Just came back from a cruise on the Carnival Spirit and experienced something very odd. 

The aqua-loop on board seemed to struggle to open the trap door to anyone over 80kg. So much to the point where operators were advising to jump when the countdown got to 1. 

With myself being well under the 130kg weight restriction the door would rarely open unless I jumped. Having ridden many of these across the globe I have never experienced this. 

Maybe it is just in need of some maintenance? 

 

How's that work? Too much weight on the latch and friction held it in place? 

(Assuming there's a bar that locks the hatch closed and releases when it needs to drop)

No idea. The times you didn't jump you would hear the latch try and release only to have the actually trap door drop a few mil.

@mickey_079  I'm more interested to find out what the Carnival Spirit was like.  I was thinking of surprising my misses and sending her on a cruise.

 

 

Do it @skeetafly I'm booked for my 6th cruise in October. They're so relaxing. 

@reanimated35 If I went it would not be relaxing for my misses.  I'm looking at sending her off without me.

Highly recommend it. Stay away from P&O, it attracts "certain" people.

Food was great, alcohol prices were reasonable (imported beer is cheaper over domestic) and entertainment was awesome, especially the comedy club. If Dylan Holton is still performing at the time of the year I definitely advise you go to his show one night too, amazing voice and talent.

I will say that customer service isn't as good as other cruise lines. Some of the wait staff in the dinning room were shocking, bar staff on the lido deck not interested and room stewart not replacing beach or bath towels.

All in all superior over P&O and a lot to do. Go for the 10 or 12 night cruise.

All my previous cruises have been P&O and I've never had a problem with the people on board. My next one is on princess. My parents have done around 15 or so cruises and say that princess is much better as the ships are newer and staff nicer. Princess attracts an older crowd on average whereas P&O has a younger vibe apparently. 

 

And why wouldn't you go @skeetafly?

Edited April 18, 201610 yr by reanimated35

I have a 4 day work conference in Dubai in November and I have convinced my boss to let me stay an extra week so I can play.  So really sending her away is for me.  I’m really hoping that there are no delays with Motiongate and it opens in time for my trip.   Last time I was there I missed Ferrari World by a few weeks.

Edited April 18, 201610 yr by skeetafly

Regarding cruises that (mostly) depart from Brisbane - wonderland fans may be lucky enough to score a cruise featuring Anthony (Tony) Laffan - unfortunately he's not doing the magic these days - but he has one hell of a hypnotism show.

16 hours ago, reanimated35 said:

All my previous cruises have been P&O and I've never had a problem with the people on board. My next one is on princess. My parents have done around 15 or so cruises and say that princess is much better as the ships are newer and staff nicer. Princess attracts an older crowd on average whereas P&O has a younger vibe apparently. 

 

And why wouldn't you go @skeetafly?

Maybe I just had an unusual amount of rough people on my last two P&O cruises with a small group being kicked off at the first port of call.

Looking forward to hearing about your trip Skeet.

54 minutes ago, mickey_079 said:

Maybe I just had an unusual amount of rough people on my last two P&O cruises with a small group being kicked off at the first port of call.

Looking forward to hearing about your trip Skeet.

I'm looking forward to do my trip.

 

I went on the Pacific Dawn (P&O) a year or two ago. One of the best cruise directors i've ever seen - Willie Lee - has his own facebook following and all. People book their cruises based on whether he is scheduled to be CD on the ship or not.

I found the biggest problem with P&O were that parents basically just tuned out and let their kids run rampant throughout the ship. As for drunken \ rough behaviour - didn't witness it at all.

We did stay in a suite, but perhaps on the lower decks things got a little rowdier - i wouldn't know. We'd get little notes in our mailbox telling us about a late night party in the Dome (our rooms were underneath) but we never heard a peep.

43 minutes ago, AlexB said:

I found the biggest problem with P&O were that parents basically just tuned out and let their kids run rampant throughout the ship. As for drunken \ rough behaviour - didn't witness it at all.

Seems to be the thing for every cruise.

I haven't been able to experience Dawn, only Jewel. IMO I just feel Carnival seems to offer more value for money in terms of on board entertainment and food options. Seems I was just unlucky with the crowd on the last two P&O cruises.

At the end of the day both lines have their pros and cons, either way they can be an affordable and relaxing holiday option which I recommend every one try at least once.

I was dragged onto a cruise not knowing what to expect of it. Ended up being fantastic.

It was with Royal Caribbean on Radiance. My dad set me up with the unlimited drinks package so I went a bit wild. Great to be able to shout random people drinks as well, everyone wants to be your friend when you have unlimited drinks.

The staff absolutely blew my mind, and the performers at shows were pretty good as well. I remember Simon Palomares did a couple of shows and he made jokes about how when you get home from a cruise you freak out because there's no longer a Filipino to come and do your washing up or make your bed.

I was expecting to just stick with the family all cruise, but you end up seeing the same people over and over again and eventually I was spending more time with them than not. I'm still in contact with a few of them and have met up post-cruise. I also became pretty good friends with the piano man (who was incredible btw) who'd play every night from about 7pm-midnight, he even let me play the piano and sing in front of the live crowd myself, it was a pretty cool experience.

Only downside was I got a bit sick of the food. Don't get me wrong, it was great, but it was the same shit every day (apart from dinner), and after 2 weeks of eating buffet breakfast and lunch with a 3 course dinner, someone like me who really doesn't eat that much usually was feeling a bit nauseous, I had to skip dessert quite a few times.

As for people complaining about the rambling crowd, I'm probably not the best to comment on this because I was probably amongst them lol.

I can't remember in what order these events happened, however, these are the only "dramas" we've had on board.

> The cruise prior to ours had someone jump overboard. Body was never found.
> The cruise after ours was delayed/cancelled due to jellyfish blocking the engines in Brisbane. 

---

> One cruise hit a squall, and bad storm. I have photos lying around somewhere of them sweeping ankle deep water off deck 7. (That's approx 4-5 floors above sea level). As a  result of the storm, one stabiliser broke causing drag in the water. It took overnight for them to flood the ballast tanks enough to level the ship again, and even then it was still on a slight lean for the rest of the journey. It was funny at the time to see your dinner slowly sliding off your plate and hearing all the plates crash in the kitchen. 

---

> We were on a horse riding tour on one of the pacific islands. Tours don't usually have any radio contact with the ship/dock. When we arrived back we were told "no need to worry any more, the tsunami warning has been cancelled."

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> Not directly related to a cruise I've been on, but my parents advised that the most deaths they've known of on a cruise they've done is 7. 

1 hour ago, AllegroCrab said:

I also became pretty good friends with the piano man

Well it's better than drinking alone. By any chance did you put bread in his jar?

1 hour ago, AllegroCrab said:

I had to skip dessert quite a few times.

First world problems...

You do hear of a lot of older people going on these ships to die. Only had one death on the cruises I've been on. A crew member washing the windows on the bridge and slipped as he was climbing over the rails, fell to the ground. Horrible sight.

48 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

Not directly related to a cruise I've been on, but my parents advised that the most deaths they've known of on a cruise they've done is 7. 

is that all? Icebergs just don't pack the punch that they used to..

The most annoying thing to deal with is the old people who constantly whine. Last cruise was to NZ a couple of years back. Our first port was supposed to be Dunedin (Port Chalmers) however it was too rough to send the tenders (life boats are called tenders when not being used in a life saving capacity) in safely. We'd been at sea 4 days by this point. There was a medical emergency which resulted in one person being taken to shore by tender with the medical crew. (It was bouncing around so much at the ship side it took them ages to load the passengers.) A bunch of people were complaining over lunch "why should she get to go to shore when we're stuck on this boat, I haven't seen land for days!". I mean for fucks sake, you're paying to be on a cruise, in the ocean. What did you think you were signing up for? 

 

Oh yeah, speaking of tenders, I've also seen them drop one off the side of the ship when the winch broke. Suffice to say that tender was out of action for the rest of the trip. That too I have photos of the damage somewhere. 

Wow, seems there's as much drama on cruises as there is on YouTube at the moment.

Word on my cruise was that an altercation was overheard in a room by the people next door, they called security and they opened the door to see a man strangling his wife. They locked him in his room for 3 days with security standing out the front of his door before our next port, then they dumped him in Vanuatu. Hopefully the end of an abusive relationship right there.

Also, some chick decided it'd be a good idea to climb over the railing and stand on the outside just for a laugh, it actually set off alarms before she was even half over, and people came running down from the bridge. It was pretty funny to watch, the cruise staff were furious and she absolutely shat herself.

 

4 hours ago, reanimated35 said:

Not directly related to a cruise I've been on, but my parents advised that the most deaths they've known of on a cruise they've done is 7. 

Please tell me one of those deaths wasn't the elevator incident that occurred on the Carnival Ecstacy at the end of last year? I still shudder over the thought of it. And people wonder why I have a fear of lifts when stuff like that happens (and is then plastered all over the news) ?????

20 minutes ago, Theme Park Girl said:

Please tell me one of those deaths wasn't the elevator incident that occurred on the Carnival Ecstacy at the end of last year? I still shudder over the thought of it. And people wonder why I have a fear of lifts when stuff like that happens (and is then plastered all over the news) ?????

Nah mostly just old people kicking the bucket.

Cruise ships often have small morgues because it's a pretty regular occurrence for seniors to spend their last days at sea. Not a bad way to go if you ask me.

This gave me a bit of a laugh!