Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Spirit - [December 25, 2003]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

Hope anyone traveling these destination may find this review helpful in
planning their tours and expectations.

We cruised with Carnival on the Spirit from Dec 25 until Jan 02, 2004 from
Miami/Belize/Limon/Colon/Miami. We were two families, nine persons in
total(four adults, three twenty-or-so year olds and two young teenagers).
Christmas, no doubt, is the most expensive time of year to cruise but I can
say we had a great trip and it was worth every cent. There is always a
couple things that could be changed to keep things tight and improve the
vacation experience even more.

Highlights

New Years Eve count-down on the Lido deck, with the live band playing 70'
s/80's music. It was great with Carnival laying on the no-charge
all-you-can-drink Champaign for about one hour(you were lucky if you were
wearing shoes/sneakers vice flip-flops. As there was broken glass from the
hundreds of empty wine glasses everywhere on ledges/tables etc. which
occasionally were being knocked over accidentally. It was difficult for
the staff to pick-up all empties with the crush of people).

The dining room menu was excellent. Every night many of us would choose two
starters and two main courses which our waiters would encourage us to
do (this allowed for surf and turf available every night). The salads and
the dressing were the greatest. For those in our group that only choose one
main course and if it turned out not to be of their liking, the waiters
would gladly run to the kitchen and exchange in minutes for another
selection. We reserved in the Supper Club for the night we visited Limon
because the ship was scheduled to be a later sailing that night (7pm). This
Super Club feature was an extra $25/person plus tip and was worth it. You
were only allowed to choose one main course in the Supper Club but all other
courses you could double-up on. The service was great. The main courses
were the most tender beef and freshest seafood. Dinner ambience included
live chamber music and a wine steward with a gold wine-tasting half-shell
around his neck! I told the staff I was on the popular low-carbohydrate
diet and they would keep the bread and starches away from me. The deserts
were to die for although I choose the cheese selection for my desert which
were unbelievable good and rich tasting!

Our group never did get to the main dining room for breakfast or lunches,
instead that was left to room service and the Lido deck buffets. There was
always good food somewhere on the Lido deck. It is fashioned somewhat like
a shopping mall's food court, with at least nine different theme areas
including ice cream and desert stations plus the beverage stations. My
low-carbohydrate diet had more of a variety of meats and vegetables than I
could have every imagined. Every night there was a Mid-night buffet which
we never made it to but I understand many others on the ship did and again,
very good. Also available on the Lido deck was the 24 hours a day pizza of
your choice and Caesar Salad.

I remember our first cruise and the dreaded formal night’s. This cruise,
because of the extra special Christmas and New Years dinners, we had three
formal nights to deal with. I have found with our family and the girls, you
must get a schedule down so many minutes before the dinner seating starts
and stick to it.. who is in the shower first and the mirrors not fogging-up
etc. things go a lot smoother and less stressful. By the second or third
formal night things become enjoyable and you get to take advantage of the
professional photographers and the many beautiful backdrops they provide
around the ship. They literally provided you with free photo-proofs worth
hundreds of dollars for your review and purchase consideration at very
reasonable prices from $7-$20.

Casino

Friendly cheerful staff. I played one form or another of black-jack almost
every night($5 bets) for two or three hours and ended up even over the week
never being down more than $80 in one night.

Tours

Cruise director (Michael) and his wife operated as a team. He was a good
singer and his wife was a good dancer. They were relatively funny although
there was some old jokes I have heard on other Carnival ships "...so I told
the older lady I was a male ******tute when she didn't recognize me as the
cruise director on the last day of the cruise" but over-all, not bad! My
only complaint would be that in his tour-talk, he presented what he said
were the different options available for the three port stops. He insisted
this cruise was not about going to the beaches, rather countries. In my
option this was misleading.

Here are my observations:

Belize

If you are happy with beach-front-pools, Belize does have something. Right
beside the tender/ferrying boat, that brings you in from the ship(the closet
the ship comes to town is five miles out in the harbour), there is a
Radisson Hotel.

We went on the ship's tour Geoff's Cay Snorkeling outing. It is an acre(or
less) of sand out on the Great Barrier Reef. The 25 minute power boat ride,
that seats about 30 people, is a blast. Unfortunately this day was a wet
one and the sun never really came out for more than five minutes at a time.
If you take this tour make sure you elect to snorkel from the power-boat
vice from the island beach. They will first drops those off on this island
whom wish to snorkel only from the beach. The power-boat takes you to the
deeper water and directly over the reef which is less than a mile away from
the island beach. From the power boat you will see some fish. On the
island you will only see grass and sea urchins which will give
slivers/rashes to those who are not very careful.

After our Geoff's Cay outing the guys in our group elected to tender into
town directly after the snorkeling in search of deep-fried conch and cold
local beer. We found both in the downtown core and it was good (not as good
as Nassau but close). The downtown core is a little rough around the
edges(side walks and open gutters) but seemingly safe and friendly people.
Give this town some paint for some local artists to do murals on building
and some flower planter boxes and it is going to be a real jewel some day.
The girls in our group were happy to shop at the water front tourist bizarre
which can occupy a person for a couple hours. I heard talk that there was a
bonus feature for those buying drugs from the pharmacies. Apparently very
cheap! Two to choose from at the water-front tourist bizarre. Here is what
I heard about other tours offered by the ship. I heard the tubing was very
good this wet day as it did not matter that it was raining constantly. The
Mayan historical site and river boat ride were disappointing this wet day.

Lemon

This was a great port for touring for us. The weather was much better, more
sunshine. Our group took in three different activities. The
bicycling-through-a-village, the nature walk through a rainforest, high-wire
sliding "The Crazy Monkey Canopy Ride" through a rainforest. As it turned
out, all these activities operated out of the same resort centre which was a
one hour bus drive down the south coast from the town of Limon to the
Almonds and Corals Resort.

Our tour guide on
the bus was excellent giving history and answering questions. You pass by
small banana farms and processing plants on the way. It is a beautiful
costal dive in a modern air conditioned motor coach with toilet. I took in
the bicycling which turned out to be no more than 3 miles to a small
beachside town. Swimming was defiantly available although we did not have
our bathing suits as a result of the cruise director talk in which he said
not to expect beaches-wrong!. The beach had several European and North
American kids surfing/swimming plus locals. The little ocean-side village
had a couple neat Malibu style beach-bum restaurant and bars. Again we
enjoyed some local cold beer and lobster tails this time! We originally
planned to take the tour which featured a ride in a Russian style
monster-truck converted from a missile launcher but this sold-out by the
second day of the cruise. I never heard how that tour was but what we ended
up having a great time. With the size of our group, we probably could have
hired a taxi van for the day and did the same thing a little cheaper. But I
would worn anyone considering this to make sure they leave plenty of time to
get back early to the ship. We never did have time to walk the town of
Lemon other then driving through it but my impression is it seemed as tame
as Belize, the only thing that throws you off a bit is that the ship is
tided up in the middle of a sea container processing operation and there is
a small crush of locals in the dock yard area but certainly no more so than
the Nassau, Bahamas port. Again, very friendly people.

Colon

The Caribbean side of the Panama Canal is glorious sea port view from the
ship. It reminded me a little of the entrance to Halifax Harbour in Nova
Scotia Canada. Dozens of large ships waiting their turn anchored in the
ocean waters in the bay off Colon. The ship ties up to a pier which has a
massive newer warehouse structure on it which includes souvenirs shops,
waterside restaurant with bar, patio tables and umbrellas and also a covered
transportation bus terminal for the tour buses. This is where any
comparison to Halifax end!. Departing the pier, on our motor coach(no
washroom), you quickly are introduced to a hardened looking downtown area
with a sizeable shantytown in the distance consisting of metal-tin
corrugated ten foot square shacks. The downtown streets are cement project
style building with shops and apartments above. There are no glass in most
windows and it is normal for cloths to be hanging everywhere on lines. TV
antennas are everywhere. Again there is some potential for a massive clean
up hear in the future. Until that happens, I suggest one takes an organized
tour or stays on the ship. We were suppose to take the two oceans by rail
but the trip fell apart with the ship being late docking. Instead we took
the Panama City bus tour. It is too bad the buses didn't have toilets
because we would have had a much better time. It is a long day because it
is 1.75 hours drive to Panama City on the Pacific Ocean from Colon. Great
historical fort sites to see including where the USA invasion took place,
Noriega headquarters, old churches, Captain Morgan and the newer modern city
areas. Lunch is included and a stop a the canal locks nearest the Pacific
ocean. Our tour guide could have been a lot better and 8 hours on and off
the bus with no washroom was too much for me! Others in our group did the
extreme kayaking and bicycling. It was good but grueling. Because this is
your last port stop it is hard to resist a tour but my advice is that until
the cruise lines improve the quality of the tours stick to the piers and the
ships activities for this port plus you will save $189.

Improvements

Get rid of the plastic coffee mugs in the Lido buffet area. I had to hide
my white china cup in my room and bring it up every morning. Everyone one
would be asking "Where did you get the real coffee cup?". The coffee is not
strong and did taste better in a real coffee cup.

I consider the kids water-slide dangerous! My youngest banged his head on
the surface (tight turns)the first time and that was it. It does not empty
into a pool rather a shout/trough. My suggestion is take it out and put in a
normal gentle water-side in a kids pool. Currently it seems to only fulfill
Carnival's promise that every ship has a water-slide. In this case, in my
opinion, dangerous for my children.

All tours would all have to gather in the main auditorium and be herded off
the ship in our different little tour groups only to wait again in the same
groups on the pier. This is an area for improvement and not required in
Limon or Colon. One other answer is staggering tour starting times.

The main dining room has tables screwed to the carpet for obvious reason
but as a result can could not accommodate larger groups which we were
originally promised therefore we were moved to a table for eight although
there was nine in our group.