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My cruise of DOOM! Spirit 2-6-11

hlb76

By hlb76,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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mittypooh

mittypooh

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Sun Feb. 6 2011

 

I woke up early, still on MN time. I went to check on the boys and find that Ethan and Ross had taken a hike up to the top of Mt. Helix before breakfast. I think they enjoyed it. We had a nice breakfast on the patio. Man this is the life.... beautiful view, being able to eat outside in Feb.

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Soon after breakfast Ethan decides more Mario cart is in order. I start to repack our bags. We spent a relaxing morning chatting and hanging out. Before too long it's about time to head to the port! We knew it was time to go as we where starting to get hungry for lunch.

The port of San Diego is very different that the port of Miami we are used too. I'm not sure if this is good or bad quite yet just very different. We find a porter to take our bags, in Miami the are more than plentiful in San Diego we had to seek them. We say a quick good bye to Ross and Gayle and thank them for a great start to our vacation.

We head into find the security lines. Since we where VIP's we get to sneak to the frontish part of the line. It's kind of hard to explain this process. There is a long snaked line for everyone to get stand in, then there is the VIP line. At the front of this line there are more lines for the few x-ray machines and metal detectors.

Everyone cruising that day goes through the same security line, once through security you go off to check in to the different ships that are in port. There was 2 the day we left, Spirit and Zaandam. I would guess it too 10-15 minutes to get clear security.

We found our way to the Spirit check in point. It was a quick and painless process. There was hardly no lines. I really liked this vs the check in's we have had in Miami. It always seemed we had to wait forever!

 

Next stop is the first of many photo op's Carnival has for you. We take the quick welcome aboard picture and get in line to have our S&S card dinged for the first time. With in a few minutes we are on the ship. Now this again felt very different than Miami to me. I can't quit put my finger on why... maybe it was the lay out of the ship or that no one was there to really greet you. Now don't get me wrong there was plenty of staff there to help if you needed it but it was a different vibe than Miami has.

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Soon enough we find ourselves a table on the lido deck. AWE~ our 1st lunch and I quickly have my first DOD the Fun Ship!

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We like the lay out of the lido restaurants and had no problems finding something to eat. We sit facing the Midway aircraft carrier and enjoy looking at that. Lunch is followed by the first of many ice cream cones. After we are thoroughly stuffed we check out the lido pools and realize it's after 1pm our rooms are about ready.

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Our room was very easy to find. We have 6156 a ocean suite! I guess I should give a little background on how we ended up with this room. When we originally booked we booked a standard balcony, port side and now for the life of me I can't remember what deck. Early Jan. I see a price drop and we can upgrade to a extended balcony for $10 more. I called CCL and had our room switched to deck 8. I was excited about this move and though we did well. We have never had a balcony before so was excited for the bigger one. About a week before sailing the "upgrade fairy" made the first call ever to my home. We where offered a OS for another $400. This room would be bigger than what we had, bigger balcony and VIP embark and debark. I got caught up in the moment and took it!

We open the door and walk into our new home for the next 5 days. At first I was a little disappointed in the room, for some reason I had imagined so much more. After all 4 of us where in the room and we explored it I did see how much bigger it is than the standard room. It took the kids a few minutes to realize we had a balcony. Once they did we all headed out to see what having a balcony is all about. It was great, we had plenty of room for us all to be out there. I get all of our carry-on's settled in and we head out to see more of the ship.

Is that a Boston hat I see?

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hlb76

hlb76

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We went to college in La Jolla so I'm loving the San Diego pictures. One of the best places in the world to live :)

 

 

We are totally in love with San Diego. We would move there today if we could. Of course at this point it is not a option. We want to start making a plan so one day we can live this dream!! There was not one thing I did not fall in love w/ while there. Well maybe the cost of everything :eek:

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norcal2

norcal2

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Sorry about my post above as it was suppose to be on a completely different thread!!! Don't know how that happened.

 

Just wanted to tell you that we won that Superbowl Sofa for the first quarter of the game 2 years ago. They had two sofas and two winning duos per sofa. The free beer tasted better than ever because it was free.

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hlb76

hlb76

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Is that a Boston hat I see?

 

 

Why yes it is! For some reason my son decided Boston was his favorite. He does not really follow any basketball or baseball or really any sport professionally. He plays them and has a true love but does not follow. I really have no idea where the love for Boston came from. He has never been to the east coast. My brother is a ReD Sox fan so maybe his favorite uncle has made a impression?

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hlb76

hlb76

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Mon Feb. 7 2011

I woke up early ( 5 AM) to find Ethan wide awake and hungry. I wanted nothing more to roll over and go back to bed but we decide to go out on the balcony to see what is happening outside and talk w/o waking everyone else up. The sky is beautiful and lots of stars! I was way to tired yet so I convince Ethan to lay back down for a while and play his games until at least 6am and then we can go try to find him breakfast.

 

I kept the door propped open and fell back to sleep listening to the sounds of the sea. Next thing I know Ethan is waking me up telling me it's 6am. I try to stall him so I can sleep a bit longer, it was no use. I also did not want him to wake the others so off to the lido we go.

 

I have never been up this early on a cruise. I was surprised to find a few others awake as well. We soon find that nothing was open yet so Ethan could not eat quite yet. We find a table and sit and watch the workers prepare to open. At 6:30 they open the danish bar. I ask Ethan is this will do for now I promise once everyone else wakes up we can come back to get real food. He agreed to find a muffin or something. We grab a tray and load it up and head back to the room. He ate out on the balcony and I try to get some more sleep.

 

Soon enough Josh was awake too. Both boys headed to the Lido to get some breakfast. They both enjoyed being able to eat out on our balcony. I enjoyed it too! We saw a amazing sunrise over the mountains. Great way to start a vacation!

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sorry could not find the pic of him eating breakfast out there

IT was not too much longer and we where all dressed, feed and ready for our day. 10 am arrives and it's muster time. They post-poned the drill til monday due to the Super bowl. I was impressed on how fast the drill went. Once we where dismissed from the drill we took the kids to get signed up for camp. Ethan decided to stay and spend some time in camp. Josh went off to see what club O2 was all about. Both kids must of liked camp as we did not see much of them this day. This would soon be the story for the rest of the cruise.

Travis and my day consisted of the normal sea day stuff.... a little eating, exploring the ship, a bit of gambling and watching shows. I had hoped to sit in the sun and work on my tan but it was way to windy and cold! Travis won a 24k piece of ship on a stick playing last man standing. Adult dodge ball was fun to watch!

Everyone was to be back at our room by 6pm so we can get cleaned up for elegant night. We all gussied up and headed down to see the 7pm family comedy show by Seth. I wish I could say he was good but I did not enjoy him nor did the rest of the family. After that we stopped to listen to a bit of Karaoke then headed to the lounge to sit and wait for the dining room to open. The line was crazy once again. I am starting to think we need to work on being fashionably late for dinner.

Dinner was a bit quieter tonight but it was still hard to enjoy a nice conversation w/ my family over the noise. I was very excited for this dinner. I love the carbonara, prime rib and lobster! Travis and Josh have been waiting for the carbonara since our last cruise as well. When it came we where disappointed. It was just OK at best. In the past it was been to die for this time it was OK. My prime rib was outstanding! Ethan was tired again tonight. He did manage to eat his hamburger before he fell asleep at the table.

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The "showtime" woke him up as they sang Thats Amore and Travis and I danced!

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a little blurry....ugh

 

We headed back to the room after dinner. Ethan hit the sack. Josh headed back to "club" as he calls it. Travis and I hit the casino for a little bit. Have I mentioned yet that I always walk away w/ a little bit of money and Travis walks away empty handed? We both play the penny slots. To me its about the entertainment value vs the big win. If I can play for a couple of hours or so on $5 it's fun for me. About 11pm I am falling asleep at the machine so I say good night and Travis stays a bit longer.

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hlb76

hlb76

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Tues Feb 8 2011

 

I wake up early again - 6 am. Isn't this vacation? I'm supposed to be sleeping in. I step out on the balcony to see what I can see. With land insight I was to excited to go back to bed. So here I sit writing this journal. I think I will snap a few pictures of land and fishing boats and read my magazine. Pretty sure I could get used to this balcony thing.

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Soon the family is all awake. We spend quite sometime looking at Cabo coming into view. We also look for whales. To my pleasure it does not take to long to see my first spout. We see several after that. I even saw a few rays jump out of the water. Yep I officially love the balcony!

One by one we all get ready for the day. Travis and Ethan eat up on the lido. Josh and I get ours to go and eat on the balcony. After we are all dressed, fed and packed we head up to the lido stage to get tender stickers. This was another painless procedure. It takes a few minutes in line to get our sticker ( group 6) and just as soon as we have our stickers they call our group so we head down to the tender area and walk right on the tender!

We planned to find a whale watching tour. I did not pre-book anything. I read good reviews on Eco Cat and Pez Gato. I did a small amount of research on each and found we could just book once there. They both had early and mid day sailings. So I just planned to find the office and ask for a tour. As we headed to the tender dock we pass the Eco Cat catamaran heading out this thing is a monster!

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Sadly we had missed the early tour. Really we where in no hurry getting off the ship so I knew we might miss the early sailings. We saw a few sea loins playing in the marina and lots of pelicans. Once we get docked I see the Pez Gato boat head out too. Crap another tour we missed. I had hoped to get there and try to get on the early sailing. I knew it was close to the tender docks. I knew we would make a afternoon tour but I did not want to have to wait.

We walk around the marina being badgered by tour guide after tour guide. We check out a few shops and say no thanks to quite a few restaurant staff. Soon I see Eco Cat office. I figure we better check in to see if we can get on the afternoon tour. The guy working there said if we wanted to do the big boat we could reserve for the next morning - the tour would included breakfast, open bar and whale watching. Or we could do a zodiac tour today. We wanted to do the whales today so we ask about the zodiac. He told us it's $40 per person and includes a drink of our choice and we could head out right away. We decide to go for it!

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Once I got back I checked the web site and found out we could of gotten it a bit cheaper they are running a web specail and they charge less for kids. I was OK paying the $40 person especially since we got a private tour and they took us on right away.

Soon we where off hunting whales! We soon see some spout and zip over to try to get closer. I was so happy we opted for the zodiac. It was fun to zip across the ocean! We spent 2 hours looking for whales. We did see quite a few. There where gray's and humpback's we even saw a few babies. We also say a few pods of dolphins. They came right over to the boat ans swam all around us. It was really fun to see these. Ethan liked the dolphins better than the whales. The rest of us enjoyed it all. When our 2 hours was about up we had the captain drive us past the arches. We got up close to get some good pics and see the sea lions.

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hlb76

hlb76

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Once back to the marina we walked around in search of crap we could just not live w/o. After we bought a few things and walked what seemed like forever we headed back towards the tender dock. There is a big store there that has the best prices on stuff. We where looking through that they had and we notice all the fun being had at Senior Frogs. Well it sucked us in. We sat down to have a drink. Ethan was excited to get a balloon hat. We ordered up some yards of drinks and nacho's. The drinks where good expensive but good. It was fun to watch the craziness there. It really makes me want to take a adults only cruise!!! Once we had finished our drinks we headed back to the ship.

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Once back on the ship we cleaned up and headed to grab a bit to eat. After we where fed it was nap time.Josh went to club. Ethan wanted to hang at the pool for a little bit w/ us. We thought what the heck in 4 cruises we have never been in the pool so we headed up. The pool was chilly but the hot tub felt great. Before you know it it was 7 pm and Ethan had camp activities he wanted to do. So we got out and took him to camp.

I decide this would be a good time to get a little laundry done. While it washed we hit the casino for a bit. We checked to the room on the way to dry the clothes and see Josh had left a note saying he want to skip dinner so he could hang w/ his friends. Travis and I opted out of dining room supper as well tonight. So we went to the lido as our clothes dryed.

We did hit the deck party for a little while tonight. Travis was tired so he headed to bed early. Ethan and I did a few of the dance before we decided we where tired too. We found Josh on the deck w/ his new friends. Of course if I would of asked him to come dance w/ me he would of said NO but w/ his new friends he was fine out there cha-cha sliding and more. Kids I tell ya!

 

a few more pics from the day

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regjr13

regjr13

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Great Review. Totally enjoying it. I noticed that the Spirit still hasn't been refurbished as I noticed your suite only had a regular tube television. Yikes! Do you still feel the $400 upgrade was worth it? We generally book suites for the two of us and it's more than enough space, but for 4, did it meet your expectations?

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