Firstly, I will start off saying this is the best cruise I have been on. I have been on four different cruises with four different companies, looking for a good product. Think I might have found it. A big hands together to Carnival for Aussiefying their ships (Spirit and Legend). What does Aussiefying mean? Well first up, tips are not required nor expected. On other ships (including Carnival elsewhere in the world), you are required to pay a compulsory 15% gratuity on ALL bar purchases and there is an expectation bordering on compulsory for gratuities for room attendants, restaurant staff and others amounting to about $15/day/person. So for Aussies, this is great, but having said that, please don’t kid yourself into thinking you’ve gotten out of paying this silly tipping custom. I’m quite sure that Carnival has incorporated these tips into the fare you pay (which is a bit more expensive than comparative USA product) and the bar prices (more on these below). Tips are out of sight, so most likely out of mind, although due to the great service you get, you really feel like tipping anyway. Gratuities are still very welcomed by the crew if you so desire. There is an Australian GPO (General Purpose Outlet or powerpoint) in your cabins. No more carting around an American conversion socket. Woohoo. Apparently, Aussies are known worldwide as real coffee connoisseurs, and Carnival has supposedly put their coffee staff through a baristas course. I hate coffee so I personally can’t comment. My wife says the coffees ($$) are equivalent to McCafe but far better than the brewed coffee that is the alternative (free). My wife asked me to get her one of these coffees. I persevered in line for 15minutes and told my wife if she wants one she’ll be getting it herself from now on. As a devout hater of tomato sauce, I go down on bended knees and raise my arms to the skies in a big thankyou Carnival for having copious quantities of BBQ sauce available. Unfortunately these aren’t on every table with the tomato ketchup and mustard, but still available at the grills. Heads up Carnival, mustard is NOT a big condiment for Aussies, maybe ditch it for BBQ sauce on tables instead. In the Gym, the equipment is still all miles and pounds. Failure here in the Aussieficiation. We, like the rest of the modern world use the metric system. Perhaps dual mode equipment is in order here, so that everyone gets a positive experience. Alternatively, America can join the rest of the modern world and start using metric. The ship also uses USA style date format MM/DD/YY. Eeekkkk. Aussiefication fail here too. The staff have a limited knowledge of Australia, but they try. They know Sydney and and and um um Sidenknee. The more exposure the greater the knowledge, I’m sure.

Now I said I’d get onto the bar. This next part will be food and drinks. I’ll start with a positive. The food was great. There was a massive range of foods available at all hours of the day. Truffles restaurant couldn’t go wrong. Every meal here was exquisite and I would have gone there every night except despite my assurances her clothing would be acceptable (maybe wrong words here, should have just said she looks gorgeous) my wife didn’t feel she had the appropriate clothing for the elegant evenings at truffles so I was forced to go to the buffet, I dubbed it the swill house. The food was still good and oh my good those pizzas were great (they were done in a pizza oven but tasted like wood fired), but the lines were long and tedious and finding a seat sucked. Talking about pizza, it was available 24hrs a day (thanks Aiesh for remembering my order). Self serve ice cream was available 24/7 too. There is the fancy restaurant available for those who just don’t think truffles cuts it. It’s $40/person and everyone I heard talking about it had nothing but good things to say, but it’s $40/person and truffles is FREE people, I just don’t understand why a certain percentage want to fork out more when truffles had such great offerings, but each to their own. Other ships I have been on offer complimentary room service. It was at a charge on Carnival. DRINKS ARE A TOTAL RIPOFF, but you’re a captured market, so we bought them anyway. Just remember as I mentioned above, 15% gratuity would be incorporated into the prices. Beers started from $6.50 for light and $7.50 for heavy going up to $8.95. Spirits started from $7.50 plus $0.60 for mixer, so $8.10. Wines ranged from $7.50 to $23/glass, averaging at $11.40/glass. Expect to pay about $35-45/bottle, or a lot more if you really want. I have to say the base champagne (by the glass, $8.50) on board was the most disgusting or vile (or both) sparkling wine I have ever had in my life and I’ve drunk passion pop before. Carnival, you seriously need to change this offering. The next offering by the glass was zibibbo, not only did the $12 price tag put me off this one but so did the sickly sweet nature of the wine. I refuse to pay $23/glass for the final offering. The bad champagne was a definite decider on my not turning up for the art auctions (free champagne, but still not worth it). Your bags gets x-rayed, so any contraband liquor you try to sneak on board will be confiscated. Some cruise companies allow you to bring one bottle on board for use in your room, but not Carnival. You are allowed to bring some bottled water or soft drink on board. The fine print says 12 cans/bottles per person. I saw people carrying on cartons so I don’t know how stringent they are with the 12 limit/person. You can buy a bottomless bubbles drinks package once you have boarded, which gives you unlimited softdrink only. My family aren’t big softdrink drinkers so I don’t have a price to share. Talking about packages, most cruise lines have a drinks package which is about $50/day for all you can drink beer, wine, spirits etc. MOST INCLUDES CARNIVAL EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. It is called their Cheers program, so where the bl00dyhell is this package for Australians. It makes me feel that Carnival holds Australians in contempt as if we’ve never been on another ship or accessed this fantastic new invention called the internet. You make your own mind up. I say contempt.

The rooms are a reasonable size (well my room was anyway). Slightly bigger than other ships I’ve been on, but I was in an obstructed balcony room this time, maybe inside and oceanview are smaller (can’t comment yet). Obstructed view wasn’t an issue for me. The obstruction was the life boats, but they didn’t protrude much higher than the railing, so you still had good views. My room had an old style CRT (That’s cathode ray tube, you know the chunky pre flat screen) TV in it that was in serious need of degaussing. I did note looking in at rooms while passing that some had flat screens, so I guess they get replaced as needed. Maybe I should have, accidentally mind you, bumped my TV onto the ground, but maybe they wouldn’t have had a replacement for me. There were two complimentary movies available (kids/family and more mature) that reset every three hours. It’s a pity they just didn’t replay back to back. Kids movies usually cartoons go for no longer than 90 minutes leaving 90 minutes of watching previews for the pay per view selection. Room attendants were excellent (thanks Rommell). Saying that though, our pool towels got forgotten one day, so I had to get them from the pool, sign your life away and if you don’t bring them back, get charged $25/towel. Also I wasn’t given a disembarkation survey, so got defaulted into self disembarkation. A quick call to guest services got this fixed though. Read more