Carnival Spirit cruising from Sydney Water slide
We cruised Carnival for the first time in the January school holidays, so we expected to see a lot of kids for that time of year and we did! If I cruise again, I would try to avoid the busy school holiday periods if I can.
CABIN:
We loved our cabin. Due to the time of year, it was quite expensive, around $1700 AUD per person for an inside cabin with obstructed view. I was happy that I had selected the obstructed view french door cabin. We had lots of natural light and could see the ocean/view between the life boats so that was nice. The door could be opened for fresh air, although I am not sure you are supposed to open the door. The decor is mainly creams/gold/beige and was light and clean. The beds were very comfortable and the sheets and towels were relatively new and soft. The cabin was a reasonable size and was one of the reasons I chose Carnival,Plastic wood as the cabins are around 185 sq feet whereas Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Holland America ships in Australia seem quite a bit smaller. There was plenty of storage space,
a hair dryer located in the drawer in the mirrored vanity area in the cabin. The bathroom was an adequate size and was very clean. It did seem a little "cheap" that the shampoo and shower gel was provided in dispensers attached to the shower wall when other lines usually provide little bottles of same, also there is no body lotion or hair conditioner at all (but not a big deal really). It was great to have the mini fridge to store our own drinks/water. I had the beer removed from the fridge to make more room. Our stateroom attendant, John and his assistant were truly amazing. They worked so hard and nothing was a problem for them.Playground equipment The room was always ready for us, day and night. We loved the turn down service and the little towel animals we would find when we came back to our room after dinner each night. My daughter made sure I got a photo of her with every new towel animal. I tipped my cabin steward when we first arrived and gave him more at the end of our cruise, plus some local Australian chocolate and an island gift. We felt he worked so hard, he deserved it.
OUR DECK and some NOISE issues:
Our cabin was located on deck 4 and we did have quite a few issues with kids running up and down hallways at all hours of the night and day, changing over Elderly fitness equipment Do NOT disturb signs etc and prank calls late at night to our cabin. This was the negative. Guest services at first were non responsive to the issues we were experiencing every night but eventually they agreed that that deck seemed to be an issue as others had complained so they made sure security kept a better eye on things. They phoned me several times during the cruise to make sure things had settled down. I appreciated their efforts.
I think the main issue is, there were A LOT of kids - 900+ apparently (fair enough, its that time of year), but some kids were not supervised at all and were running wild in hallways, public areas, elevators, casino, pools etc. This is not Carnival's fault, more an issue of lack of responsible parenting/supervision. I saw two tiny girls that would have been around 5 or 6 years old riding the glass elevator on their own! I also had an unpleasant experience with a rude staff member at Guest Services desk, but she was the only one and the rest of the staff were just amazing and so friendly and helpful ALL the time. Kurt (from Canada) at Guest Services was amazing, and really knew the meaning of customer service!