So excited, our 6th cruise , first time on Carnival . Party of 4 adults and two children, our daughter 12 & son 14.When on our previous cruise aboard Princess and docked next to the Carnival Spirit in Auckland , we decided there and then it would be our next cruise ship as the kids were very excited about the impressive water slide set up .We were wowed when we boarded the Spirit , the décor is over the top & unique and even gaudy in places but I liked that as it was so different . Only a short 9 day cruise this time so we had decided to try for the first time an inside cabin , we found it to be adequate for three of us and the bathroom was surprisingly roomy . Conrad , our cabin steward was great ,remembered all our names and kept our cabin clean and fresh without being invasive , very polite and enjoyed talking to our children about there day.

This is where the positives end and the disappointments begin . The Buffet-strange set up of small stations , difficult to navigate and hot food always consistently luke warm . Breakfast was always good with the usual bacon and eggs , omelettes and all the bits & pieces . Lunch and dinner were Horrid , spicy ,heavy ,uninviting , rubbish .  Same ,same ,same , every day. Desserts were tasteless and maybe a choice of three and jelly ,unripen pineapple and rockmelon ,watermelon occasionally . The food is all about America , salad was a joke , bowls of beetroot with smears of horseradish YUCK . Tomatoes -Australians like them ripe not green and tasteless .The grill was our best option for lunch ,but it never changed ,choice of cheese burger ,chips ,small chicken schnitzel & fried up onion and lets not forget the horrible beetroot smeared with horseradish again ,& let me tell you we soon got sick of this fried up food , but the positive was there was no spice or chilli involved..Fat Jimmy's B.B.Q ,well if you still want for HOT,SPICY , CHILLI, YOU'LL GET IT THERE TOO.Dining room- what a let down...we love to dress to go to the restaurant as part of our cruising experience and we were dining with others in the beautiful dining room with men in shorts ,ripped jeans ,and a young woman wearing a baseball cap and dirty joggers. Yes Carnival announce in there newspaper the dress codes but how about enforcing same.

Staff obviously run off there feet in the restaurant but 2.5 hours for dinner is too long when there are shows on. The menu is a disaster ,eg.sausage stew!!!!! ,lasagne , are you kidding? We have always found it difficult to make a choice on other ships , on carnival it was a struggling to find anything appetising. We had the drinks waiter spill a bottle of Lemon lime and bitters on the table and run leaving my plate soaked and the basket of bread rolls and the table cloth saturated. The waiter was not happy I requested he come back to replace the drink and perhaps he should even pour the drinks instead of dropping and running. Read more