare there is not much, a few market stalls no nice beach. There is only has one excursion, a bus journey to Yejele beach for $25 per adult, $20 per child (aged 3 - 12 years). On a previous cruise there were lots of stingers on the beach and in the water. It's a beautiful beach but we didn't get off the ship there this time. Read Less

Great Embarkation, no problems, straight in and treated like royalty. Good price cruise $76.65 per day. Great to have a priority for Water Shuttles. A NICE SURPRISE, at dinner time in the Empire Dinning Room, when it was “Show Time”, the music started (D’Amore”)but the singer wasn’t there so Dessi, the Maître D, started to sing. After a while a waiter helped her and when he couldn’t sing any more another waiter jumped in to help. It was really lovely to see that team work in the dining room. Also somebody proposed to his girlfriend. It was very emotional, then Dessi asked them to dance while one of her staff sang the song “Crazy”. Another good feeling was when I wore, for the first time a new pair of earrings, for the Elegant night and I realised that I lost one. I went to Guess Services and it was there!!! It was found in the Pharaoh’s Palace. I was impress with the honesty of the serving staff. NEGATIVES : Some people put in multiple entry raffle tickets for The FA FA Show, when it suppose to be only one per person. There has to be a way to avoid that. The FA FA Show was too long, no need of extra talking,(1 hour and 10 min.) Wed brunch was very slow. I just asked for a Smoked Salmon B’fast and it took more than 1/2 hour to arrive. But that was the only time that that happened. Read Less

Kids loved every aspect of this holiday as did I. The water slides were obviously a massive hit.. The water park great for my 6 yr old ASD boy.. Pools were pretty cold but no-one seemed to mind that as the spa just beside came to good use..especially after 10pm. Food FANTASTIC.. elegant dining night was a real treat for us. Icecream & Pizza on offer 24/7 was a dream come true for my 11 yr old daughter. My 15yr old son entertained him self as I rarely saw him...very unusual for him. Friendly staff all over the ship..especially our cabin stewards. INDRA & LINDA were amazing people & made our stay comfy as our cabin was cosy . As we had a quad share.. hardly spent any time in there. Getting on & off the ship was a surprisingly smooth process. Already looking for my next cruise. THANK YOU CARNIVAL SPIRIT Read Less

We were offered a very good deal which included Balcony, airfares and $500 spending money at a travel agents mini expo otherwise we wouldn't have chosen to do this cruise. We found it very relaxing but wouldn't want to be on there during school holidays. Eat in the Dining room for breakfast and dinner, staff were fantastic and very talented - the nightly show in the dining room was sometimes better than the theatre production. Loved the Serenity Bar and over 18 area although the pool was way too small. Ports of call, Noumea - was a Sunday so only the markets open, Mare, lovely looking island, next time would do the bus trip to the beach and Isles of Pines was just gorgeous. Could have laid on that beach all day. Embarkation and Disembarkation was very smooth. We liked all the nooks and crannies to sit and read/drink. Bingo was a huge rip off - never paid out more than $700 in the five games, no jackpots and we figured some days they were taking in over $5000 and the staff while fun were too busy having their private jokes. Rust in the Balcony door made it hard to open. Room was nice, spacious. Only went to one seminar (Eat more lose weight) and a stretching class. Stretching class was good but the seminar was misnamed - should have been how to detox to lose weight. Perhaps I am a cynic. Overall came home relaxed and a bit more tanned. Read Less

I chose this cruise because it was sailing out of Sydney and I have always wanted to do that. It was also going to New Caledonia where I haven't been before. It was my first cruise experience and I was a little nervous about doing it on my own. It was the most social holiday I have had on my own. I must have spoken with 50 people at various times during the cruise. The overall experience was fantastic. I did upgrade to a Grand Suite so my room was very nice and comfortable. I also chose the pick up at Sydney airport as I was flying in and out from New Zealand. Because I was the only person doing that they put me in a taxi instead of the coach. Great service. No problems with embarkation and disembarkation. It was probably not a good idea to be flying in and out on the same day as the cruise but lucky for me all went smoothly. I even got time to take the ferry over to Manly for a few hours before boarding the ship (they stored my suitcase). The food was pretty good. I chose to do the Chefs Table and that was a great food experience. I felt the alcohol side of this was a let down. No Cocktail just a glass of bubbles and the wine served during the meal was house wine standard. It was interesting to see the kitchen but i think it would have been better to then go to a separate dining area. It was difficult for me to hear what the Chef was saying due to the background noise. My time ashore was fantastic. Loved Mare and Isle of Pines for snorkelling and swimming. Read Less

Saw an advertised “special deal” on Carnival - $749 for 8 nights so wanted to see if we would enjoy a longer cruise in possibly a different region with them. Food in restaurant, service and staff excellent. Ship was kept spotlessly clean. Cabin 4118 was spacious and our Cabin Steward, Ketut, maintained the room to a very high standard. He addressed us by name at all times, enquired about our activities and always had a welcoming smile. Lots of fun trivia, Serenity area was a bonus, entertainment was on par with other cruise lines. Only minor downside was the setup of the food in the Lido. We found it very spread out and difficult if you wanted to eat different food but enjoy it at the same time as the group you were travelling with. Overall it was a great experience and would definitely book another Carnival cruise. My daughter did a Caribbean cruise with Carnival 3 years ago and says she would also book another cruise with them. Read Less

Overall the cruise was above my expectations. Room: We were in room 7302 aft balcony and I will be requesting an aft balcony for future cruises. The room was spacious enough for my husband and I and 6 year old and having a balcony gave us a lot more flexibility in space ( somewhere to dry clothes and towels, stash sandy shoes and snorkel gear, read, sun bake and get some fresh air). The aft balcony meant we got great uninterrupted views with none of the wind and it was very quiet as the only other people going past our door was the staff and neighbours. Cleanliness: Room attendants were fantastic, unobtrusive, friendly and even left a special message, balloons and toy for my daughter on her birthday - I didn’t even have to organise it. Meals: lots to choose from. My husband doesn’t like buffets and lives for a good steak so he insisted we eat at the fancy restaurant a few times. Meals there were VERY good and not very expensive, however I actually preferred the dining room meals and the staff there really went above and beyond. The buffet was also good and we all loved the 24 hr pizza. The only thing that could of been done better was the drink packages. None of my family do soft drinks or wine. Beer, liquor and good coffee is what we want and they didn’t have a drink package to cater to any of these and we ended up paying a small fortune for 10 days of good coffee. Entertainment: always something to do for everyone. We all like very different things and each one of us was happy doing some things by ourselves and somethings together. Kids club: my daughter loved kids club ( so did we) and we never felt guilty taking her there as whenever we went to pick her up she would have a spit because she wanted to do whatever the next activity was. Staff: this is where I was blown away. I can not say enough good things about the staff. Friendly, patient, entertaining, always willing to help and they go out of their way to make you feel special - considering there is 3000 people they attend to daily this is no mean feat! I was disgusted in the way I saw many other cruisers treat the staff, but they took it all in stride. For many English is a second or third language, but they still remember your names, how you like your orders, what you drink etc, and many times we were what seemed like extra special care even though they probably are like that for everyone. Our waiter Ketut and his staff must have a special mention as I cannot list all the ways they were good to us. Destination: each place we visited was more beautiful then the next. It may seem like I am praising everything from a holiday high but I have been back in the real world for 3 months now as I write this. I am usually a critical person but was amazed at how great our experience was. Even my husband who gets motion sickness and prefers to stay indoors loved it and we were both surprised at how very little movement we noticed in the ship and no one got sea sick at all. Read Less

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