NCL Spirit Review 3/26/16-4/2/16

[momofmab]

Hi!

 

Just off the Spirit yesterday! I've appreciated reading other's reviews of this ship, so I wanted to give back and write my own review. I'm not a huge picture taker - sorry about that, but I will try and answer any questions you have. I traveled with my husband and daughter and we stayed in a Penthouse Suite (10512). We've previously sailed twice with NCL (suite level both times) - on the Sun and Jewel, but have been sailing with RCL for the past 6 years. We chose this ship because of the departure port (drivable for us) and the Eastern Carrib. itinerary. We booked this cruise a month out - so kinda last minute. We also had the "free" UBP, $50 excursion credit, 4 free specialty restaurant visits and one of the internet packages, so I'll try to answer any questions about those.

 

Embarkation:

This is always a breeze when you're in a suite. Easy to drop off our luggage with the porter and park right at the port (we booked the Holiday Inn in Titusville and took advantage of the parking discount certificate for Port Canaveral). We were escorted to the check in window and breezed through the check-in process (I believe we arrived around 12:30 and it was not crowded at all at the port). Our butler, Teodoro, met us in the suite lounge where we chatted for a few minutes. No time to even sample the snacks before Patrick, the concierge, met us and escorted us on board to Cagney's where we enjoyed a nice lunch before checking into our room.

 

The Ship:

The Spirit, being on the small size, lacks a major "Wow" factor that larger ships have, however I loved the classic, Asian-inspired décor! The common areas of the ship were in great condition (some normal wear & tear, as expected) and very clean. I did miss the grand promenade that you see on RCL, with the stores and places to eat. The Spirit has only three stores on board - a jewelry store, a watch store and the usual duty-free shop. I rarely buy anything on board but love to browse.

 

The Pool area:

The Spirit has two pools - one in the middle and a pirate ship-themed kids pool aft. I LOVED that the kids pool was in a different area! I have kids of my own, so nothing against kids, but it was nice not to have to dodge little ones running around on deck. Although I was jealous of the kids pool area - I was very nice back there and what a view! The main pool was on the small side, but adequate for taking a quick dip to cool off.

 

The Chair Hogs were out in full-force on this cruise! Knowing how things work, I was up and out on the pool deck by 7:30 am on sea days and most of the chairs were already marked with towels, shirts, etc., but maybe only 10% of those chairs actually had people in them. I would find a chair and then read & have breakfast and spend the next couple of hours watching people dealing with the chair issue. If you weren't out there by 8am, you weren't getting a chair, period - and this includes the second level. As is typical, most of the "saved" chairs weren't occupied for at least two hours after I sat down. One guy admitted to getting out there at 6AM to save 11 chairs for his party. Those chairs sat empty until they dribbled out at 9:30AM! The guy was apparently too afraid to defend the saved chairs, so he lurked in a corner and would only emerge if someone tried to sit in one of them! The pool employees did go around with their "stickers", marking the empty chairs, but they failed to follow through with the policy, which was disappointing. When a passenger would approached them to point out an empty "saved" chair with an hours-old sticker, the staff would cave to someone in a neighboring chair telling them that the people were "coming any minute", even the sticker was over an hour old. The staff would just shake their heads and walk away. I saw quite a few confrontations between passengers over saved chairs. Things got heated by the last sea day and I noticed the presence of several NCL officers with badges patrolling the pool deck during the day. NCL seems content to let passengers duke it out between themselves. I did informally poll a few people around me and everyone would be willing to pay a premium for a reserved chair. No one likes having to get up a dawn on their vacation to get a chair!

 

The Room:

We were in a Penthouse Suite on deck 10 forward. The suite was on the smaller side (tiny balcony), compared to the one we stayed in on the Jewel but it was fine for the 3 of us. Not sure if this was true with other staterooms on the ship, but this is where I could really see the age of the ship. The room itself was neat and clean, but the brass was peeling off of all the fixtures and the tub was un-useable (the bottom of it was all peeling up) and a lot of the wood was chipped. Several things weren't working (a switch and both TV remotes) but our butler, Teo got them taken care of right away. The room was quiet, with no overhead noise and just a slight motion of the ship, despite windy conditions and choppy seas. No funny smells on Deck 10 that I noticed.

 

The Food:

We ate at Cagney's, LeBistro, Trattoria, Teppenyaki, the Garden, Windows, Blue Lagoon and the buffet (Razzles ?). We liked everything we ate, except at the buffet (how could the desserts look so good, but taste so odd?). Standouts were the risotto and lemon ricotta cheesecake at Trattoria, the truffle fries at Cagney's, an amazing lobster dish at LeBistro, the chicken wings at Blue Lagoon (skip the artichoke dip - yuk!) and lamb chops and volcano cake at the Garden/Windows. We also loved being able to have have breakfast & lunch at Cagney's as a suite perk!

 

The Service/Staff:

We found the staff everywhere we went, to be very friendly and accommodating. Teo and Patrick were awesome - as was our room steward, Wilfredo!!! Service as a little slow in the restaurants but no 2-hour waits for food, as I've read in other reviews. The one disappointment, service wise, was in LeBistro - they had two large parties on the night we went. Our reservation was pushed back 30 minutes and we were all but ignored once we were seated, with all available staff catering to the two large parties. LeBistro isn't that big of a space, and it seemed like there was more than enough staff to handle it, but it took us forever to get drinks & food and our server barely spent any time at our table. The food was still yummy, but the service was not great.

 

Entertainment:

We found the entertainment to be very good! They had a Rock & Soul musical show, Elements and Angel - all of which were very good. We didn't see the comedian, so I can't comment on him.

 

The ports:

I won't go into detail on these (Nassau, St. Thomas & Tortolla). We did ship excursions for each - Blue Lagoon in Nassau, catamaran snorkel in St. Thomas and paradise views & Cane Garden Bay beach in Tortolla. Let me know if anyone has specific questions.

 

Overall we enjoyed the cruise very much! We would probably choose a larger ship next time only because we'd like more stores and food options and my daughter really wants a waterslide at the pool - but a nice ship and a great staff!

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited April 3, 2016 by momofmab

[Keith1010]

A very through and a well written and very well organized review.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this and to share it with us.

 

Keith

[momofmab]

A very through and a well written and very well organized review.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this and to share it with us.

 

Keith

 

You're welcome! Thanks for reading!

[vicocala]

Thanks for your review. I thought Teo and Patrick did a great job the week before. I'm sorry to hear your suite was a bit run down. We were in 10508 and the only real thing I saw was a small rusted chip in one of the sinks, otherwise it was great.

 

It is a shame your visit to Le Bistro was marred by the big groups. We ate there twice and the service was very good both times.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your week! I still can't believe I never made it to Blue Lagoon. We kept deciding to go to Cagney's. :rolleyes:

[NLH Arizona]

Thanks for the review. Disappointing to hear that they put stickers on the chair hog's lounges, but don't follow through. Why have a policy in place, if they don't enforce it. Glad to hear that the staff was friendly and accommodating, because that is how I've always found them on my cruise (not on the Spirit), but read others who say they are not.

[momofmab]

Thanks for your review. I thought Teo and Patrick did a great job the week before. I'm sorry to hear your suite was a bit run down. We were in 10508 and the only real thing I saw was a small rusted chip in one of the sinks, otherwise it was great.

 

It is a shame your visit to Le Bistro was marred by the big groups. We ate there twice and the service was very good both times.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your week! I still can't believe I never made it to Blue Lagoon. We kept deciding to go to Cagney's. :rolleyes:

 

No worries! Though in the future, they may want to consider limiting large groups in Le Bistro to one every couple of hours (one group was 8 people and the other one was 10).

Edited April 3, 2016 by momofmab

[momofmab]

Thanks for the review. Disappointing to hear that they put stickers on the chair hog's lounges, but don't follow through. Why have a policy in place, if they don't enforce it. Glad to hear that the staff was friendly and accommodating, because that is how I've always found them on my cruise (not on the Spirit), but read others who say they are not.

 

I think they're worried about ruffling any passenger's feathers, for any reason- but I agree - why have the policy if they're not going to follow through? There were several "renegade" passengers who disagreed with the sticker system and would walk around and remove the stickers :rolleyes:

[FSNA5861]

Thanks for your concise review. We will be on the Spirit this coming weekend for a B2B. Glad to hear that service in the dining facilities is pretty good, aside from your experience with le Bistro, considering that the beverage package is very popular.

 

I will bring the issue of NCL enforcement policy regarding chair hogs during our M&G.

[NJLVW]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your week on board the Spirit. Glad to hear the positive. We will be on her in 2 weeks and am patiently waiting. So I love reading when people share their experience. It helps pass the time until we board.

 

Hopefully we won't see a lot of chair hogs but I do believe they are on every cruise. :(

[Clarea]

Very nice review, thanks for sharing.

[Ilikebigboats]

Thanks for sharing.

We will be sailing on her in June so I really enjoyed reading your observations. Like you I favor the bigger ships for the activities and "wow" factor. This trip our itinerary is so port intensive we won't have the energy to do more than eat and drag ourselves back to our cabin for some much needed sleep!

Sorry about the chair hogs, dealing with inconsiderate people while on vacation can really ruin your "vacation vibe" for sure.

Did you enjoy your beverage package ( good drinks, fast service)?

Did you have a favorite place on the ship, including bars, places to read, etc.?

Thanks again and I'm glad you had a great trip!

[tlecker]

On the Spirit now. I told Teo hi to all those that have posted here. I told him the the past passengers only had wonderful things to say about him. He asked our 12 year old if she had any allergies. We returned from dinner the first night with two big bowls of gummie bears and peanut M&M's. I have to admit that I ate a few myself. Lol. But no worries. When we returned to the ship from our Key West excursion both candy bowls were topped off. And the chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered strawberries were waiting for us. Only one day into this trip and all is wonderful

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Domer1987]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. A group of 10 of us leave next Saturday :)

[momofmab]

Thanks for sharing.

We will be sailing on her in June so I really enjoyed reading your observations. Like you I favor the bigger ships for the activities and "wow" factor. This trip our itinerary is so port intensive we won't have the energy to do more than eat and drag ourselves back to our cabin for some much needed sleep!

Sorry about the chair hogs, dealing with inconsiderate people while on vacation can really ruin your "vacation vibe" for sure.

Did you enjoy your beverage package ( good drinks, fast service)?

Did you have a favorite place on the ship, including bars, places to read, etc.?

Thanks again and I'm glad you had a great trip!

 

The beverage package was included in our cruise fare, otherwise I probably wouldn't purchase it separately. I'm not a big drinker of wine or mixed drinks or soda, for that matter. I wouldn't be the kind of person who would come out ahead of what I paid for the package:) That said, I did "force" myself to get 2-3 drinks a day, sometimes at the pool and sometimes at dinner or at one of bars. I never waited long for a drink and whatever I had tasted good. There were rules with the package, that I still am not sure I'm clear on...our butler told us that we had to pay for any drinks ordered through room service, as well as any drinks we consumed from the minibar/fridge. We did those things several times, but I didn't see any charges on the final bill. He had to come to our room after to placing an order, to get our cards to swipe, and then bring them back. Seems like a lot of extra work. Also, even though we had the package, they still swipe your card and make you sign bill (although there is a $0 balance). The card swiping in general is a pain - I'd love to see them do away with it completely.

 

Favorite places to read...the library is great! There are big wing-back chairs by the windows and it's very quiet. I also loved Galaxy of the Stars, which is also on deck 12, when no one was in there. A very cool space. Make sure you go down the spiral staircase! Henry's pub was a cool bar and one of the few that has it's own space. The others are out the open with a constant flow of traffic.

[WYTinman]

 

Also, even though we had the package, they still swipe your card and make you sign bill (although there is a $0 balance). The card swiping in general is a pain - I'd love to see them do away with it completely.

 

 

 

I had the same thoughts on the first cruise I had the UBP.

 

Then I ran out of Tip cash. Giving you a zero balance bill allows you to still Tip your server on the bill.

 

Mark

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.