Thanksgiving on the Spirit Review

[1kaper]

2 Sea Days and overall thoughts 

 

The sea days were pretty uneventful.  
I did find that it was extremely difficult to find a lounger anywhere.  We aren't early risers and by the time we got out on deck, it was pretty packed.  The second day we actually had to move single loungers around to be next to each other.  I tried at all 3 pools and the upper decks.  There was A LOT of chair hogging.  

After finding out place, I noticed a few loungers near the pool in the smoking area (forward pool I believe).  While I didn't want to sit there, I noticed that a great number of them were saved for the entire time I was there, around 5 hours, and I never once saw someone in them.  And they were not in the pool the whole time either.  Frustrating.  

 

I preferred Serenity deck but it was a zoo on sea days.  There was absolutely no where to sit and the pool was jammed. People all around the edge and all in the middle.  The main pool was busy with kids.  So I opted for the forward pool which is also the smoking area.  I assume that is why that pool wasn't as busy.  

 

We were on a full sailing so...

 

I also didn't love the layout.  I don't mind going up to the next deck to find a seat, but there are no stairs directly to the main pool and it seems the stairs to the forward pool are on the other side.  We sailed on the Dream in March and spent a lot of time on the upper deck.  I didn't really pay attention at the time, but the set up was easier to be able to get to the pool and the bar.  

 

Debarkation

We had an earlier flight to catch.  We also packed carry on so just did self debarkation as soon as they allowed us to leave.  We walked right off the boat, through security - I was stopped for a moment by customs asking if I brought anything back - and out to the pick up area.  We ordered a Lyft and away we went. 

I had ordered a few things to be delivered to the hotel which didn't arrive on time.  As mentioned I spoke with front desk and they said we could pick it up after the cruise.  So we took a Lyft to the hotel ($13) and picked up the items.  They said they were there and they would bring it up in a few minutes.  I ordered another Lyft and chose the option to wait 15 minutes to save money, thinking that it would take that long.  Of course, they said the Lyft would be there in 3 minutes.  I went down to try to talk to the driver about waiting but he didn't understand.  He did wait for a bit but ended up cancelling the ride, costing me $6.  When I went back upstairs DH was just leaving with the packages.  Of course.  We opened the boxes there to put them in our bag and were approached by an employee saying they needed a card.  DH asked why and they told him it was for the $10 handling fee.  I spoke to the hotel twice about this and there was no mention of a handling fee.  So we paid, got a new Lyft and away to the FLL airport ($33).  Would have been cheaper to just ship to Canada (although one company did not ship to Canada).  Lesson learned.  

We made it to the airport in plenty of time (maybe even too much) for our 12 pm flight. 

 

Overall thoughts 

 

The Ship - was fine.  It was clean.  Staffing didn't seem to be an issue.  I already noted my issues with the pool area and set up.  Not my favourite ship but no real complaints about it.  I do prefer a smaller ship but just found the pool/lounging areas overall very small.  

 

Staff - we had fantastic staff.  Our room steward, the bartenders at the Alchemy and a dining room team we requested every time we went.  

 

Service - now I found the service in the MDR was much faster than our last cruise.  There was one night where it took forever for them to come take our order, but the food came out fast.  But I talked to others on the same cruise who found it took forever.  Not sure if the difference was set dining, I didn't think to ask. We had your time dining.  In March, we often waited a long time to get a table.  Not this time (with the exception of elegant night and brunch). 

Drink service in the bar was very slow.  There were times we'd end up being done gambling and have to go find the server to get our drink instead of sitting at the table. Service on deck was hit and miss.  

 

Food - I touched on it here.  Food was still overall not great.  As mentioned, I found the buffet was improved over our last cruise.  DH loved the chinese food options.  We love the pizza and Blue Iguana.  Guy's was good too. The MDR was worse than our last cruise.  There were a few nights we didn't go to supper because nothing interested us.  
I had a rueben sandwich one day (I believe maybe Aruba day) and it was terrible.  The fries were ice cold and tasteless.  DH had grabbed a burger from Guy's and at least his fries were warm.  They are similar fries but Guy's had a spice on them.   I hate to waste food but I ended up going to get just a plate of fries from Guy's.  

 

Drinks - I found the drinks much better on this cruise.  It might be because menus are back and I was able to see the whole lists of options.  While I am the type to always have my phone, I hated the QR menu.  They still use them in the MDR though.  I really enjoyed the Alchemy Bar this time. We stopped by last time but didn't really try to many different drinks, just go my regular old fashioned. 

 

Room - room was fine, same as always.  I do love the bed and bedding on Carnival.  We originally booked an inside but got an upgrade offer for an "extended balcony".  The "extended part" wasn't much extra.  I also checked what was above us before taking it but didn't check below.  We were above the Pharaoh's lounge.  The first night I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from.  I eventually clued in.  There are morning shows, afternoon shows (usually when I napped) and evening ones so it was bothersome.  It wasn't enough to ruin it and I didn't complain.  I was also aware that there weren't any other rooms to move to anyway.  My bad for not checking. 

 

Shows/entertainment - I am not a show person.  We did go to Love and Marriage and the was pretty good.  They did a last minute Deal or No Deal we also dropped by.  We regretted not buying cards to participate. 
My husband convinced me to go to the 80s show one night.  It was so bad.  So so bad.  The dancing was bad. The singing was worse.  One of the singers was just plain terrible. I actually felt bad.  They had the 3 violinists play like the atrium similar to on the Dream, however, the Cat Trio on the Dream was far better.  

 

Cruise Director - was Todd.  He was fine.  Very energetic.  Nice in person.  I thought the "It's T-O-Double D on the M-I-C" was clever the first time I heard it.  It was grating by the end.  It does not need to be said every.  single.  time. 

 

Overall the weather was really good.  Warm.  Very little rain.  It was definitely the rockiest cruise I've been on. Not sure if it was the boat size, the time of year or what.   I don't mind it anyway, but there were days it was quite rough.  I'm pretty sure the last day was the only calm day. 

[1kaper]

Getting home

 

Prior to leaving, they had changed our flight and we ended with a 7 hour layover in Toronto and didn't get to our final destination until after 1 am.  And we still had to drive 4 hours.  So I changed the flights to a FLL>Toronto>Montreal>Halifax. 

The flight home was full and they ended up having some computer problems at the gate.  We didn't start boarding until our scheduled time to leave.  That left us with a shorter layover in Toronto - which can be problematic.  We did make up some time and we ended up moving through security and customs fairly quick in TO.  And then another delay getting on the flight to Montreal.  We only had 30 minute layover in Montreal and we left 18 minutes later.  At this point, I was so tired I was hoping to miss our connection and stay the night in Montreal.  I wasn't stressed about making the next plane. 

We get to the gate and have to head to gate 22.  I walk out and look around.  Gates 23 and up ->.  Gates 21 and down <-.  Where is 22.  I turn around.  I'm at gate 22.  The plane we just got off was the plane taking us to the next destination.  They weren't leaving without us.  It was just about a 2 hour flight and was absolutely miserable.  It was so hot, not sure why so much hotter than the last leg.  I was thoroughly miserable  by the time we got home. 

I wanted to stay the night before driving home but DH wanted to get back so we drove.  Arrived home around 3 am.  Felt terrible.  I slept in a bit the next day and went to work.  I was supposed to have a medical appointment on Tuesday so I didn't want to miss two whole days at work after being away.  I felt a little off in the evening but chalked it up to being tired.  I had small, nagging dry cough.  When I woke up the next day I felt really bad and felt like I had chest congestion. An at home test confirmed I was Covid positive.  Overall, it wasn't too bad symptom wise.  But I'm still pretty exhausted. 

 

Our next cruise is booked for March on MSC Seascape.  DH and I have a Panama Canal booked with Carnival next November.  

 

This guy was pretty happy to see us 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by 1kaper

[mvaygibson]

Thank you for your review. I'm going on the Spirit in August  to Alaska.  I've  never been to Bonaire. Sorry you got Covid - I did too 2 days after getting off the Magic in Nov. Still  not feeling good. Great review, thanks for the pictures too!

[1kaper]

21 hours ago, mvaygibson said:

Thank you for your review. I'm going on the Spirit in August  to Alaska.  I've  never been to Bonaire. Sorry you got Covid - I did too 2 days after getting off the Magic in Nov. Still  not feeling good. Great review, thanks for the pictures too!

Enjoy! 
 

I’d love to do Alaska. Some day. 

[1kaper]

So Bonaire newspaper is published once every two weeks and the last one was issued right before our trip. The latest just came out. 
 

i now know how everything turned out. 
 

“Nov. 24. Around 2 p.m. the police station received a report about a male cruise ship tourist in trouble while swimming on Klein Bonaire. CPR was immediately started while the victim was taken to the coast of Bonaire. Here the paramedics took over and the victim was taken to hospital. The victim died shortly afterwards.”

[cruisingguy007]

Sad update on that fellow passenger, that is terrible news. Thanks for taking the time to do a review, it was an enjoyable read. Hope you're feeling better.  

[ninjacat123]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:10 PM, 1kaper said:

So Bonaire newspaper is published once every two weeks and the last one was issued right before our trip. The latest just came out. 
 

i now know how everything turned out. 
 

“Nov. 24. Around 2 p.m. the police station received a report about a male cruise ship tourist in trouble while swimming on Klein Bonaire. CPR was immediately started while the victim was taken to the coast of Bonaire. Here the paramedics took over and the victim was taken to hospital. The victim died shortly afterwards.”

That's awful!  So sorry this happened.  While I was reading this portion of your review, I thought it was very astute of you to address the precarious situation you all were in.  Thanks for your review and I hope you recover quickly from COVID.🤞