Blog - Spirit to Hawaii

[Fazzdaan]

Carnival Spirit to Hawaii - Day One

Embarkation

Airport Bus Issues

There were issues at the San Diego airport. We were there at the designated spot before 10:00am and supposedly, according to ground staff present, there was supposed to be buses at 10:00, 10:15, etc. At 10:30 I estimated that 100-150 people were there waiting and the mood was not real good. So, rather than deal with that my wife and I decided to catch a cab. It cost us $10.00, but we got to the pier quickly and check-in was a breeze with no one else there.

Right after check-in we were told the first buses would leave about 1:00pm. They were in the process of setting up 1,000 chairs in the tent and we just relaxed there until our bus. This portion was well organized.

We did indeed leave in the first bus just after 1:00pm. We had a semi-long delay at the border, but it was due to enhanced security for us. We had a police escort until south of Tijuana and continued to see occasional police every once in awhile on our two hour drive to Ensenada along the scenic coast road. Once we arrived in Ensenada we had a 20-30 minute wait in the bus just outside the ship until we were allowed to board the Spirit.

Boarding

One of our bags showed up very fast. The other bag ended up with both our personal tag having been ripped off as well as the bag tag for the Spirit. I found it at the Purser's area at sailing time.

Open seating was in the main dining room, however we just ate from the Lido Buffet.

We were joined in our cabin by many Cruise Critic members:

We sailed shortly after 9:00 pm. The departure from the pier in Ensenada is fast and it is only a very short distance past the breakwaters to open sea. Once we were past the harbor the Captain soon had us steaming at 21-22 knots. We were heading into worsening weather.

The ships Clocks were set back an hour on that first night and we were in bed by 10:30pm. We had been up 20 hours at that point. There was only gentle rocking of the ship at that point, but that would change by morning.

First Sea Day

We awakened about 5:45 am and slowly started to get going with the initial goal to get to Lido and grab some coffee, which we did and then hung out for breakfast.

The first night we started running into building seas. Some rocking started during the night and by daybreak there was some "rock-n-roll" occurring. I had seen a marine forecast the night before we left and had unfortunately seen that seas could be 6-15 feet. The morning brought us the low end of that spectrum, but it is slowly getting worse. As an example our bedroom door leading to the sitting room stayed open by itself in the first few hours at sea. By mid-morning it would not stay closed even with shoes placed against the open door. We found a door jam and that worked.

After breakfast we headed to the cabin and watched the Carnival version of "The Morning Show", with Cruise Director (CD) Chris Roberts and ACD Marky Mark. We watched most of it, but fell back asleep with the ship moderately rocking us to sleep. We had not done the mandatory boat drill departing Ensenada, but it was planned for 9:30 am on the first sea day.

The boat drill preparation actually started at 9:30 and the actual drill started at 9:55. Because of the northerly 30-35 knot winds (hitting us directly on the starboard beam) and ship's rolling we went to the alternate muster stations in the Pharaoh’s Palace and Empire Dining Room, where all the remainder of the briefings were held. It was there that I learned that some folks, including long-time cruisers, have indeed been sea sick. It isn't really bothering me, but I also have my sea bands on as a preventative.

At 11:00am most of the folks in our Cruise Critic roll call met at the Atrium Bar for an hour or so of socializing. During the gathering the Captain came on with his daily ship's report. Seas are ten feet and the winds are 30-35 knots from the north. Even the crew is being careful as they move around the ship and we still hear of folks that haven't left their cabins.

Lunch for us was on Lido again. The food, as usual was excellent.

We spent most of the afternoon wandering the ship and the casino. We also identified BlackChipsAhoy, playing his one and only casino game. We watched and chatted for at least an hour with him, his wife and a friend of theirs at the table. It was fun.

The ship was definitely rocking and winds were between 30-40 knots from the north. We still were hearing of some folks being sea sick, including our cabin steward. He soldiered on, but looked like he was not feeling well.

Dinner was the first formal night. There apparently had been some confusion between the ship and Carnival on land regarding our dinner table. On our Sign & Sail it said we were assigned an eight person table, #374, which was just inside the dining room on the upper level. According to the ship we had been assigned table #201, but they got that worked out. Honestly I wasn't looking forward to eating at as big a table but one couple at the table was actually from the Cruise Critic roll call and had been part of our sail away and Atrium get together, so that actually worked out well, albeit by accident.

This was our first dinner in the main dining room and we noticed that the singing waiters performed, but that there was no red, white and blue team activity.

I was interested to hear from a couple they had ten Royal Caribbean cruises (and didn't know of the downgrade in their RC status) but had never had sailed Carnival and had heard many of the comments that had been made about Carnival. They said they were having a wonderful time, that the people onboard had been very friendly, apparently more so than on Royal Caribbean. I told them that after four or five days that I would like to see what their observations are at that point.

Second Sea Day

The weather continued through the night, but we both slept very well. We decided to have breakfast in the main dining room, which isn't my favorite simply because the menu is more limited and it takes a few minutes to get the food. However the waiters were very efficient and the food did show up fairly fast. We also met a couple from South Carolina and a gentleman from Nevada at breakfast. The couple from South Carolina had never before flown and that experience had terrified him. He isn't looking forward to the long flight from Honolulu to Atlanta. (Maybe he will just stay in Hawaii!!)

Just before noon the Captain made his daily announcement regarding position and weather. We are presently about 40% of the way to Hilo. We are travelling at 20 knots, winds are from the northeast at 30 knots and seas are 9-11 feet. He expects some improvement in the weather late this afternoon.

We passed on lunch until about 2:00pm when I went to the Lido deck and found a party of our roll call members watching a line dancing class near the pool. So we joined the gathering and a few of the ladies were drinking out of artificial coconuts soon. After the line dancing was over we chatted awhile more and then broke up. I wanted to get an ice cream and the soft serve vanilla wasn't available at the machine that I had always used in the past so I went to the port side of the ship and saw, for the first time, that they were making real ice cream treats there. Somehow I had never known that and felt like one of their special sundaes. Its good!!

As we wandered back in from the Lido deck we walked past the stairs for the Supper Club and tried out the glass stairs to the Club. The walk up the stairs was not as spectacular a few as the walk back down. That could be a lot of fun if someone has had a few drinks with their meal.

The weather was supposed to break, but it hasn't so far. We did have a time with slightly less rolling of the ship, but it has picked up again. From the starboard aft corner we now hear the howling of wind despite the wind speed having dropped by about 10 knots.

Dinner was nice. My wife had tilapia and I had the baby back ribs. I also had the gazpacho as a starter. All the food was excellent.

Since it wasn't as busy in the restaurant as formal night we had a chance to speak with the Assistant Maitre 'D and told him that we noticed no more red, white and blue team and that we were personally happy that it was not being done. He said that the company had sent down a memo a few months ago and had stopped the practice. He also expressed relief for the same reason we did, that it disrupted the dining experience.

We set the clocks back another hour before bed tonight. We will set the clocks back one more time before we arrive in Hilo.

Third Sea Day

The rough seas have abated. Although the Captain gas not yet made his daily announcement I am guessing the seas are 3-5 feet. There is still a little movement, but I have removed my sea bands. Also, our cabin steward is feeling better today.

There is a funny thing about the sea bands. We were eating breakfast with folks from Denver and Wisconsin today and I was being asked if they worked. The answer is I don't know. While I have never before been sea sick I knew beforehand, from a marine weather forecast from the National Weather Service the night before we sailed, that we were to be sailing into heavier seas so I brought them with me. I never got sick, but I don't know if that was because I don't get sea sick or because the bands worked.

We spent a lazy morning today. My wife read and napped and I read and caught up on this blog/log.

There was a sale of some of the T-Shirts from the Mexican season now over so it cost $5.00 for T-shirts that had sold for $16.95 last week. We bought two.

The Captain came on the PA at noon. We were just over halfway, just over 1,000 miles from Ensenada and 990 miles from Hilo. My guess at the actual sea state was wrong; they are 5-6 feet. Weather remains mostly cloudy and is supposed to remain so for the day. The pools are not getting much business despite it having warmed ten degrees from yesterday, now being 65 degrees outside.

We spent the afternoon quietly. The Lido deck was actually kind of slow. So we walked the ship a bit and then came back to the room. My wife napped in a chair and at 3:00pm they started to show the free movies and I wasted two hours watching Keanu Reeves in "When The Earth Stood Still". It wasn't as good as the classic original.

Tonight we have the Past Guest Party before dinner and we will go to that. Dinner follows that party.

Dinner was lamb chops for my wife and steak for me. We were told that we had been given a bottle of wine by the casino, so we have more wine that can had with dinner.

We have late dining and the only problem with that is that we tend to head to bed with a full stomach. So I had some problem falling asleep last night. The good news is that the stars were out and I finally got to see some clear skies.

Fourth Sea Day

We slept late. Once we got going the skies were mostly sunny with a few clouds in the sky. It was a vast improvement from the past three days. It is time to shoot photos. I did take some photos of sunset last night, but should be able to shoot a lot more today. But first I finally need to get the sunscreen out.

Once we got going we ran into some of our Cruise Critic friends on the aft Lido Deck at the pool. We chatted for awhile, got a little sun and wandered the upper decks enjoying something other than overcast skies and a slate-colored sea.

We went forward, seeing more pools in action, and went to past the miniature golf, ping pong and golf areas. Working our way aft we also came to the water slide, which was quite the attraction. There were no age barriers keeping young and old apart on the slide.

At noon the Captain gave his daily briefing. We are still 660 miles from Hilo. The ship is now traveling at 17 knots, with winds from the east at 18 knots and seas are 6-9 feet, from the east. The ship is rocking a bit, but it is much better than the first 2-3 days.

The weather was finally good enough for exterior photos. I took quite a few pictures and experimented with various lenses. It will be interesting to see what Photoshop Elements 7 can do with the photos.

Dinner for me was Asparagus Vichyssoise and Veal Parmigana, along with my first Warm Chocolate Melting cake. It was great. My wife had the Tomato and Mozzarella appatizer and Grilled Red Snapper. He fish portion was huge and filled her so much that she skipped dessert. She said her fish was excellent and it even looked good to me, a non-fish eater.

When we got back to the room we had a paper instructing us on US Immigration procedures for Hilo. Since we are taking the Chain of Craters tour we need to be in the Pharaoh’s Palace at 6:45 am on Saturday, with passports with us. It will be a very early wake up. A number of tours are debarking with us and the rest 30 minutes later. Then they are debarking by deck numbers, starting with Deck 8. The final debarking will be Deck 1 at 9:00 am. Everyone must present themselves for the Immigration personnel. I feel sorry for some of the folks doing self-planned tours. Their timing will be a problem.

Fifth Sea Day

I awakened about 7:30am and immediately went to do laundry. Our cabin, 4237, was very close to the laundry on Deck 4. When I got to the laundry I was the only person there so I immediately dumped my laundry into the machine. I had noticed some white on the bottom of the drum but had not yet poured my detergent into the machine. Another cruiser came in as I was trying to get the coin mechanism to work, but it was stuck in the "in" position and I could not add money. That cruiser had said that he had already tried to work the machine and it would not work. He also said that he had put detergent in, which explained the white on the bottom of the drum. He told me not to remove my clothes, but that we needed the machine fixed. Three calls later and 45 minutes later we managed to get someone to look at the machine, but he lacked tools and keys to fix the mechanism. He did get someone else to come and he pushed the microswitch that started the machine (I was getting a free wash at this point) and went to get tools to fix the coin mechanism. Fifteen minutes later it was fixed, but now there was a line of six people waiting and they said the other decks, which had not been broken, had even longer lines. It was a waste of about an hour for me, worse for others.

After laundry I went looking for some coffee and food. Soon thereafter we had our first sighting of land after over four days at sea. We probably approached to about 12 miles and then turned further south, passing Hilo, to be offshore at the lava flows for a night sighting of lava. At noon, during the Captains daily briefing, we were told we will spend about an hour there tonight before turning back north to head for Hilo.

Lunch today was skipped since we are dining with a group in the Supper Club tonight. I did take the time to both photograph and take video of areas of the ship on our last sea day.

At 3:30 there was a galley tour. We probably had 800 people attend and we all walked thru the galley. There wasn't much food preparation going on as we walked through, but they did have some displays of creative fruit carving in progress and we were able to see all the ovens, fryers, massive kettles and area where the waiters get all the food for us. We did not get to see the elevators that they ride to the first and second level of the dining room.

When we finished the galley tour we returned to our cabin and could see two distinct plumes of steam rising from land where two active lava plumes were reaching the sea. Cruiser Director Chris Roberts came on the PA and announced that we were not only passing active plumes but that he had never before been on an Ensenada to Hawaii crossing that had made it here in daylight to actually see the steam rising from the vantage of the ship. We are still continuing southeast to be able to see active volcanoes at approximately 8:00pm

While relaxing in the cabin before our 7:30 dinner I made sure that the batteries are all charged for our very early departure in the morning. I am really not looking forward to such an early wake-up call. After five sea days I have become accustomed to awakening when I felt like it, normally around 7:30 - 8:00am.

Dinner was great. We had a group of nine and added two folks who had been abandoned by their dining partners. I had the crab starter and a Beef Carpaccio, skipped the salad course and then had Surf & Turf. The lobster was the best that I had ever had and was far superior to the lobster in the main dining room. One gentleman in our group simply had the lobster and he inhaled it. He was watching us eat for another 20 minutes, but he was happy.

The Captain had circled south of Hilo waiting for it to become dark enough for night time lava viewing. There were three active lava trails, but we were too far away for me to shoot a photograph, so it was a viewing opportunity only.

 

 

Oh, and the past RC cruisers were still having a wonderful time and enjoying the friendliness of other cruisers.

[evamom]

No show review?

[Fazzdaan]

We went to one show. We were slacking.

[impcinder]

Thank you for your information on the drive time between San Diego and Ensenada. We are doing the Autumn 09 leg Hawaii to Ensenada. Carnival originally booked us to depart San Diego on an 11 am flight! When I called to discuss the flight time, Carnvial air told me it was enough time. Information obtained from this board indicated it was 70 miles from Ensenada to San Diego. Even if we were able to disembark by 8:00 am, we probably would not have had enough time to make the flight. We have since had the flight changed to 1 pm. I am wondering if this will be enough time, I guess I will have to call Carnival air again, on Monday.

[thenders]

Can't wait to hear the rest of your review. I am also on the 9/28/09 Hawaii to Ensenada cruise.

 

Trudie

[Fazzdaan]

For you Hawaii to Ensenada folks I suggest late afternoon flights. Debarking will take 2-3 hours, the drive will be a couple of hours and you will probably have to clear US Customs at the border and that will likely be a major hassle. The line is usually long (we saw it as we headed south into Mexico) and I am not sure that Carnival can do anything to pre-clear you in Mexico.

 

Personally, I would think that a 3:00 pm departure would be the earliest possible, but someone who has done Hawaii-Ensenada may have a more valid observation.

[Fazzdaan]

The rest of the review still needs writing. I typed an outline for it, now I need to fill it in.

[kjunea]

Great report. Someday, I'll do this B2B with the one up to Seattle/Vancouver I hope!

[eileen11]

Wow...thanks for the great review! Can't wait to read the rest.

[jetwet1]

Thanks for doing this, this is a cruise the DW and I have talked about doing many times.

 

For those ending in Ensenad, 11am or even 1 pm is really pushing it, I used to spend a lot of time down there, getting back across the border can take a serious amount of time, as Fazzdaan said, 3.30pm or later is the way to go.

[Alaskagriz]

Thanks for putting in the time. Its really appreciated.

[Fazzdaan]

There will be more coming, but it may not be until this weekend. I have a lot to do in the next few days. Port days didn't have as much free time as sea days, when I could write for 15-30 minutes per day.

 

I'll work on it as soon as I can.

[czechgal]

Thank you for writing this. It is appreciated!

 

Thanks again!:D

 

Lisa

[PaddleAddict]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!! Just what I've been craving as I wait the 150 or so days until we do the Hawaii-Ensenda trip in September! Can't wait to read the rest! :D

[czechgal]

Would you post pictures of your cabin when you have a chance? We are trying to decide between a land vacation in Hawaii or a cruise to Hawaii. The sea days are what is keeping us from cruising. Maybe a nice large cabin would convince me!

 

Thanks!

Lisa

[afcj1]

Thanks for writing. I've wanted to take the "plunge", but haven't been able to see through the expense. It'll definately be in the future.

[yst347]

We sailed Ensenada to Honolulu last year. We were in cabin 4237. :D What a wonderful cruise. Can't wait to read the rest of your blog. It brings back memories. :)

 

The weather was just as bad the first two days on our sailing. Barf bags were placed at the elevators the first morning. The sliding door between the sitting area and the dressing room kept slipping open then slamming shut. We finally wedged it open with a weight.

[Luckysll]

I'm enjoying the review.

 

I am trying to organize a cruisecritic group cruise (although from Vancouver to Hawaii, not from Ensenada) for Sept. 2010, so anyone considering doing the Ensenada to Hawaii, maybe give the Vancouver to Hawaii a thought. It gives you the same great 5 days at sea first and I understand that September in Hawaii is a beautiful time of year to visit.

[JGB]

Fazzdaan,

 

Thank you for the time and effort. We may be taking the Spirit in Nov. I am interested in the casino, any info that you could give. Poker Video?

JGB

[yst347]

The Casino has one Hold'em table.

 

 

If you click on the picture then click on "full size" you will be able to read how the tournaments work.

 

 

Other casino pictures.

 

 

 

[MrPete]

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier. Did this run 11 years ago and loved it!

 

 

I'm going to piggyback on here just to relive it!

[Fazzdaan]

I have some older (2007) shots of cabin 4228 and you can find them here. http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/fazzdaan/The%20Carnival%20Spirit/?start=20

 

Cabin 4237 is the twin, just reversed. The cabins did not change during the drydock except for new carpet. Enjoy...

[yst347]

Here are 4237 pictures from last year.

 

[nolaAlive]

Thanks for the review. I will be doing this cruise next year.

[MrPete]

AH, those port days! They are killers! After 5.5 days of relaxation, it was like getting on the speedway.

 

Your first port was HILO? That was our last stop before Honolulu. Our first was in Kauai, and we were lei'd there with fresh flowers. We had a car waiting for us (and every port), and we just wung it from there. We just couldn't find Wamea (sp) Canyon.

 

Oh, and sorry about the captains gas.