Tigerlily75

You'll need to pick and choose, that's a bit too much for 7 days

An example for 7 nights:

Melbourne for 3 nights, including a day trip to Phillip Island

Drive the Great Ocean Road as far as the 12 Apostles and surrounding attractions, backtrack and spend 1 night in Apollo Bay

Head back to Melbourne for an afternoon/evening flight to either Tasmania OR Adelaide. Spend 3 nights exploring, including a night or two at Kangaroo Island if you chose Adelaide

Anybody care to comment on specialty restaurants on board? Not sure what else there is beside nouveau - haven’t been before. Worthwhile?

 

 

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I haven't personally, but know plenty who have eaten at Nouveau and not been disappointed - everyone has said it's worth it. I believe it's $45, and if you book for the first night you get a free bottle of wine. The only other restaurant with a charge is Bonsai Sushi.

There's also a selection of dishes from Nouveau on the menu in the MDR you can purchase, I believe around $20 or $25

Glad you enjoyed your cruise MicCanberra and I hope everyone on upcoming cruises enjoys theirs!

Having only cruised Carnival so far I'm a bit worried about the dining rooms on other lines - what even is a cruise dinner without all the singing and dancing?!?! LOL!

I have upcoming cruises on other lines, I'm sure I will enjoy them, I think I too am easily pleased, and not one to find complaint in small issues. I'm looking forward to my Princess cruise in December, being just before Christmas I think my daughter will enjoy all the Christmas stuff they will have going. I also found the Spirit ship so familiar this time that I'm looking forward to something new. But like you said about RCI mr walker, Carnival will always be my first love - I won my very first cruise on the Spirit, having never considered cruising before that, so she will always have a special place in my heart (aww!).

So is Tigerlily75 back today?

 

How was it?

 

Anything to report?

 

Cheers

I'm back! After our very foggy arrival yesterday morning. I've forgotten how to post pictures here, but I'll figure it out and come back.

It was great, the staff on the Spirit are amazing. If there was ever a ship to do Traditional set time dining on, this is the one. Dessi the Maitre D runs that room so well, and the staff are all like a family. It's such a happy place to be. We had a great table of people, and fell in love with our waiters. No one on our table of nine missed a single dinner, it was the highlight of each day.

Staff are everywhere, and always cleaning.

Food is plentiful and good. I found I rarely ate "buffet" food as such (except breakfast, though you can go to the dining room too) since they have so many options like the Deli (get the Buffalo chicken sandwich), Guys Burgers, Pizza, Blue Iguana, Jimmy's C-Side BBQ etc etc.

Oh - hot tip! When it's busy and noisy in the buffet, take your food to Serenity if you're not with kids. There were always tables free there, and it's really nice and peaceful. The buffet adjoins Serenity.

I had the Value Plan Internet and it was fine. It's not your home wifi, but it works. Social media, emails, banking apps, websites. I uploaded video to Instagram and that was slow but there were no issues at all going through. Weirdly I could watch video on Instagram but not Facebook. The Carnival Hub app was handy to have.

A note with the iPhone, when you manually set its clock forward one hour, you can't log into banking. And whenever I commented or got a notification on FB or wherever, it would always say "1 hour ago"

We had a small diversion to Noumea on the way to Mystery Island for a helicopter medivac. No idea on the condition of the person. That same day the ship went dark for about half an hour, we were dead in the water. Just a circuit breaker which was quickly rectified with no further issues.

I don't think the current show cast are very strong singers and I was a bit underwhelmed by the shows. But I enjoyed things like the Love & Marriage Show, Lip Sync Battle, Stories of a Cruise Director, and the Q&A they had at the end. I think the prizes for Bingo are too small for the amount of tickets they sell.

Overall - we had a great time. People like to pick on Carnival a bit, there is a small element of bogans on board - but there's plenty of non bogans there too! Bottom line is Carnival is unpretentious, they really are the "fun ship" and they want you to have a good time and the staff joins you in a having a good time!

Any questions fire away!

Carnival has announced that Santo will be a regular stop once Spirit is in Brisbane

Thank you very much!!

Hi all I've read the TRS desk is immediately after customs/immigration when checking in, is it usually busy and does it take long? I have either the earliest or second earliest check in time so I'm thinking it should be okay. I just want to get to the shore excursion desk as soon as possible for an ever-popular excursion (it's Carnival, no pre booking online) but I also want my GST back on an iPhone!

I will hi 5 you at OPT when we board as you disembark.

 

Cheers

Looks like we're all tag teaming this ship at the moment!

The Sydney to Singapore cruise was also an older demographic with only 120 1-17 year olds on board. But same as you, very involved, although we managed to win 1 trivia and miss12 won the Harry Potter trivia.

 

I was so impressed with the captain and hotel director when we got to Bali. As platinums we don’t have to line up for tender stickers, when we are ready we go to guest services and get taken straight down. We got there really early, 7am as we saw the tenders were in the water. Duncan, the hotel director saw us and said are you ready, come with me. The captain had gotten to Bali early, advised all the Balinese crew to be ready before 7 and filled 2 tenders with crew before 7:15 so they could go home for the full day. As guests we were told tendering started at 8 but we were on the first tender with the crew and the atmosphere was electric! I thought that this gesture was terrific.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

That's awesome! I love a company that cares for its staff. Carnival crew generally seem to be a happy bunch.

Thanks for the update vozzie, enjoy your cruise!

I'm on Carnival Spirit on the 25th of June in a 4K room. She's in dry dock right now. I'll take some photos, maybe some video too and come back and post.

 

I'm in no position to complain since it was a free upgrade from an Interior Guarantee, but if I had have specifically booked one I would have been annoyed.

An update on Carnival Spirit: She still has the French Doors in the 4K cabins, confirmed by someone currently on board in one of these cabins. The report is that the shipping container carrying the windows was delayed and didn't make it to dry dock on time.

I hope they do some PNG & Solomon Islands cruises, and mix up the itineraries a bit

The 6 June cruise seems to have both Ridge Asia and Music Manila playing. I suspect Ridge Asia will be playing while Music Manila are taking a break, but I don’t think I have seen that confirmed anywhere.

 

Ridge Asia are about 25 years younger than Music Manila. They play quite a few standards, but also a ‘younger’ play list.

That sounds good, thanks for the info!

Photos are being posted on social media. The library/chapel has been converted into The Warehouse arcade - looks very nice and modern. A new company has taken over the duty free shops, also looking very nice. As well as SoulPlay, the arts/craft area which according to the patent will be making cosmetics, soaps and perfumes.

Carpet & chairs replaced & booth seats reupholstered in the dining room.

Cabins repainted and carpet replaced where required, including the casino.

Lido buffet appeared to be having work done.

Hull has been repainted. She's looking very nice!!

21 days to go for me!

I choose the earliest only because with Carnival Australia you can only book shore excursions onboard. Some are really popular and book out quick, so it's whoever gets to the shore excursion desk (or their tv) first.

Otherwise I would actually pick a later time to avoid the rush, and have my room ready upon boarding. Probably 130-2.

For my June cruise I have 12-1230.

Just to clarify, the French doors on Legend (and now Spirit) weren't sealed shut, they were removed and replaced entirely with a floor to ceiling window.

So does anyone recommend “upgrading “ to one of these from a regular interior? If we changed rooms it would be an extra $50 for our 8 day in September. The ones available are all behind a lifeboat, but still there’s natural light. And it has a couch while regular insides do not correct?

I think so. It's still a good step up from a regular interior. The cabin itself is bigger, with a sofa, as well as the natural light.

I've booked an Upper/Lower Interior with porthole on Carnival Splendor. The ones that fall under the Upper/Lower category have two separate beds, either an upper/lower bunk bed situation OR a twin and a sofa bed set up. I understand there is a separate porthole category that does have a king bed set up.

Mine is 2212 right at the front, and from my research the downsides are the noise of the waves crashing against the bow of the ship in rough seas, a lot of movement, and very noisy anchor dropping when arriving in port. None of these things bother me personally, but may bother others. I'll be solo on this cruise, so this cabin is perfect and priced right for me.

I found some videos on YouTube and you can see clearly out of the portholes.

gosh this stuff is years old. THere are some cabins in that area that only have a window and no door and the window does not open.

It's being done right now in dry dock, how can it be years old. There were plenty of 4K cabins with doors that opened, and they are all right now being removed and replaced with floor to ceiling windows on Spirit. Legend was done a few weeks ago, and the other Spirit class ships will follow.

I'm on Carnival Spirit on the 25th of June in a 4K room. She's in dry dock right now. I'll take some photos, maybe some video too and come back and post.

I'm in no position to complain since it was a free upgrade from an Interior Guarantee, but if I had have specifically booked one I would have been annoyed.

23 Days!

Carnival Spirit 10 days South Pacific

There was an update a few days ago on one of their two pages. They will be on board for the return cruise from Singapore back to Sydney. Then they will take a holiday till 2 August. From the band’s fan page.

:)

Oh that's disappointing, they were off last time I was on the Spirit too!

You can let me know how it went, I get on in 35 days.

I'll wave to you as I'm getting off!

Wow that's encouraging!

 

Not long for you now Tigerlily![emoji925]

 

 

Cheers

Hopefully its correct, that was posted in February and no other posts regarding their schedule since, so I would take it as correct!

Yes 25 days to go, very happy about that, and looking forward to seeing her after her dry dock too!

HI David

For Tigerlily75 ..

Please remove Nov 3 2019 Panama Canal Nowegian Bliss

And instead add 25 November 2019, Carnival Splendor 15 Days Singapore to Sydney

Thank you!