Carnival Spirit
Cruise Review & Photos

We've cruised on the Carnival Spirit three different times.
Here are some photos, and a few tips for those new to cruising!

Another amazing thing we saw from our balcony as the ship was docked in Manzanillo was this sting ray.
I didn't even know that sting rays liked to jump out of the water! 
My wife heard a loud splash as she was sitting on our balcony, and was surprised to see what was causing it.
He jumped in and out of the water enough times that I had time to grab my camera and get this picture.

Before our cruise, I spent a lot of time surfing the Internet looking for photos of the Carnival Spirit.
All the photos I saw of her big show lounge (Pharaoh's Palace) were taken when it was empty.
So, I made a point to snap a few photos of the big showroom with people in the chairs!

People waiting for a show to start in Pharaoh's Palace.
During our 8-day cruise I enjoyed shows by two different comedians, plus a comic-magician and several Las Vegas style shows.

Kirk Benning, the Cruise Director on our 2009 cruise.  He was very good at his job!
 

Here's another look at the Carnival Spirit, a very beautiful ship!

People sunbathing on the sun deck during a "fun day at sea"

For those who have never cruised, this picture gives you a little idea of what life on a cruise ship is like.

One strange thing we noticed about the Carnival Spirit:
I am not a prude...  in fact, far from it!  You'd have to try really hard to offend me!  However, I realize that not everyone is this way.  The world is filled with all sorts of people, and many of them are very sensitive about nudity and moral issues.  Therefore, I was a bit surprised to see some of the art work in the Carnival Spirit.  Here's a look at a piece of art hanging on the wall in our cabin:

I was not personally offended by this piece of art in our cabin, but I bet some people would be.
I think if you were travelling with children of a certain age, this might be a problem!

I've sailed on the Carnival Spirit three different times now,
and this exact same picture was on the cabin wall in two of three cabins we've stayed in!

Another example of the same kind of thing, this one in a public area just outside the entrance to the dining room.
As I said, this did not offend me personally, but I'm sure it would cause problems for some people.

A still picture of this staircase does not do it justice.
It's called "the fountain staircase" because that yellow thing in the middle has water running down it,
which collects in a small pond at the bottom.  It's gorgeous.

Tucked just behind "the fountain staircase" is a little karaoke lounge called Club Cool.
The thing about Karaoke is that it's usually fairly painful to listen to...
most Karaoke singers just can not carry a tune.
But every now and then you will hear from someone with actual talent...
and that's a real joy to hear, and a very welcome surprise!

My wife had foot surgery about two months prior to our 2009 cruise, and was limping around in an orthopedic boot.
A Carnival employee at the check-in facility in San Diego noticed this, and gave all three of us priority boarding passes
so that Kellyn would not have to stand around any more than necessary.  With priority boarding, you are the first on to the ship.
We really appreciated that the employee noticed the orthopedic boot and that she made things a little easier for us!

Another way to get priority boarding is to cruise with Carnival ten or more times.
Starting with your 10th Carnival cruise, you are granted what is known as platinum status.
Priority boarding is one of several perks that Carnival gives to platinum level guests.
If you take a look at this page about my tenth cruise with Carnival,
you will see a picture of me with a very big smile on my face the day they gave me my platinum card!

People dancing to a live band in the Versailles lounge during our 2009 cruise.

One delightful unexpected surprise on our cruise was to discover the Versailles lounge on deck 1 forward.  I hadn't read anything about this place in all my pre-cruise research.  The Versailles lounge is a small showroom tucked away underneath the ship's main show lounge, Pharaoh's Palace.  While Pharaoh's Palace is huge (with entrances on three different decks) and designed for those big events with hundreds of people in the audience, the Versailles lounge is small and intimate.  It is sloped to give you great sight-lines to the stage, it has some really interesting decorations along the walls.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go...

The very unique decorations in the walls of the Versailles lounge.

The Versailles lounge just also happens to have fantastic acoustics.  It's absolutely perfect for live music.  During our 2010 cruise, we got to experience "Superstar Live", something new that Carnival debuted that year.  "Superstar Live" is like Karaoke with a live band.  Watching it is something like being in the audience of an American Idol performance.  My wife and I really like seeing live music performed...  and we absolutely LOVED watching Superstar Live on the Carnival Spirit!

This is Consuela, and she was the host of Superstar Live on the Carnival Spirit during our 2010 cruise.
She is a fantastic singer, and we really enjoyed it when she would sing a few songs during the show.
It totally delighted us when we discovered that she was still performing on the Carnival Spirit when we cruised again in 2011.

Another thing you'll find in the Versailles Lounge is great comedy!  During several nights of the cruise, the Versailles Lounge becomes "the comedy club".  Carnival has found that guests enjoy the comedians so much, that they decided to offer a LOT more comedy on their ships in 2010.  On most 5-day and longer Carnival cruises there are a total of four different comedians who perform on the ship!  Early in the evening, they have comedy shows that are "PG" rated and appropriate for all but the youngest and most sensitive ears.  Later in the evenings, they offer "R" rated shows that are only appropriate for those who are not easily offended.

Another thing we noticed that was different on our 2010 cruise compared to the same cruise a year earlier was the pier facilities in Manzanillo.  They built a new pier for cruise ships in Manazanillo, and it just opened in 2010.  On our 2009 cruise, we docked in an industrial area of the harbor in Manzanillo...  where the cargo ships dock.  But in 2010 we docked at a brand new pier right next to a nice little shopping district downtown.  You can just walk right off the ship and in to town now.  It's a fantastic improvement.

This is an interesting shot I took with my Digital Rebel,
using a long exposure to give the water an unusual look.

"Fashion Boulevard", with shops offering tax-free apparel, jewelry, liquor, etc.

I had seen pictures of "The Jungle" in my pre-cruise research, but I really didn't know what it was!
It's just basically a big long hallway leading to the arcade, but decorated in jungle style.
It's a good place to get away for a quiet conversation with no one else around.
I saw a Carnival officer use this place as a quiet spot to give a performance review to an employee.

The aft of the ship is a popular place as it tends to be less windy.
You are looking at the end of the waterslide, and one level below that is a small pool and jacuzzi.
Way off in the distance, you can barely see another Carnival ship on the horizon!

A photo I took from the deck of the ship, while we were docked in Acapulco.

The casual dining area ("La Playa Grill") on the Lido deck.  I enjoyed the food here!
When we sailed on the Norwegian Star, I remember thinking that their casual restaurant had a "cheap" look to it...
something along the lines of a bad mall food court.  I liked the ambience of the Carnival Spirit's casual dining area better.
It's casual, but not cheap or tacky looking.

Speaking of dining...  If you're familiar with the Carnival Spirit, you probably know that the main formal dining room is known as the Empire Restaurant.  What you may not know, however, is that it's not pronounced like the Empire State Building.  I saw an interview with Joe Farcus, the architect that designed the Carnival Spirit, and he explained that the dining room was named after a style of architecture called Empire...  which is pronounced Om-PEER.  It's a French word.  That interview with Joe Farcus is really interesting, and it includes a pretty good tour of the ship.  Follow the link and then select the video about the Carnival Spirit.

If you're going to be cruising on the Carnival Spirit, I'd like to pass along a little tip that will really come in handy.  One thing you quickly learn on a cruise ship is that there are a LOT of other passengers onboard...  and the most popular places on the ship can get a bit crowded.  So, let me tell you about a place that a lot of people never discover on the Carnival Spirit:  the Jacuzzi located within the spa, at the far forward end of the Lido deck.  While the Jacuzzis out on the open decks can get very crowded with people...  the Jacuzzi within the spa gets very little use.  My wife and I love this Jacuzzi, because we almost always have it all to ourselves and also because it's got a great view out the front of the ship.

The Jacuzzi located within the spa facility on the Canival Spirit.  Empty, as usual!
And because this Jacuzzi is indoors, you don't get as cold when you step out of it.
Also, you can't see it due to the angle of this photo...  but there's a great view of the ocean from that Jacuzzi.

People on a cruise are usually pretty lazy and only a small percentage ever explore the spa and the gymnasium on the ship...  and that's why most passengers on the Carnival Spirit never discover this Jacuzzi.  (It's located within the spa, and next to the gym.)  Also, there may be a perception that you have to pay spa fees in order to use this Jacuzzi...  because on some other Carnival ships (the Splendor, for example) there is an extra charge to use the Jacuzzi within the spa facilities.  But on the Carnival Spirit...  it's absolutely free, and open to all passengers.

Here's another of our favorite places on the Carnival Spirit...  the "make your own sundae" ice cream bar!

The guys behind the counter scoop the ice cream for you, and then you can add on any of the items at the counter.
There were more add-ons over to the right, outside of the view of the camera.
While it's true that this ice cream bar is only open for a few hours,
you do also have soft-serve ice cream and frozen yogurt available 24/7.

Do you get a kick out of noticing things that other people missed?  For example, when watching a movie on DVD, do you love listening to the director's commentary so that you can learn about the little things in the movie that you might not have noticed on your own?  If so, I'll show you something on the Carnival Spirit that most people don't notice.  I guess no one in Carnival Management has noticed this...  or perhaps they've just decided that it would not be worth the expense to fix it.

Back in the days when the Carnival Spirit was brand new, they designated the pool in the far back end of the ship as the children's pool.  But at some point, they decided this was a bad idea and they went the complete opposite way and designated the aft pool as "adults only".  I think they realized that it made no sense to have a children's pool located next to the Fantail bar...  you probably don't sell a lot of cocktails next to the children's pool!  But after changing the aft pool from being the children's pool to being for adults only, they never went to the trouble of changing the fancy electronic signs at the doorways that lead to the aft pool area.  So, in spite of the fact that this pool is now for "adults only"...  the signs over the doorways leading to this pool still indicate that you are heading to the children's pool!

A sign from the original configuration of the Carnival Spirit has never been updated.
In the old days, the pool beyond this door was the children's pool.
But don't take the kids to this pool now...  it's adults-only.

Here's something that made me laugh on our 2009 cruise...

This is Katie Robinson, from the Carnival Spirit entertainment staff, with a cardboard cut-out of Zac Efron.  I laughed when I saw her clowning around with this thing during our 2009 cruise, as I actually work with Zac's father and used to work with his mother.  I snapped this photo and emailed it to Zac's dad, and he emailed back laughing that this kind of stuff still amazes him.  He obviously knows his son is a big star...  but when things like this happen, it just reminds him once again what a huge worldwide star his kid is.

Absolutely do not email me asking me to pass a message on to Zac or his father, because you will be wasting your time!

During our 2010 cruise, my wife and I renewed our wedding vows in a ceremony performed by the ship's captain in the onboard wedding chapel. Here are some photos of our renewal-of-vows ceremony...

Our 2010 cruise was a group cruise with 8 of our friends from our online Cocker Spaniel forum.  Here's a shot of our whole group, in the wedding chapel immediately after our renewal-of-vows ceremony...

In case you are wondering, the renewal-of-vows package from Carnival cost about $350 and included champagne and a very large cake for our guests, two keepsake champagne glasses, the cake-topper, and an 8x10 photo taken by the ship's photographer.  We had a good laugh when we were given a receipt for our payment and it said that it was a receipt for the "renewal of vowels" ceremony.  I guess English might not have been the primary language of whoever wrote out that receipt!  Perhaps on our next cruise we should renew our consonants...

For you to truly appreciate the story of our 2010 cruise and the renewal-of-vows ceremony, I have to tell you what happened five months earlier.  My wife and I had been married for 29 years and quite frankly, we hit a rough patch.  Our relationship slowly deteriorated over the years, and in June of 2010 things came to a head...  we filed for divorce...  and my wife moved to Los Angeles and cut off almost all communication with me.  We were separated for about four months before we finally started to realize that what we had was special and worth saving.  I finally convinced my wife to talk to me in October, and all it took to "put Humpty Dumpty back together again" was one phone call... which started with a lot of anger and hurt feelings and ended an hour-and-a-half later with a decision to reconcile.  And the November 2010 cruise, which I had originally planned as a way of having fun with 8 of my online friends and a way to forget about the ugliness of the divorce, became a second honeymoon...  after one phone call to Carnival to add her on to the passenger list.

I'm delighted to tell you that our marriage is now stronger than ever.  Nearly divorcing was a very strange way to strengthen our relationship, but it worked for us!

A Great Book About Cruise Ships

After you've been on at least one cruise, there's a book that you really should read!  It will give you a whole new perspective.  It's a book that was written by a guy that worked on several Carnival ships...  and he shares some funny stories about life on a cruise ship.  To give you a bit of an idea of what kind of book this is...  the story starts as he is staying in a hotel room in Miami, the night before his very first day working on a cruise ship.  Even though it's the day before his first day onboard, he's basically "on the job", so Carnival is paying for the room.  To save the company money, they don't give him a private room...  he shares it with someone else.  So, he checks in to the room, and the first thing he does is to take a nice long shower.  And when he's finally done with his shower, he discovers that his roommate has shown up...  and is in the middle of having sex with a woman right there in their shared hotel room!  Does that give you an idea of the kind of book this is?  Well, that's just the beginning...  and things get even more interesting on the ship!

If you've ever wondered what life is like for those people that work on cruise ships...  what kind of hours they work...  how much they're paid...  and what they do when they're not working...  this is the book for you.  And even better news...  in 2011, he wrote a sequel!

If you purchase one (or both!) of the books by clicking on these ads,
Amazon.com will send a small commission my way.  Thanks!

Summarizing our three cruises on the Carnival Spirit...  we absolutely loved them!  We've now been on four different classes of Carnival ships, and the Spirit class is definitely our favorite of the four.  Carnival's Spirit class ships (Spirit, Pride, Legend, Miracle) are modern ships in very good condition and definitely an asset in Carnival's fleet.  I like the Carnival Spirit better than the newer, larger Carnival Splendor because the Spirit carries about 1000 less passengers and therefore seems a lot less crowded.  Imagine having 1000 fewer people to compete with for a place in line at the buffet lunch on embarkation day...  or for a place around the pool at an at-sea day.

People always have expectations on a vacation, and the bottom line is the question of whether ours were met on our Carnival Spirit vacations or not.  The answer is a definite yes.  Of course, some things were better than we expected, some things were exactly what we expected, and a few things were worse than expected.  Here's a quick look at my list:

Better than expected:

• The food.  I'm a picky eater, and food has been a problem for me on two of our previous cruises.  No problem at all on the Carnival Spirit.  Loved it!

• The staff.  We were treated well at all times, by every employee.  It seemed like a happy group of people that liked their jobs.  We were impressed with their attitudes!  All of us noticed this.  Our cabin steward and dining room server were especially nice to us.  Our cabin steward knew our names and used them each and every time he greeted us...  and I mean even if it was a surprise meeting in the hallway.  It's one thing to look up someone's name before you know you are about to enter their room...  quite another to be able to come up with it off the top of your head when running in to them unexpectedly.  And not only did he genuinely know our names, he actually pronounced my wife's name correctly each and every time...  which rarely happens to us!

• The interior decor.  Some Carnival ships have an interior design that is a bit loud and in your face...  like the loud pink circles inside the Carnival Splendor.  The decor of the Carnival Spirit is more elegant and subdued.  Sure, there are "fun" elements to the design...  but overall it really never screams at you like it does on some of the other Carnival ships.

• The "Picante Sail & Snorkel" shore excursion in Zihuatanejo.  We loved it, and it was exactly like the fantasy I had in my head prior to the cruise.  Warm weather, warm ocean water, a smooth catamaran ride surrounded by beautiful young people in swimsuits...  and the highlight was a wonderful snorkeling experience with plenty of ocean life to see.  All this and unlimited free drinks, too.  My vision of heaven looks a lot like this!

• The "Acapulco Beach Break" shore excursion.  I absolutely loved swimming in the warm water of Acapulco Bay and playing in the surf.  They also served a great buffet lunch...  and the drinks were unlimited, free, and brought right to your chair in the sand.  However, the constant parade of local people stopping by to try to sell you jewelry, sunglasses, tattoos, and souvenirs was REALLY annoying!  But it was a public beach, so I don't think there's any legal way to stop that.

• The overall experience in the Empire dining room.  During our 2009 cruise, it was three of us travelling together... and we had a private table for three in the dining room.  Perfect!  Also, the food was good and our server was fantastic.  And unlike a few meals we had in the specialty restaurants on the Norwegian Star, there was actually enough separation between tables that we could have a private conversation.

• Actual Mexican food!  On our three previous cruises to the Mexican Riviera, it became a running joke about how little Mexican food was served.  There was a lot more Mexican food on the Carnival Spirit.  Thank you, Carnival!  What I really think they need to do when they cruise to Mexico, however, is to eliminate the Asian station in the casual dining room and convert it to Mexican...  so that there are Mexican entrees available at every meal, every day.

• Embarkation/debarkation.  During our 2009 cruise, a Carnival employee noticed that my wife was limping and wearing an orthopedic boot.  All three of us were given priority boarding passes, which allowed us to breeze on and off of the ship.  Thank you again, Carnival!

• Lunch in Zihuatanejo.  We were roaming around the little village at lunch time and walked past a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  An employee was out front, trying to entice people in to the restaurant.  He asked me if I was hungry, and I gave an honest answer of "yes".  Next thing I knew, I had a menu in my hand...  and not too long after that I had a fantastic plate of steak fajitas in front of me.  Lunch for two, including a diet Coke and a very large Margarita, came to $19...  and it was worth a lot more than that!

• The background music that plays in public areas such as the lobby and the dining rooms.  During my 2008 cruise on the Norwegian Star, I was constantly amazed at the strange mix of unknown international music that was playing in the background.  On the Carnival Spirit, a very large percentage of the songs were soft pop hits from the 70s and 80s...  very recognizable to the 40/50/60 year-old American folks on board.  Sure, as a former radio station program director, I would tighten up the ol' playlist a bit further (ask yourself if you think the average 50 year-old American would want to listen to that song while eating breakfast) but overall I think Carnival has a lot better idea of the kind of music their average customer likes than Norwegian Cruise Line does!

• "Superstar Live".  This new feature that Carnival added fleetwide in 2010 is a fantastic improvement to the traditional cruise ship karaoke experience.  Singing karaoke along with a CD player can be a little boring.  Singing karaoke with a live band behind you is a much bigger deal!  It's really fun to watch.

Pretty much as expected:

• The opportunity to be casual at all times, if we wanted to.  On our 1996 Carnival cruise, there was no alternative to the formal dinner on "formal night".  This time around, there were two formal nights.  We dressed up for the first one, but when the second one rolled around we wore jeans and ate in the casual restaurant instead.  We're just not formal, so we really appreciated not having to be!

• Our cabin.  Loved the balcony!  Nice bathroom, too.  Consistent with what we had seen on the Elation a year previously, the bathroom had a really nice layout, and a fantastic shower.  Also, there was plenty of storage in our cabin.  We completely unpacked four suitcases in to the various drawers and closets in our cabin, and then tucked the suitcases away...  under the bed.

• The "fun" factor onboard the ship.  We had a lot of fun!  Laughed ourselves silly at the comedy show and several of the game shows!  Based on our previous cruises, this was what we expected, and the entertainment staff did indeed deliver it again this time.

• Soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt.  Carnival is famous for this!  It's free, and available 24/7.  Just serve yourself any time you have an ice cream craving.  And if you get a hankering for a "real" scoop of ice cream rather than soft serve, it's available in the Empire restaurant after your meal.  The best move Carnival could ever make to increase customer satisfaction would be to place soft drink dispensers in the casual dining room so that Coke, 7UP, Dr. Pepper, etc. would be as free and accessible as the soft-serve ice cream is!

• A smooth ride aboard a nice modern ship.  On our 1996 cruise aboard a smaller older ship, I did get a little seasick at times.  This time around, on a much larger and newer ship, I never got seasick.

• Internet access.  When you think about the technology involved, it's absolutely amazing that you can get Internet access while cruising on the Pacific ocean.  And you don't even have to go to the Internet Cafe to take advantage of it...  if you bring your laptop computer, iPad, or smartphone with you, just use the shipwide wireless Internet connection and you can use your electronic device in your cabin, on your balcony, or wherever you go on the ship.

• The past-guest party.  Several days in to the cruise, we got an invitation to a special party thrown exclusively for people who had sailed with Carnival before.  It was a nice party, and they had drink servers bringing free drinks around to all the guests...  and not just one free drink at the beginning of the party, but they kept bringing more and more.  I could have had three or four free drinks at that party if I had wanted to!

• Cell phone access.  Yes, your cell phone will work on the ship, even when you're at sea.  We did a lot of text messaging to our son, to coordinate our schedules onboard the ship.  It didn't turn out to be outrageously expensive.
   

Worse than expected:

• Drink prices.  I'm not a big drinker, so I rarely order a drink on a cruise ship.  On our first day, I wanted to loosen my wife up a bit by buying her a little umbrella drink as we sat around the pool.  I was shocked when I discovered it set me back well over $12.  That was the last drink I bought on the cruise!

• The layout of La Playa Grill, the casual dining venue.  There are eight food stations, scattered over a wide area.  (Six inside, plus two outside by the pool.)  It probably sounded like a great idea when they designed it, but the reality of the situation is that you end up having to walk around to eight widely scattered locations before you know what all your choices are.  A more ideal arrangement would be to put all the various serving stations closer together, while still allowing enough room for dozens of people to serve themselves at the same time.  Of course, they're not going to completely re-design and re-build the Carnival Spirit anytime soon...  so my suggested "workaround" solution would be to post a complete list of what's being served at each entrance to the restaurant, along with information about which food station you can find the item at.  For example, the sign would say roast beef is at station #1, chow mien chicken is at station #2, hamburgers are at station #3, chicken noodle soup is at stations #1 and #3, and rice is at stations #1, #2, and #3.

• A persistent unpleasant odor in the bathroom on our 2009 cruise.  I think the ventilation system was sending fresh air in, but not exhausting any dirty air out.  Have you ever been in to a public bathroom where they have those things mounted on the wall that spray a deodorizer in to the air at certain regular intervals?  They need to install something like that in each bathroom on the ship, in my opinion!  We didn't have a problem with this on our 2010 cruise, though.

• Pizza!  I really like pizza and I eat a lot of it at home.  The pizza in the cafeteria at my job is actually better than what Carnival serves, in my opinion.  I'm not exactly sure what it is about the Carnival pizza that's not right...  but I definitely think there is a lot of room for improvement!

Please don't get me wrong...  I loved our cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat!  But there is always room for improvement!

In addition to all the still pictures I shot on our cruise onboard the Carnival Spirit, I also shot some video.  I've edited the video down to a five-minute highlight package, which gives you a pretty good look at life aboard a cruise ship.  Click here to watch my Carnival Spirit video! 

(If you have a high-speed Internet connection...  once the video starts, be sure to click on "watch in high quality".)

If you're a fan of the Carnival Spirit, here's something you should buy!

It's a 1:1250 scale model replica of the Carnival Spirit!
Click here to buy one or to simply get more information about it.

Carnival Cruise Sounds

Have some fun with these!  Listen to the Carnival Cruise theme, or play the sound of a Carnival ship horn.

If you're a true cruise junkie, download the audio files (by right-clicking, and saving) and then set your computer to play the ship horn when you get a new email, and to play the theme song when the computer boots up and/or shuts down!

Other Cruises We've Been On

If you've enjoyed this page, you would probably also enjoy reading about:

Our Eastern & Western Caribean Cruises on the Carnival Glory
Our February 2010 cruise on the Carnival Splendor
Our January 2008 cruise on the Carnival Elation
Our April 2008 cruise on the Norwegian Star
Our 1996 cruise on Carnival Cruise Line's MS Holiday

If you've enjoyed this page, please take a moment to write and let me know!
My email address is:  jimzim@charter.net