Spirit review March 1-9( long one)

Sorry this maybe a little long but I will be brutely honest with you.

Day One at sea and arrival

Got on the plane in Winnipeg at about 6:30 am de-iced for half hour then of to minniapolis.Arrived in Minniapolis then off to Sandiego.Arrived in SanDiego at aroung 11:00 got acosted by th shuttle people that "it is the cheapest way to go and we would not have to worry about our luggage" If he had only realized had he had done .We got a two for special without him even realizing what happened( the original price is 16.00 pp but we got two for 16.00)Anyway...We were dropped off at the port and had to walk with our bags to door #1( about 100 ft)went in side and took about 5 min to get to the ticket counter,then wnet to chairs for about 25 min then on to the boat.

We went up to the lido for lunch and then off to the Spa to see if they needed any volunteers.Yippee I was needed!!!For something she called Isothemie detox.Well I got in the room and was put into a slourie of kelp and cream and then lied down in it and had electrodes attached to my abs,hips and tummy pooch( girls you will know what this is if you had kids)This treament is normally 145.00 fro half hour I got three sessions for FREE!!!!When I was done I had no hips left,my abs were so tight that i don't even get as good an ab work out at Judo twice a week I was in heaven .the next day was hell I hurt everywhere.

When it came time to go to our room I was very dissapointed:mad: .I had a letter from Carnival's HO for a welcome aboard gift that I had made arrangements for 45 day before we left( as per the instructions on the letter)No decorations.I had also ordered two sets of drink tickets on-line and never got those either.

Met our room steward Putra( from the philipines) best room steward we have ever had even on RCCI.We saw him several times over the course of the cruise.

At dinner that night we got our coupons for the photos( welcome aboard gift from first letter,we got two of them).Carnival told me that I would be getting 4 photo coupons I got one for 15.00,well when you can get two 6by 9's for 7.99ea of one 8by 10 for 19.99 that does not add up to four of anything

No sign of the decorations or the drink tickets.

After dinner we went to the purser's desk and asked what had happened to the 4 tickets for photos and the drink tickets that we had paid for on our M/C an our other welcome aboard gift of the decorations.They had no idea what I was talking about.I showed them the original letters from Carnial's HO,they took photos copies and said they would look into it.After threatening them with an e-mail to Bob Dickenson this was all I got

Day 2 at sea

Made pit stop for med-evac of critically ill passenger.This did not delay us at all we acutally ended up making up extra time,2hrs worth .

First formal night/ captains night.DH ate 7 lobster tails and had our server Joey all gitty about it( he had never seen anyone do this before" he said it was braggin rights"

Las Vegas style show was a REPEAT of last year( more on this later)

On Captain's night order what ever you want to drink not just what is on the tray,I had a choclate martini and an electric blue long island ice tea.

Not a very exciting day.

Day 3 at sea

A bit warmer today, still waitng on drink tickets.Connie at pursers desk,confused We recieved a letter due to a huge problem last year for 20%pp off the cruise,200.00 on board credit and a welcome aboard gift( the photos) them I got another letter for a compliment I gave for our PVP Suppose to be the decorations we had both original letters with us.Still nothing.

Past guest party...Same Same!!!Boring...We got our drink tickets that night still nothing on the decorations.

DH won " ship on astick " in trivia( this will be changing soon to ship on the C)

had one on one with Micheal the CD.We told him all the stuff we learned on CC about the stage being broken and the change of CD's adn the snorkelling being cancelled in Ixtapa.He was amazed that we knew all this.i thne asked him how seriously he Carnival took what was being said on the CC website.His reply was " very seriously" it can make or break a CD chance of a renewal in their contract.he does not like to be flamed( too bad )

Day 4 Acapulco,Mexico

Did the Acapulco Beach break through the ship.We had a blast .Open bar ...Hot and cold running Carona!!!! and tequilla:D .Best hospitallity we got the whole trip!!!We got a para sail ride from Edwardo and his partner( just to the right of the green taped off area for 25.00***pink parasail) I got a jet ski ride that was suppose to be a half hour I got an hour for 30.00) very nice people.there is alot of folks walking around selling their wares best advice BARTER,BARTER,BARTER.we got a great deal on a hammock 20.00 down from 80.00

Lots of Mexican militia members around for your safety and security.light lunch served buffet style.Can't say enough god stuff about the port of call.Oops for got..I got my first taste a pacific cocktail thanks to the undertow .

Day 5 Ixtapa

Gathered in the Pharoes lounge for tender in to Ixtapa by lifeboats.Included 1 hour driving tour or the Island and gater farm( more later)Boarded 10pax mini-van for the tour,got two drink tickets.In the advertisment on the Carnival website it says this is romantic..not at all:mad: .we were so board it was not funny.Could not swim,could not snorkel all we could do was sit and drink our two drinks in the 2 hours we had on the Island. When we got back to the mainland we went into the small shopping villa and were accosted again by people sellng stuff but they were very rude compared to Acapulco people.

Stopped to see the Alligator in the raveen that ran along the road,good photo op. Driver had a real love for riding the curbs on the roads( driver license and cracker jack box come to mind here)

Day 6 Manzinillo

We went on the Elephant rock and snorkel.it was a good tour but the water was now where near as clear as the Caribbean.Lots of fish to be seen.I saw the largest spotted puffer fish I had ever seen:eek: . One guy even picked one up.The worst thing I found about this trip was afterward on the way back to the boat.The tour guides( on the free bar) got a tequilla contest going and exploited the drunk girls into removing clothing that was in complete distaste considering there was children on board.

you need to send that to the reviews page.

After Manzinillo was day 7 at sea, Boring!!!!Repeat of showtime las vegas style show.Too much Bingo and the Gala Buffet was much smaller then last year on the same ship.really disappointed.too cold to sun bath.

Day 8 at sea again. even colder and more boring..one on one with micheal again..why will he not answer the question about how much Carnival pays it's service staff? he avoids that one even though we know that they are the lowest paid on board.

Points of interest....Just my opinion and my observations

Las vegas style shows need to be change more then once every 5 years(we were amazed when the CD told us this.if we had known this before we booked we would have gone on a different ship.

Check the expiry date of the milk in the lido deck, we were served milk that was past the best before date.

We loved the nouveau cafe for dinner, we booked in on the night in Acapulco beacuse that is an open sitting night in the Empire rest.

The flourless cake has gotten considerably smaller than I remember!

Too much bingo

too much trivia try fear factor or something.

We had a great crew of people looking after us..Putra our Cabin attendant,Jay and Joey at table 219.left us with good memories.

taxi's are cheaper then the shuttle.it cost us 8.20 to go from the cruise terminal to the airport and would have cost us 16.00 pp ( if we had not got the deal)

Sorry but even with another discount the problems were still there and will still be there if we do CCL again. we gave them several chances and each time they messed up.we will be going to another cruise line next time.

These are just our opinions each of us will have different ones,but that is what makes us individuals.

Special thanks to Jay and Joey, and Putra and to the butcher and his wife.Linda and Don and our table mates Lee and Nicki and Betsy adn her DH.thanks for the memories!!

Thanks for the review! From what I was told by Carnival, you can only use one 45 day letter at a time... so that could have been the problem? Sorry it was such a hassle... my main question is why anyone would think the CD would discuss workers pay with passengers? I run a business, I can tell you that I would never discuss this with anyone. A) The cruise director does not pay the employees and B) That is private and he could likely lose his job discussing this with passengers. So I would not be too concerned with that... I would be more concerned if he actually DID discuss this with passengers.

On our Miracle cruise the flourless cake had gone downhill a bit... it was HOT HOT HOT and small... tasted microwaved :(

I'm sorry your cruise wasn't up to par... good luck with your future cruises!!!

I can repspect that.I didn't know about the one letter thing I'll definately ask when I call the office.Thanks for the FYI.We did enjoy everything else the ship and her crew had to offer us and have no complaints there only compliments.The trip it seemed to be the office.Oh well..Next!!!

savandbarb... did you happen to notice if there was still a club 02 director (teen director) on board, and what his or her name might have been. Michael mentioned a "restructuring of the program" when I went, and I'm curious about it.

savandbarb... did you happen to notice if there was still a club 02 director (teen director) on board, and what his or her name might have been. Michael mentioned a "restructuring of the program" when I went, and I'm curious about it.

yes there was but I can't remember his name.It was not Dan though.he was a Newfie from newfoundland Canada and had a ery strange firsname for a guy.Funny fellow though,even funnier looking but I think he would be good at his job based on his way out personality.( see I figure if I keep typing his name will come to me).Nope! he is about 6 ft tall with a funky goate'.Sorry this not a help is it?:o

Shannon maybe? Funny though, I thought that it was his last week on the 21st sailing

That's it!!!!!I don't know if they extended his contract or not.But he seems like a nice enough fella.we didn't bring the kids with but we heard from others that he was fun!The guy geting a girls name must be a east coast thing( my DH is from Nova Scotia) If he knew I said that he'd freek.hahahah!!!

Yeah shannon was suppose to be gone after 2/21 I wonder what happened. We talked with him quite a bit on our 2/13 sailing about how he was going back to Canada to try to be a mounty...hmmm..