Hi Cruise Reviewers,
Lynda travelled on an 11 night cruise on Carnival Spirit, out of Sydney during March/April 2016. As most cruisers will know, Carnival do not do many (any) cruises from Brisbane, and we wanted to experience Carnival experience in comparison to P&O/Princess. We certainly did enjoy Carnival, and will go again. Over the next few days, we will post a detailed report (with pictures) for your enjoyment.
Anyway, wanting to test how to post a picture, so below is a picture I took of the Carnival Spirit from a tender going into Port Denaru (Fiji), enjoy.
Carnival Spirit – Day 1 – Boarding
We boarded at the Overseas Passenger Terminal (OPT) in Sydney Darling Harbour. Our prior experience with the OTP has not been the best, so we were expecting a rough time. Boarding time elected was 1.30pm and arrived around 12pm, so we went off to a conveyance store to kill some time, and by the time we returned (at 1.25pm), the 1.30pm group had been let through. This time we were pleasantly surprised about how quick and easy boarding was ~ about as quick and easy as Brisbane.
The buffet was open for lunch, so we had a quick lunch before muster drill. Carnival do their muster on external decks ,
however went through the muster quickly. Then we decided to tour the ship.
Firstly – the open deck and water slides. The Carnival Spirit is the ship with the green water slide that goes over the side of the ship (more on that later). The pictures below do not do it justice. Also picture is one of the main pools and toddlers water slides.
The atrium on this ship is ver high which gives a nice open feeling. An the ground floor of the atrium is a bar with small stage behind – this was quite a popular bar and often had singers on the stage.
We had an hour before dinner, so we took the obligatory harbour bridge pictures:
Both these pictures were taken form our cabin – which was rear facing cabin, a location we have not had previously and did not know if it was going to be good or bad.
In a later post, I will focus on the restaurant, but just to wet your appetite, first night entree was escargo
In short, the main dinning room was set up like P&O on the Pacific Star/Sun – that is scheduled seating (but also had a come as you like option), with different themed menus each night.
Following dinner, we attended the Welcome Aboard show.
Again, I will focus on entertainment in a later post.
More to come in Part 2.
Lynda Barry
CruiseReview.net.au