Manxcruiser

We took walki talkies with us. Very handy

Hey there. We are also on Spirit 7th June. We have a thread over in the roll call if you want to join in the chatter?!

This will be our 2nd time on Spirit. We were on her 2yrs ago this week for my 50th birthday! We went from Venice to Barcelona. Can't wait for the 7th of June!

Went to one in May of 2016. I have my glow sticks and white outfit ready for our cruise in 6 weeks!!!

Thanks for reading! I loved cruising the Spirit, I hope you have an great cruise! :)

This will be our 2nd cruise on Spirit. We were on her end of May 2016 for my 50th. This cruise is for our 20th wedding anniversary. :)

Reading this has made me excited about our trip in 7 weeks!! Thanks for posting!

I need someone to refresh my memory. Isn't the Italian a roped off area of the buffet? What is the food like? Is it worth using one of my specialty nights I've paid for on it??

Thanks in advance

Hiya

We did the Spirit in May 2016 for my 50th bday from Venice to Barcelona.

We stayed 2 nights in Venice before the cruise and Barcelona two nights after the cruise. The Spirit is a lovely little ship..bit tired but I liked it's charm. We are booked for beginning of June for a 10 night cruise on the Spirit.

If you go to the NCL website, you can sign up on My NCL and book your restaurants and excursions through your reservation booking number. At the moment the restaurant booking aren't open yet and yes, it is advisable to book before you get on board. My cruise is almost sold out so it will be a clamour for specialty restaurants whilst on board.

If you are looking for good excursion company recommendations I can highly recommend Rome in Limo and PK Tours if you are going to Athens. We used Rome in Limo in 2016 and quite heavily in June this year. They are picking us up from the airport and taking us to hotel in Rome, excursion that night, a full day excursion the next day and transfers to the ship and back to airport and a full day excursion in Naples.

The best bar is the one at the back of the ship. Think it is called Galaxy?? Also on a at sea night they have the White Hot/Glow party which we found really fun as we like to dance. Before we left for the cruise we went to the pound shop and got cheap glo sticks...we were really popular on the dance floor handing them out...lol..plus that night at midnight I turned 50 so the party was really in full swing. :)

We are on the Isle of Man but have booked our cruise in Florida with NCL and I queried the VAT/Tax charge and he told me we shouldn't have to pay anything more the gratuity we have already been charged on the UBP. But who knows.

We were on Spirit May of 2016 and they had a white hot party during the cruise. Does anyone know if they are still having this event?

Thank you jrpjk! Do you recall which evening the White Hot party was? Also was the Norwegian night out on a sea day? I am trying to figure out our options and are looking at pre booking some of our dining at the 90 day mark....which is coming up this week!

I was on the 19th May sailing and the white hot party was on the night we were in Mykonos. It started about 10pm and lasted until after midnight. We brought our own glo sticks with us. We went to the pound/dollar store and picked up a couple boxes of cheap sticks. Worked great.

Hi! Thanks for your review!

 

We leave in two weeks. I'm trying to get more information on a few things:

1. How was Livorno? Any tips for that port?

2. What companies did you use for your port excursions and how were they?

I used Rome in Limo for our excursions in Rome and Florence. They were excellent

This was taken on 26th May for my 50th Birthday and we ate in Cagney's that night.

This was the type of clothing I wore most nights. (I'm on the left)

I don't have a problem with NCL coffee. I thought NCL used Lavazza coffee through the ship.

Not in the buffet self serve coffee machines. They do in the specialty restaurants and at the Atrium Coffee Bar

The MoTown Boys were pretty good.

and the British comedian was pretty funny

I just returned from being on the Spirit. Some nights I saw people in long evening dress and tuxes..some nights I saw sparkly tops and leggings.

I took nice sun dresses...harem pants with pretty tops and didn't feel out of place.

For the White Hot Party I took a white tank top style jumpsuit and white sandals and it was great.

Just take what you feel pretty in!

I think the buffet coffee on just about every cruiseline I've traveled with is the lowest quality. So I don't even bother anymore. If I want better tasting coffee, I just pay extra for it or get the drink package, which includes coffee and fresh orange juice.

We had the UBP..it doesn't include coffee outside of the buffet restaurant.

Just got off the Spirit on 31st May and felt I needed to warn my fellow coffee drinkers. The coffee in the buffet is horrible. H O R R I B L E!

The only decent coffee I found was in Le Bistro and it was a French press coffee and the high dollar coffee you could buy in the coffee bar and both of these coffees are Lavazza.

We took flavoured coffee creamers and tried it all sorts of ways. Yuck!

The only way we found that we could drink it was to use a bit of the hot milk from the hot cereal stand and then add the coffee to the milk.

Thanks for your review looking forward to sailing the Spirit for the 1st time in 2018.

 

I'm curious to know if you sailed up the Venice canal or have they moved the cruise ship traffic elsewhere, I know there was talk of it.

 

We sailed the canal in 2012 and it was the most memorable sail away ever.

 

Can you also tell me if Hotel Granvia offered a breakfast pkg. the hotel looks great.Thanks

We sailed out of the canal. Wish we had sailed into the Venice now to see the sights properly.

I booked the hotel through booking.com and breakfast wasn't offered. But for the 14 Euro per person it was worth it. It was lovely. The coffee machine is a free 24 hour service and between 3 and 7 they offer afternoon tea for 2 Euro per person. By that time I had reached food overload and we didn't try it, but it looked well worth the 2 Euro.

The classic room is a bit on the small side but it was decorated very nice, the bed was comfy and the bathroom was smart and clean. The toiletries are on the wall in full size bottles and smell like a high end men's cologne. Which was ok but I keep getting whiffs of it on my skin. LOL

The hotel is about a 20 min walk from La Rambla and we walked to the Sagrada Famalia from the hotel. Took us about 30 mins at a slow amble.

Were any of the ports tendered, and if so how or when do you get the tender tickets?

No we didn't tender at all during the cruise. So I can answer that for you. Sorry

I'm glad that you had such a great trip!

Curious why you would prefer to start trip in Barcelona instead of Venice?

We've been to Venice twice before..but one of my husbands bucket list was to sail in or out of Venice. It was after 11pm when we sailed, we knew this before hand but until you actually do it...it's an unknown and I think it would have been nicer to sail into Venice during the light instead. Another point is the end of the cruise is port intensive..Naples..Rome..Florence..Toulon..one after the other and the first bit has a few sea days. I think I would have rather gotten the one after the other out of the way and then have a relaxed ending. Does this make sense?

We are off on same cruise soon. Bcn to vce.

I have a few questions

Is there any shelving in the wardrobes. ?

Do you get bathrobes....I keep getting conflicting answers. Yes or no.

Did the ship tender or dock in mykonos

Yes there were about 4 or 5 shelves in the wardrobes and there was a small cabinet with 4 shallow drawers under the fridge unit. Our socks and undies fit in these drawers just fine. I took an over the door shoe hanger and hung it on the inside of the bathroom door and this was a HUGE space saver.

Yes we did get bathrobes. Only one to begin with but by the second day we had two.

We were the first into Mykonos so was docked, but was told that this is not always the case. First come first served I guess.

Enjoy! I wish we were still there!

We have booked them as well for all 3 of our Italy ports. Can't wait.

 

 

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Our driver in Florence drove us though the Tuscan countryside to enter Florence. I would suggest asking your driver to take the scenic route instead of the motorway. It was gorgeous!

It was pouring down when we went but the landscape was lovely. We went back to the ship the same way and by that time the sun was shining and was well worth it. She stopped at a vineyard so we could photograph the baby grapes and baby olives.

I know this may seem like a stupid question but I'll ask anyway...can you get the Chocolate Martini at non Martini bars...on the Spirit in a few weeks and no idea which bar is most likely to have Martinis, but that sounds like my sort of drink?

Just got off the Spirit. Champagne Charley's is the Martini Bar. They make just about anything..saying that I asked for a Pornstar Martini and the bartender made one but under duress. They have to account for the measures he said and it wasn't on their computer system. I also didn't see a chocolate martini on the menu there either. The apple martini was nice.

I was drinking Rum Runners by the pool. Galaxy of the Stars bar makes them but Champagne Charlie's won't.

Let's see..we are just off the Spirit but I remember the following

Rum Runner

Toma

Mango Meltdown

Lava Flow

Long Island Ice Tea

Rebellious Fish

Bloody Mary's were pretty good

They did make me a Pornstar Martini but very reluctantly

I didn't like the Lavender Patch. It tasted to much like flowers. The Aviator was pretty good. Most of the Martini's were nice. We had the UBP and worked our way through the Martini's. People were buying the Martini Flights for $19.95 and had the UBP...why people? You can get a larger size and not pay extra.

Which tour company did you use

 

 

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Rome in Limo..

Our driver in Rome was Stephano

And Marie Clara in Florence and if you book multi trips with them I believe you get a discount