SPIRIT REVIEW 3/13 - Good and Bad

[goinginmarch]

Embarkation -not to bad considering they had 2000 people that included 500 spring breakers. Lines moved quickly and everyone was in a good mood. We just hung around the pool at the Sail Away Bar-b-que and drank some Corona's and people watched. We went back to the room were happy to see all the luggage unpacked and went back out. Since we were up at 4am we did not make it long tonight. We would be ready for the Day at Sea.

 

Day at Sea - Since we had the 5 year old we hung around the kids pool. We had chairs. By 10am they were all gone. We stayed here until 2:30pm. Were able to see Cuba's mountains. We went to the Art auction. We did not buy anything. That night we ate Windows very good.

 

Cozumel - we arrived 30 minutes late. no big deal. We had decided to do the Dolphin Encounter. We did it through the cruise ship. The price included taxi both ways. After the encounter we stayed at the park on the beach until 5:30pm. very relaxing and family friendly. For some reason everyone had a different story even people with NCL why we left over 1 hour late. Ate at the Garden room. We went to the Galaxy and retired after a couple drinks. Went to bed ready for a great day at Grand Cayman if I only knew ot would be cut by 3 hours.

 

Grand Cayman - total fiasco - combination of leaving Cozumel late and the ship running without 1 engine we arrived over 3 hours late. Numerous changes in peoples excursions. Not us just less time on the beach. Here we got a tender ticket and left on the 3rd tender - took a cab to the Hyatt walked to the beach and set up shop next door at the Beach Colony. Total squatter. We stayed until 5:45pm and got the tender at 6:15pm. Last one was at 6:30pm. Ate at the Garden room. My wife and I took turns at the Chocolate buffet.

 

Day at Sea - again back to the kids pool. Cloudy at first than the sun than clouds again. It was good. Went to the crew show it was funny. Dinner at the Garden Room. Also hit the 7:30pm show. We had the 5 year old up late tonight.

 

Leaving - smooth - got up early. It was amazing we were late to Cozumel, very late to the Caymans and early back to Miami. That is how it goes.

 

Good - ship decor, 98% of staff, room steward, main restaurants, entertainment, soda card

Bad - shore excursion staff (at least all tell the same lie), casino waited me out for $1 that got stuck in the slot machine after waiting and talking to the slot attendant and 2 managers who kept saying somebody else will have to fill out the right paper work I left. Probably good because I was down $45. Never went back - so they saved me $$.

 

If anyone as any questions just ask.

[cmdchiefthom]

goinginrarch

 

 

I'd sure like to know about the "running on one engine". Any comments?

[lovemylife]

Did you use the kids club at all? Was the kids menu in the dining room ok for your little one? thanks, lml:)

[goinginmarch]

On one engine we just went slower

 

 

We did not use the Kids Crew. Dinner for Kids is good. The menu for them has Chcken fingers, mac and cheese, hamburgers etc. they are real good about bringing there food while you are getting your salad.

[cameralady]

:rolleyes: Couldn't wait to join in after our cruise. We were also aboard the Spirit 3/13. Since my husband and I hadn't cruised in 22 years we were anxious to see how it had changed. The stateroom was great; clean, bright and the balcony was a huge plus. Two negatives, I'll get them out of the way. We were late leaving Cozamel; apparently half a dozen people were not accounted for. Add to that the "propulsion problem". I was not aware we were powered by only one engine. The Cayman experience was, as stated, a fiasco. I agreed that the tendering was pathetic. Once we did get on the island, we hailed a cab (van) and being a photographer asked to be taken to the most beautiful beach on the island. She said she had just the right place. We drove for about five minutes; we pulled into the Marriott hotel parking lot and she said "here we are". Looking puzzled, she said to just walk through and the beach was behind the hotel. She was nice though; upon asking to stop for some water, she gave me one of her cold bottles from her own cooler. We came upon SevenMile Beach, beautiful, yes, but nothing special. Seventeen dollars later, we were on the beach with two lounge chairs and an umbrella. I didn't take one photo.. Being from the Boston area, aside from the color of the water, it didn't look much different. After a short swim and some sun, we headed back to the shops to pick up some trinkets. I found the shops extremely overpriced and the shopkeepers pretty rude. I liked the shops in Cozamel better. Anyway, I would love to keep going, but I will wait until tomorrow. I have some pictures of the ship that I would love to share (something I yearned for before we left). We will truly be going crusing again.

[lovemylife]

We leave March 27, so our day is almost here.... our kids usually go to bed fairly early, camera lady, was it noisy by your cabin? We're in a balcony on deck 10.

 

Thanks goinginmarch, my little guy is a picky eater, so I needed to know if he'd be happy in the dining room. Sounds like it will be just fine.

 

Someone else posted they were able to get lemonade in Raffles? That would be a huge plus for us, as my kids don't drink soda, we would have to bring kool-aid or something with us.

 

Did any of you try to board early?

thanks,lml:)

[Debbie in Orlando]

We leave March 27, so our day is almost here.... our kids usually go to bed fairly early, camera lady, was it noisy by your cabin? We're in a balcony on deck 10.

 

We were in a balcony room on deck 9 and other than the drunk kids in the middle of the night(animal house cruise), it was very quite in the rooms.

 

Thanks goinginmarch, my little guy is a picky eater, so I needed to know if he'd be happy in the dining room. Sounds like it will be just fine.

 

Someone else posted they were able to get lemonade in Raffles? That would be a huge plus for us, as my kids don't drink soda, we would have to bring kool-aid or something with us.

 

Lots of pink lemonade in Raffles but you might want to bring a larger cup with you, the cups in Raffles are small.

 

Debbie in Orlando

[lovemylife]

It doesn't seem like a big thing but my dd doesn't drink water or milk either, so we are sometimes scrambling, I'm so glad to hear they have her favorite (and only) beverage!!

 

Hope you had a nice time anyway, Debbie, even though you were onboard with:eek: "them"... I'm hoping everyone is relatively well behaved on our cruise since my kids will be with us.

 

thanks for the tips, lml:)

[Debbie in Orlando]

It doesn't seem like a big thing but my dd doesn't drink water or milk either, so we are sometimes scrambling, I'm so glad to hear they have her favorite (and only) beverage!!

 

Hope you had a nice time anyway, Debbie, even though you were onboard with:eek: "them"... I'm hoping everyone is relatively well behaved on our cruise since my kids will be with us.

 

thanks for the tips, lml:)

 

We had a wonderful time in spite of "them" LOL The Spirit is a beautiful ship and we loved it. :D

 

Debbie

[Delizk]

How did you find out that one of the engines was broken?

[woodz]

We were on the Spirit in September. The beds are very, very firm. We had an egg crate put on but it was still a hard bed. Also a little tip, if you board noon to about 1:30 they serve lunch in one of the main dining rooms. It wasn't very crowded as the majority of the pax think that the only lunch available is the buffet. We were on the same deck as the kids club (our in-laws were right next to it) both were balconies and the rooms were very quiet. We really enjoyed everything about the Spirit.

[goinginmarch]

lemonade is available - we arrived around 1:00pm to port area. We went over to Bayside Shops walked around had a light snack. Went over to the port around 4:15pm. We waited around 30 minutes to board.