Spirit Review: The bounding main, bronchitis, plane sickness, and a missed flight..

[Armchairtravelwoman]

......but we still had a great time! We just got back from the NCL Spirit sailing to Alaska from 9/17/05 to 9/24/05. It was a fabulous trip and we enjoyed Free-style dining immensely. For my DH and me, nothing makes us more tongue-tied than seating us with a group of people we don’t know, so being able to choose a table for two where we wanted and when we wanted was a huge plus on this cruise!

THE FOOD

The food was overall very good, not the schlock we were expecting after reading some of the previous reviews. We did eat at Raffles Buffet occasionally but for the most part we went to either of the main dining rooms, Windows and the Garden Room. Don’t miss sitting next to the huge Palladian windows at the rear of Windows Restaurant. What a view!

 

We also ate at Maxim’s, the steak house, where we had filet mignon. Mine was as tender and flavorful as any I’ve ever had, and my DH’s was not. Luck of the draw I guess. The atmosphere at Maxim’s was a bit stuffy compared to The Taipan Bistro, where the wait staff had a great time fooling the guests. They would bring in the entrees covered with metal domes and announce, “Here is your stroganoff”, or something totally different than what had been ordered. As the guests looked dismayed, the staff counted to three in any of several foreign languages, shouted “voila!” and whisked the domes off, revealing your chosen entrée. It was great fun to see the looks on people’s faces, including one table of three who didn’t think it was funny at all. Yummy chocolate fondue for two was a great dessert there.

 

The Blue Lagoon is a nice little casual food place where you can get a cheeseburger and fries fix, 24 hours a day. One night we also tried La Trattoria, which is actually just the back part of Raffles, sectioned off for the evening and decorated like an Italian family restaurant. Simple Italian food, and good. The breadbaskets at the restaurants always contained an appetizing assortment of breads. A funny thing about the desserts, there were plenty available, and so many delicious little delicacies (including my favorite mini-eclairs) but none were as rich as you would expect. Though tasty, they were sort of air-filled and I ate lots and lots of them and only gained two pounds during the 7 days! Whatever they did to them, it worked for us. They also had sugar-free selections so there was something on the dessert menu for everyone.

 

THE STATEROOM

We were in a balcony cabin 11632. We thought the bed was great and they had already put the egg crate foam mattress on, so we didn’t have to ask. The bathroom was a wonder of compactness and engineering, how they managed to fit everything so tidily in that small space was amazing. We especially enjoyed having a glass shower door, and the mirror above the sink would not fog up no matter how hot the shower! Nice shelves for all the toiletries and a magazine rack near the toilet. The counter space was non-existent but you didn’t really need it with the shelves so handy. The built-in blow dryer was easy to use and made me wish I had one at home. The closet space was adequate (bring more hangers) but the corner shelves built in to it were a bit difficult to access conveniently. The safe was on the floor of the closet, and there was a nice full-length mirror outside the bathroom door, and another large mirror above a desk.

 

The rest of the stateroom seemed smaller than we remembered from our last cruise a few years ago which was on Carnival, and there wasn’t much room to store anything else. There was only one bedside table, which meant that the other person had to stow their stuff on the small couch next to their side. We promptly littered our coffee table and small desk with books, brochures, binoculars, etc. But the balcony was fairly roomy and there were two reclining chairs and a table out there.

 

THE CASINO

We had fun at Maharajah’s. We played only the slots and won consistently and then lost consistently! Entertaining and fun, and a nice variety of machines available. DH thought it was too smoky, but it bothered me not at all. Some of the machines can be changed from penny to nickel to dime bets, which I didn’t realize until I sat at my favorite nickel machine, won “big”, and then realized I’d won pennies!

 

THE REST OF THE SHIP

Well, you couldn’t buy a toothbrush, so that should give you some idea of the selection onboard. I assume they’ll add on gift shop space during dry dock and they really need it. Since we were on the last week of the Alaskan cruises for the year, we thought there would be good markdowns on Alaska merchandise, but they never offered better than 30% off. And what they had was way overpriced, so everyone just hit the Alaska Shirt Company stores onshore and scored big. Those people know what it means to have an end-of-season clearance. I don’t think anyone returned to the ship without one of their trademark red and white bags stuffed to overflowing!

 

The whole ship was gorgeous and well maintained, and the staff was very friendly. All the areas are beautifully decorated, and we enjoyed everything we saw onboard. But there really wasn’t time to do everything and some of the areas we never used. There were a few people in the hot tubs, but it was a chilly and rainy week so it wasn’t for the faint-hearted like us.

 

THE EXCURSIONS

In Ketchikan we took the Duck Tour which was fairly amusing and gave us a good overview of the town. Then the Duck bus dunked into the water and headed out to a little island where there were two bald eagles in a tree. That was the extent of the bald eagle viewing for the trip. You can’t really take any pictures from the Duck bus because the Plexiglas windows are all scratched up and there’s only a tiny “porthole” to open for a better shot. Then we took a 6-seater floatplane to the Misty Fjords. This was not our best excursion as it was a pretty bumpy ride. DH learned he shouldn’t have had kippers for breakfast.

 

In Juneau we’d made reservations through NCL for the Mendenhall Glacier and Gardens tour. Though we got confirmation online that apparently didn’t mean anything since once we got on the ship they said it was sold out. So we went on our other excursion, this time a 10-seat floatplane over the glaciers. That was lots better than the smaller plane in Ketchikan and we had a smooth flight with gorgeous views, not to mention the pilot flying the plane was a dead ringer for McGyver which inspired confidence in us. After the flight, with extra time on our hands we stopped at one of the excursion booths near the tram ride and signed up for a jet boat tour to see the whales. This time our captain was a George Clooney look-a-like who zipped that jet boat all around the bay. We saw about 10 whales and one of them breeched right out of the water which was a great sight, and unusual too at that time of year, according to “George”. I snapped away with my digital and ended up with a dozen shots of choppy water. I guess a digital is not the best camera to take whale watching! I bought a postcard instead. This was the rainiest day we had, it rained all day and we were out in it most of the time. I came down with a cold that night which turned into bronchitis. Not to worry, I’m on an inhaler for the next 28 days.

 

Skagway was next and the very best excursion of all was the helicopter flight to the glacier where we landed and got out and walked around in our glacier boots. We peered down some crevasses and heard the water roaring underneath them and it was truly an awe-inspiring experience! We’d never been in a helicopter before and swooping so close to those imposing granite cliffs on our way to and from the glacier was thrilling and an adventure we’ll never forget. A bit more forgettable was the train ride up to White Pass. It wasn’t bad, and it was interesting to see the trail the ‘49ers took to the gold fields of the Yukon, but I think the hype about it led us to be a bit disappointed. I rationalized later that it’s because we’re used to the majestic scenery of Colorado and we should have taken that into account before booking. I’d recommend it to any flatlander!

 

THE BOUNDING MAIN

On our first or second night (I forget which) out of Seattle, we hit quite a gale in the middle of the night. I woke up to the noise of the glass doors to the balcony sliding open and closed, open and closed, in unison with the roll of the ship. We may get airsick but thankfully seasickness isn’t one of our weaknesses and it was rather fun. Next day it was the buzz of the ship, everyone had a story to tell about what was sliding around in their cabins. One woman told us she’d been on a cruise around Cape Horn the previous year and the ship never did THAT!

 

The contrast to that was the tranquil stillness of Tracy Arm when we viewed the Sawyer Glacier. The merest of ripples from the ship made the water seem like glass and the floating chunks of icebergs all around us enhanced the effect. That was truly a surreal experience, and though we didn’t see a glacier calving, we did get up close and personal to two big chunks of ice that some of the ship crew went out and got and brought back onboard. The “bergies” stayed on the promenade deck till they melted!

 

By the time we got to Vancouver, we’d done and seen everything we came for and were in a fine mood as we waited to disembark. Everything seemed to go smoothly but as we boarded our bus to Sea-Tac (provided by NCL) it soon became apparent that we weren’t going to get there in time to make our flight home. The NCL site said not to book any flights before 2PM, but we should have been more cautious than to believe that. We missed it by half an hour. Since Frontier didn’t have any more flights out to Denver that day and the bronchitis was making me barely ambulatory, DH ponied up another $600 for new tickets on United to get us home. And THAT was the most expensive shore excursion we took!

[Polish Falcon]

Thank you for a very well written review.

[Seago2]

Great review- makes me miss that ship so much. Yes, the gift shop is awful. I forgot conditioner and the only bottle was 25 bucks. It was totally claustrophobic in there and I felt like a bull in a china shop. One baby threw his bottle in the drink upon embarkation and there were NO BOTTLES for sale. Thank God she ran into another mother who gave her one of hers.

 

I love that ship, though, and I can't wait to book a cruise out of NYC.

[SailAways]

Your review was wonderful.

As you were boarding, we were getting off of our great week on the Spirit.

Our weather was nice all week long - with only 1/2 day rain in Juneau at Mendenhall. Sorry yours wasn't quite as nice.

Also, so sad that you ended up so sick. Hope all is better now, and that you are on the mend.

Lucky you - already thinking about cruising out of N.Y. We are on the

West Coast, so we won't be doing that.

Sounds as though you did have wonderful time on the excursions.

Good for you.

Thanks again - great review!

SailAways :)

[Hikini]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. We were on the Spirit the week before you, so I'm glad to know you thought we took good care of her!

 

I'm really sorry you were sick, and that your weather wasn't nice. We had exceptional weather for this time of year, and in contrast to your cruise, the pools and hot tubs were in use most of the time. We had people sunbathing (in just their swimming attire) on the decks, including the last full day at sea which is unusual!

 

I loved the Spirit and her crew. I'm sure the dry dock will make her an even better ship and I'd love to see it again afterwards.

 

Take care of yourself!

Hikini:D

[Seago2]

I wrote a review of the Spirit this spring if anyone is interested...http://www.cruisereviews.com/NorwegianCruiseLine/NorwegianSpirit14.htm

[Armchairtravelwoman]

Carla, I looked at your review, loved the line about "the huddled masses at Raffles"! My husband kept calling it the cattle car, he gets claustrophobic. But it was a great place to swing by and score a few desserts to take to our cabin, which was just down a flight of stairs and a few steps away.

 

Internet cost me $55 this trip, I think I got 100 minutes. Amazing how quickly that gets used up. You also mentioned the kids on your trip. We had exactly 35 under the age of 17 on this cruise, we rarely saw any!

 

Hikini and Sailaways, I'd read both your posts after you got back and envied your weather! My sis and her family went on the same cruise on the Star in early August and were greeted with record highs in Alaska. But I had checked the 10 day forecast and knew what we were in for, so no surprises there.

 

And Polish Falcon, thank you. I'm happy anybody read it because it's pretty long. I am feeling better, after $170 worth of prescriptions, I'd have to. Thank you all for your concern!