Our Panama Canal Cruise

Fellow Cruisers,
Last week, we got back from the Panama Canal Cruise which we did on the
Carnival Spirit.

This was our eighth cruise and the second with Carnival. Our previous
Carnival cruise was on the Pride, I was told a sister ship of the Spirit.
What a difference though there was in the service, food, and atmosphere
between the two ships.

We loved our cruise on the Pride and for that reason booked the cruise on
the Spirit.
However, if we were to rate both cruises with A. being the highest grade we
would certainly give the Pride an A. and the Spirit a C.

Perhaps it was because the Spirit was going in to dry dock at the end of the
cruise and the staff had to either transfer to another ship, or take an
unpaid vacation or because the Panama cruise was just too long. At any
rate, there were many things that could have been better.

For example, we had early seating and the first night we seemed not to have
a waiter or at least it took an hour for anyone to bring us a menu. That
seemed to set the mood and every night there after, it would take on an
average of 45 minutes to an hour for the waiter and the assistant waiter to
bring us menus and to fill our glasses with water. It meant a couple of
times in missing entertainment we had planned to catch. I took the
liberty to mention it to the maitre d' one afternoon, and that night we got
good service and were waited on soon after we sat down. But the following
nights, went back to being hourly waits for the menu and even longer for the
food. it was if they didn't care if we got waited on or not. There were
two other couples at our table, so in all there were six of us at our table.
Our dining time was 5;45 and we were always there when the doors opened but
it was often 7;00 before they would get around to bringing us our menu.
Needless to say, one of the couples gave up and took almost all the evening
meals at the top of the ship in the Lido dining room. It wasn't as if they
were busy because our head waiter was usually just standing there or talking
with someone.
Also the service was not friendly and the waiters were almost surly.

Our cabin stewards were excellent though and so were the people on the Lido
Deck.
We were supposed to have three formal nights, but we had only two. That was
Ok for us, but some of the other passengers seemed disappointed.

The food in some cases was quite good, such as most of their soups. But
their vegetarian dishes were generally quite bad and often cold when we got
them.

The assistant waiter at the table behind us, spent most of his time playing
with a baby at the table and we never saw him doing much else.

The whole atmosphere seemed depressing or uneasy. I asked one of the staff
from Australia, what the problem was. At first she denied that there was
anything wrong. So I dropped the subject. But she pressed me to be
specific and so I mentioned the slowness in the dining room and she admitted
there were problems. She said she had transferred from the Pride and wasn't
on the Spirit two days before she was wishing she was back on the Pride.
She said there were problems with the staff but she couldn't go in to them.
She only said a lot of changes had taken place very suddenly and no one
liked them.

We loved our excursions, and the shows were fine and the Afternoon Teas were
nice and the crafts were OK. Everyone kept saying, both passengers and
staff that the cruise was just too long. Everyone seemed relieved when the
cruise came to an end.
However, the Transit of the Panama Canal was Awesome anyway. Sandy

Bellsouth wrote:

Fellow Cruisers,
Last week, we got back from the Panama Canal Cruise which we did on the
Carnival Spirit.

This was our eighth cruise and the second with Carnival. Our previous
Carnival cruise was on the Pride, I was told a sister ship of the Spirit.
What a difference though there was in the service, food, and atmosphere
between the two ships.

We loved our cruise on the Pride and for that reason booked the cruise on
the Spirit.
However, if we were to rate both cruises with A. being the highest grade we
would certainly give the Pride an A. and the Spirit a C.

That sucks, Sandy. I had very positive experiences on three separate
Spirit Cruises; but as many of us know very well, things change. We'll
be doing 16 days on the Legend for New Years and the cruise that
follows. I really loved my two other Legend cruises, so I hope things
haven't changed too much on that ship.

Howie

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:48:23 -0500, "Bellsouth"
wrote:

The whole atmosphere seemed depressing or uneasy. I asked one of the staff
from Australia, what the problem was.
She said there were problems with the staff but she couldn't go in to them.
She only said a lot of changes had taken place very suddenly and no one
liked them.

OK, so the staff wasn't A plus.

Everyone kept saying, both passengers and
staff that the cruise was just too long. Everyone seemed relieved when the
cruise came to an end.

Only everyone who you talked to or bitched to.

I don't understand this at all. Put me on a ship on a cruise and I
would be satisfied to sit on my balcony, sun by the pool, futz around
the ship (futz used in the dictionary sense AND in the Diva sense), go
to port, talk to a few people, have sex...

If the staff sucks, **** 'em.