The Spirit Suite Life 1/30 - 2/6 Review

Good Morning NCL

Arrived to Port Canaveral cruise terminal # 1 and with baited breathe waiting to board. This is our first time in a suite with a large penthouse balcony (SF). This makes our experience different than our past trips.

Will try and post a little bit today and will follow up with a review and plenty of photographs once back home. I already started my journal this am.

Stay tuned ...

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Thank you ahead of time. Can't wait to read your review. If you have any of the new specialty restaurant menus I would so appreciate seeing them. Also who the concierge & butlers are currently. We cruise in April so not sure if they will be the same.

Norma

Looking forward to reading your review. Enjoy your cruise....wishing you smooth seas!

Thank you ahead of time. Can't wait to read your review. If you have any of the new specialty restaurant menus I would so appreciate seeing them. Also who the concierge & butlers are currently. We cruise in April so not sure if they will be the same.

 

 

 

Norma

The concierge is Florentina Popa, Romanian. I heard her over say she's been with NCL for 13 years. We are having lunch and have not met our butler yet. Will keep you posted and snap pictures of menus during the week.

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The concierge is Florentina Popa, Romanian. I heard her over say she's been with NCL for 13 years. We are having lunch and have not met our butler yet. Will keep you posted and snap pictures of menus during the week.

 

 

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Thank you so much. Have a GREAT cruise. Enjoy your week aboard the Spirit. I can't wait for my turn. :D:D:D

Enjoy! I love the aft PH on the spirit

Thanks for the report!

if Mary Jane is your butler you will have a great time. My friend Chris Crawford is on the ship now also if you see him tell him John Fischer says Hi. Looking forward to your review

In MCO waiting for our flight back to Tucson. Had an amazing time, great weather, excursions and food/entertainment. Will work on pictures and the final postings during the week. Please be patient as this is my first formal review etc. Also, I do have all the dailies and took pictures of all the posted menus. Is there a specific area people like them or just as people ask ??

Some pictures from our cloudy sail away.

View of Carnival and Disney boats

One of the Victory casino cruising boats turning in to dock

And we are off ... Lots of fun and sun to come.

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I can't wait for this review. Please post all the menus and dailies if you can

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Glad you had a great time. Waiting patiently for your review.

Can't wait to hear your review, thanks!

thank you.

Keith

A little background: We are novice-experienced cruises, if that makes sense. This was our third cruise with NCL, having been to the Caribbean before and Alaska with out most previous cruise. We (I) decided to splurge and upgraded to a penthouse large balcony (SF).

Pre Cruise Flight

Living in Tucson, it is easier and for peace of mind to fly out the day before the cruise. We flew American, and I know some have opinions about them, but we have always had a good experience with them.

We flew a quick TUS – PHX on American Eagle and had a 2 hour layover in PHX. We quickly found an admirals club and parked ourselves there enjoying the view of landing aircraft and crudité.

Waiting in PHX Terminal

The first third of the flight from PHX – MCO was turbulent, but eventually over Texas we smoothed out and I was no longer worried of my vodka soda flying about the cabin.

We stayed at the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport, which we have done in the past with its convenience location to the airport and turnpike to Port Canaveral. Rather then waiting for the hotel shuttle we took a cab, since it was quick and relatively cheap. Well, SOMEONE (not me lol) left his or his iPhone in the back seat when taking out cash for payment. Mark realized quickly once in the room and immediately called the cab company. About 45 minutes later and $40 of extortion we had the iPhone back. Lesson learned.

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Embarkation

Saturday morning came and we ate breakfast in the hotel lobby restaurant. It is a buffet style meal with eggs, bacon, etc. Very yummy and reasonably priced.

10 AM came and a car from GroundLink met us. The driver was very friendly and efficient; we made it to Port Canaveral in about 35 minutes. We arrived at terminal one with light traffic.

A friendly porter grabbed our luggage and reminded us to take our travel documents (the horror of leaving them in your luggage) and to take any wine or champagne with us. With that we proceeded to security and were met by an escort who took us straight to an agent.

After check in we were escorted to the lounge area that was empty. They had some canapés out with coffee, juice, and water. 1130 they called for pre boarding and a room steward escorted onto the ship, it got a little chaotic with all the walkers and wheelchairs, but we made it.

VIP lounge area

We were escorted to Cagney’s where we met our concierge Florentina Popa. She oriented us to different schedules, benefits and helped us book our Teppanyaki table (which you cant do online with Spirit since there is only one table). Lunch was good, but as I was afraid a little slow. We were informed twice that the kitchen was still getting prepped, which I understand. Bar service took the longest. Originally our server took our food and drink order and as more staff arrived a dedicated server came and we ordered some champagne. Also – as noted in other reviews, you do pay the sales tax while anchored in a US city if you have the UBP. Some guests could not comprehend lol. After lunch we explored for an hour or so and made our way to our room.

Room

We stayed in the Capricorn suite, 10012. It’s a large penthouse SF balcony.

As many other reviews have noted on cruise critic, they cabin is showing its age, but by no means was uncomfortable. With plenty of room spread out between a small “dining” area, living room, separate bedroom and large bathroom we were more then comfortable. Where the age is showing is in the furniture (pleather couch …), hinges, and around drains. The bed was very comfortable and generally the cagin quite. When arriving in Nassau we could hear people in the hallways. I had a fun time figuring out which lights were controlled by the 500 different switches in the room … lol

Our butler was Seka, a very friendly young woman who helped orient us to our room and showed us how to work the Lavazza coffee machine. On arrival there was a small plate of canapés, a bottle of champagne and water courtesy of NCL (this is standard).

Our luggage arrived fairly quickly, and all 4 pieces were accounted for right after our safety drill. We unpacked utilizing a medium amount of closet and drawer space (I feel Jewel class ships have more storage) and found a spot for sail away with our free champagne.

End of vacation is like a slap in the face. Hope you enjoy what I have so far. Need to get the house organized and laundry started etc. my iMac decided to take a dump of me so I am doing this on my laptop, YAY ... Will try and post the first half of the week by Wednesday and the end by the weekend.

Thank you

I am leaving Friday and would love to see the menu's!!!

Am so excited to go on the Spirit, looks like an awesome ship..

janymac:p

Thank you so much for the reviews so far! We are leaving March 5. My little sister is accompanying us on this cruise, she's 39, and we've booked a balcony. However now i'm thinking we should look into a suite? LOL Looks like a lot more room! :D Looking forward to more pics and your findings :)

Thanks bunches!

Loyce

Day – January 31 – Nassau

Having been to Nassau and Atlantis before we decided to stay onboard and enjoy some quite crowd free fun. Weather was not amazing, overcast and cool, with a light breeze. We enjoyed ourselves by the pool, some hot tub time.

In the afternoon we took part in the 10/20/30 promotion at Mandara Spa. Today we had mani/pedi and I had a men’s shave and facial (which was heavenly) and Mark had a facial. We were both very happy and relaxed. My only complaint is you are on full display as the nail and hair salon has glass walls to the main hallway from the pool deck to galaxy of the stars.

Dinner was in Le Bistro, which many note was amazing. Had the beef tenderloin that was cooked to order and very tasty. The crème burlee was a little on the watery side and a let down.

Day 2 – Sea Day

Had some rough seas during the night, or at least I thought so. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise and sunny clear day with smooth seas. Had our final spa promotion rate with an aroma hot stone therapy massage. The therapist was nice and informative (perhaps a little too much) and adjusted pressure as needed. At the end of the treatment she went through her sales pitch which I politely declined and she seemed a little taken back. After several declines she finally relented and I went on my way.

Missed the cruise critic meet and mingle … oops …

Today was the latitudes appreciate party, which had a fairly long line to get in. Once in Galaxy of the Stars we were greeted with drinks and canapés (though I never saw the server or had one). Cruise officers were introduced and something unique I haven’t seen before was each of the officers had a dance with a passenger.

Spent the afternoon lounging in Raffles terrace and went to a martini tasting at 4 pm. We have done them before and have enjoyed ourselves. This tasting we had 6, 1-2 oz tastings with an informative bartender. Got a little hectic towards the end because at 5 pm was a trivia session.

Dinner was Teppanyaki. Our chef was Emanuel from the Philippines. He was fun and humorous. Food was good and cooked to order.

The show tonight was very good. A couple from France (?) did aerial acrobatics and dancing. As suite guests we had our own special section of the top part of the theater which had nice views. Did not have to get their early for good seats. That was a major plus!

Sorry ... was going to do much more today but the camera died ...

Thank you so much for the reviews so far! We are leaving March 5. My little sister is accompanying us on this cruise, she's 39, and we've booked a balcony. However now i'm thinking we should look into a suite? LOL Looks like a lot more room! :D Looking forward to more pics and your findings :)

Thanks bunches!

Loyce

If you can spring for the suite I highly recommend it. There is plenty of room as you noted, and three would be perfect. You can section off the bedroom and living room for privacy too.

Thanks for reading - Tom

Day 3 – February 2nd – St. Thomas

We learned during a cocktail party with the Captain and senior staff that we would be docking at Havenside vs. Crown Bay!! Spirit and Carnival Valor arrived at the same time with Escape already being docked.

NCL Escape already docked

We disembarked with the concierge and headed to our “Twice as Nice Catamaran Sail.” We boarded and headed out of the harbor to Buck Island with MANY other sail excursions. We saw sea turtles and several different types of fish. I thought the water was a little murky but my pictures demonstrate otherwise. After about 30 minutes we headed around the cove to a shipwreck and reef. This area of water was deeper and clearer. Saw more sea turtles (a different type). My only complaint was the amount of time we had in the water “30 minutes starts now” but that included getting everyone off the catamaran into the ocean. I always jump in but if felt very short. On our sail back we were served “pain killers” which is rum and tropical juice and some light snacks.

Passing Buck Island on the way into port - The left cove is Turtle Cove and the right sided cove is Ship Reck Reef

Back in St. Thomas we walked around for a couple hours and did some amazing shopping that is afforded in St. Thomas.

Dinner we headed to Garden’s. Food was good and service quick. We skipped the show that night and decided to try some casino luck.

Hi we will be on the Spirit for two weeks starting Feb. 20. We are in a suite and we were wondering when and how much to tip the concierge and butler.Do you tip at the end or when they help us.

Thanks for all the helpful information and pictures.

Bill

Hi we will be on the Spirit for two weeks starting Feb. 20. We are in a suite and we were wondering when and how much to tip the concierge and butler.Do you tip at the end or when they help us.

 

Thanks for all the helpful information and pictures.

 

Bill

Thank you for you comments. You will love the suites ! We ripped at the end of the cruise, specifically the night before. I have read other threads were people tipped in the beginning and didn't receive the best service.

That being said we tipped the butler $15 per day and the concierge $12 per day. Other threads I've read range between $10-15 per person per day depending on the services used. Technically we are on the low range but I feel we tipped accordingly. The steward was tipped from the service charge.

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One more question if you have time. What do they do for us.

Thanks for the help

Bill