1 month Till Carnival Spirit Cruise :-) last min questions

[NewCruizerSthOz]

Thank you to everyone for the hints and tips , we are booked on the 16th from Sydney this year. I have a couple of questions, would appreciate any help you guys could give :

 

How are the vegetarian food options ?

 

We are coming from Adelaide and would like to do some duty free alcohol shopping, looks at vodka and top shelve jack Daniels.

We have 2 options (I think) : buy in Adelaide - take on plane - carry to ship - etc etc / buy on ship. From experiences which is the cheaper options , can't find a carnival price list for duty free alcohol. What's the other duty free shopping like on board ? Electronics/clothes etc

 

Has anyone attended the gym classes offered ? What classes ? I know at extra cost - I saw somewhere there is a gym class package - is this still offered ? Worth it ??

 

Looking at how many francs we should buy for the island visits ? How far would 50$ at local markets etc not looking at lots of shopping

 

I don't mind a gamble : what are the casino limits ? Do the spread poker in the casino?

 

Thank you for any assistance you can offer !

 

Mat

[Tara Jane]

Don't know were you are going but if you go to villa then that's the place to do your duty free shopping. The cheapest is down the bottom of the main street on the left hand side, it would be the 2nd or 3rd last shop.

We don't drink so didn't look at the duty free alcohol on board, just knew the shop to go to in villa. There isn't a great deal on board to buy. Unless you are into the cheap bracelets and watches that they throw out at supposedly 75% off. the price on board is about what they are worth. They do have t-shirts, hats etc at reasonable prices.

cant help you with casino or vegetarian, I am sure others here will.

Do try and get to afternoon tea in the dining room on sea days, its at 3pm and very nice atmosphere. We skipped lunch on those days as it is easy to over do the eating. We also prefer to go to the diningroom for all meals, guess I am feeling a bit old and also need the controlled meals as it is so easy to get carried away with a little bit of this and a little bit of that at the buffet.

Enjoy your cruise.

We have never exchanged money always just used aussie dollars which is accepted freely. All the islands we have been to would have the price of the item in local and aussie dollars. They seem to like our money.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Tara Jane

[orangestreet]

I am a vegetarian and was blown away by the quality of Indian food (vegetarian) available onboard. There was plenty of choices for us both at the buffet and the main dining room. Good point about afternoon tea from the above post. Skip or have a light lunch and experience afternoon tea. Not many people know about it and can be a bit quiet. Then, there are veg pizzas available 24 hours at the buffet.

You will have a great time on the Spirit.

Edited August 12, 2014 by orangestreet

[Mum81]

The alcohol duty free shopping is pretty good onboard the ship. They have different specials each day and it is worth the walk down to the shops to see if what you want is on special. On our last 2 trips we have purchased:

 

2 x 1 litre Baileys for $40

 

1 x 1 litre Jim Beam Devil's Cut (the really strong one) for $30

 

2 x 1 litre red smirnoff vodka for $20!!!!!! (they also have grey goose)

 

1 x 1 litre bombay saphire gin for $20

 

If we want to spend our day in Port Vila doing something else, we don't really consider it worth the couple of dollars saving to go to the duty free shop there, but it probably is a bit cheaper.

[MicCanberra]

As mentioned above, the duty free alcohol on the ship is probably easier than lugging it from adelaide and if visiting Vila, that is possibly cheaper again. For electronics I suggest buying what you want in Adelaide as the ships have very limited range and stock and there prices are not that great. At least with buying in Adelaide you can return it if there are issues. Enjoy.:D

[NewCruizerSthOz]

Excellent

Thanks all

Very happy with vego options !!

 

Thanks for duty free options on the ship ! We aren't visiting Villa.

 

Numea - isle pines - lovu - mare : any hints on how much francs to get ??

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Excellent

Thanks all

Very happy with vego options !!

 

Thanks for duty free options on the ship ! We aren't visiting Villa.

 

Numea - isle pines - lovu - mare : any hints on how much francs to get ??

 

isle of pines will be very small, not much to do we lucked in with a bus tour. $25 aussie dollars per person. for $50 had a blast. got to see more and do more. Very quaint little island. Most people that go on shore early (like we were still in bed or thinking about getting out of bed early ;)) were lining up looking fed up waiting for their tenders as we arrived at about 10.30am 11ish. glad we got there late as the bus tour left at 12. had we not have done that, would have been dull as. One of our best photos is from Isle of Pines :)

 

we have only sailed princess. I found their duty free grog very dear, and no cheaper than Dan M with a special :(.

 

Villa is touted as the cheapest, so a shame you are not getting there.

 

either way you will have a blast, enjoy it!

[Blue Elephant]

My husband is vegetarian, so I observed what would have been suitable for him to eat had he been on the cruise ( I went with the girlfriends for this particular cruise). You will always be able to rustle up some vegetarian food at any Carnival eating venue.

 

Like someone else mentioned, the Indian vegetarian options in the Empire Room were especially good.

 

My experience was that the merchants on the islands preferred the Pacific Francs and specifically thanked me for having them. However, they all seemed willing to take either Pacific Francs or Aussie dollars. The merchants were quoting different equivalences between Pacific Francs and Aussie dollars on their their price boards. So it would be useful to keep your wits about you and pay in whatever currency seems best at any particular store.