Norwegian Spirit, April 16th to 23rd Review

[OttawaJohn]

Hard to imagine a bad cruise. I'm sure people have had them but overall even my worst experiences on the boat beat some of my better ones on land :)

 

That said, I have to admit to not loving this one so much. No regrets on it but some items of note.

 

My wife and I have not sailed now for a few years, and it seemed there were changes since then. Things that just didn't feel right or the same.

 

The service, for example. Still stellar overall but we noticed a few things. Supervisors and managers seemed grumpier. Staff was more resistant to doing things when asked. For example, we asked our room steward to re-make up the room once in the afternoon after it got a bit messed up. He refused, saying they wouldn't touch the rooms again till the evening. Ok, maybe that's a rule but I just never encountered a resistance to things like that before. In the buffet dining area, we never once were asked by a server if we wanted a refill on coffee, water, anything. I know it's self-serve obviously, but on every other cruise, we were always being approached by servers asking if we needed anything. And once I noticed it, and paid attention, it wasn't just us. No one seemed to get approached.

 

Just a different attitude it seemed. Still great service, but less above and beyond.

 

And the prices were much higher now for things like pictures, but that's a small nit.

 

I have to admit, I don't like the Spirit. Just an odd layout and feel. You can tell it wasn't built by NCL, it's just odd. It's not symmetrical in design, walk down one side and you end up in the theatre, the other and you end up at a dead end. For those who don't know, it was designed originally for Star I think to be an Asian casino ship.

 

The ports were good overall but some complaints about Ochos Rios. The Getaway was there at the same time and got the main pier, with shops and stuff on it. We got a side pier which seemed to double as a construction yard. And though we didn't get off, we were told by many that there were no shuttles to take you to the nice pier unless you were on an excursion, so you had to walk along the highway to get there.

 

We've not been to Great Stirrup Cay since I think 2010 or '11. So many changes, so many new buildings and setup, very nice. One comment though, could just be me. When we were there last, lunch was served straight off a BBQ setup with people grilling chicken and burgers and handing them off to you. The food on the island now seemed more processed, less fresh. It's basically a buffet now and like on the ship, the food can get stale and lose that crispness. I almost miss the old, simpler lunch style. The rest of the changes though are amazing.

 

Overall, lots of fun, but don't think we'd do the Spirit again.

[vicocala]

I'm sorry it wasn't to your liking. I actually loved it when I was on it last month. I enjoyed all of the art and I felt like the service was the best I have had on any cruise ship.

 

I thought it might be because of being in a suite, but I asked some others and they agreed the service was great. I keep my expectations low and when a cruise like the one I had comes along it really makes me happy. :D

 

We enjoyed it so much I booked two more cruises this month for the Escape and the Epic! Two more NCL ships we haven't sailed yet.

 

I hope you find a ship more to your liking next time and thank you for your review.

[www3traveler]

It could be too, that your cruise was the LAST Caribbean cruise of the season. Always tough on staff. They sailed for Europe the night of the 23rd.

[barnacle_boy]

I have to admit, I don't like the Spirit. Just an odd layout and feel. You can tell it wasn't built by NCL, it's just odd. It's not symmetrical in design, walk down one side and you end up in the theatre, the other and you end up at a dead end. For those who don't know, it was designed originally for Star I think to be an Asian casino ship.

 

Dawn and Jewel Classes aren't symmetric in layout either, and all of these ships share the same "DNA." Spirit is absolutely the direct predecessor for the bulk of the NCL fleet. After Star Cruises purchased NCL in 2000, they transferred several unfinished newbuilds to their new subsidiary. SuperStar Libra and SuperStar Scorpio were essentially bigger, improved versions of SuperStar Leo and SuperStar Virgo. Libra and Scorpio were finished as Star and Dawn for NCL with minimal changes to the original Star Cruises design. Leo was transferred to NCL in 2004 and renamed Spirit. The Jewel Class is based on the same Dawn Class platform with some modifications.

 

Leo (Spirit) —> Star (Libra) and Dawn (Scorpio) —> Jewel

Edited April 25, 2016 by barnacle_boy

[Clarea]

Sorry about the disappointment, but I appreciate the feedback.

Edited April 25, 2016 by clarea

[OttawaJohn]

It could be too, that your cruise was the LAST Caribbean cruise of the season. Always tough on staff. They sailed for Europe the night of the 23rd.

 

Very true, hadn't thought of that.

[coscab]

Just wanted to mention that we were on the Spirit in Dec. and on GSC near where we were sitting they were handing off hot dogs and hamburgers straight from the grill, but closer to where the tenders come in was the regular buffet which I found after I had eaten, not sure it is always like that but just an FYI for anyone going to GSC.

Thanks for your review, we had a fabulous cruise on the Spirit but we were in a corner forward suite and our butler and room steward were extraordinary, our friends had a regular balcony cabin and were pleased with their service, I think the comment about it being the last cruise out of Florida is probably spot on, crew getting ready for a lot of changes they might not be too happy with, but good customer service should have still been provided, we have always had excellent service on NCL.

[DubNHub]

We were on the 16-23 cruise also...neither of us have ever cruised before so we had no expectations.

 

I will tell you this much... NCL should be ashamed at having to dock at Reynolds pier in Ocho Rios. What an awful dump of a place to dock and a terrible first impression on Jamaica. Granted, of all the ports scheduled, we were not terribly excited about Jamaica. We planned to hop off, visit the market, and hop back on. In order to do this at Reynolds, you have to walk 10-15 minutes along a busy road to get to the market if you don't want to take a taxi. You're on your own. What made it worse was the date that day.... 4/20. We had so much weed pushed in our faces. We are younger (32 and 31) and we aren't prudes by any means, but it was unreal how awful the locals were. I'm in law enforcement and I really don't care about weed, but I felt terribly unsafe there beyond that. My wife did great at keeping me calm, but it was a stressful 2 hours for us. We were accosted until right before we walked up the ramp to get back on the ship.

 

I understand the Getaway was already docked and we had nowhere else to dock.... But maybe they should NOT schedule two ships to be at that port. I'd be happy to never go there again if I'm being honest.

 

The layout of the ship seemed odd to us, but we have never cruised so we had nothing else to compare it too. But when thinking logically about it, you can't be close to everything on the ship and you can't have easy access to everything either. We enjoyed walking around a little extra to have to get to Windows or somewhere else.

 

GSC was the highlight for us. We had a clamshell, did some snorkeling, and ate lunch at the actual buffet. I didn't see a spot where you had to get food off the grill. The buffet was delicious. The only downside was that we couldn't explore the island. I understand there is a nature trail and an old military radar station you could see, but they are doing some work just past the cabanas and had the roads and trails blocked off. We did find an open fence and walked through it, but were stopped a few hundred yards in by some workers. Didn't get in any trouble, but we were told to turn around and go back. We like exploring, so we couldn't resist the open fence! But we are disappointed that we couldn't see more.

 

Good first cruise for the both of us. I can't imagine being on a larger ship, as we already felt overwhelmed by the size of the Spirit. I'd sail on this ship again though. We like to get away and keep to ourselves and we felt like there were plenty of areas on the ship to allow for that.

[Ilikebigboats]

We were on the 16-23 cruise also...neither of us have ever cruised before so we had no expectations.

 

I will tell you this much... NCL should be ashamed at having to dock at Reynolds pier in Ocho Rios. What an awful dump of a place to dock and a terrible first impression on Jamaica. Granted, of all the ports scheduled, we were not terribly excited about Jamaica. We planned to hop off, visit the market, and hop back on. In order to do this at Reynolds, you have to walk 10-15 minutes along a busy road to get to the market if you don't want to take a taxi. You're on your own. What made it worse was the date that day.... 4/20. We had so much weed pushed in our faces. We are younger (32 and 31) and we aren't prudes by any means, but it was unreal how awful the locals were. I'm in law enforcement and I really don't care about weed, but I felt terribly unsafe there beyond that. My wife did great at keeping me calm, but it was a stressful 2 hours for us. We were accosted until right before we walked up the ramp to get back on the ship.

 

I understand the Getaway was already docked and we had nowhere else to dock.... But maybe they should NOT schedule two ships to be at that port. I'd be happy to never go there again if I'm being honest.

 

The layout of the ship seemed odd to us, but we have never cruised so we had nothing else to compare it too. But when thinking logically about it, you can't be close to everything on the ship and you can't have easy access to everything either. We enjoyed walking around a little extra to have to get to Windows or somewhere else.

 

GSC was the highlight for us. We had a clamshell, did some snorkeling, and ate lunch at the actual buffet. I didn't see a spot where you had to get food off the grill. The buffet was delicious. The only downside was that we couldn't explore the island. I understand there is a nature trail and an old military radar station you could see, but they are doing some work just past the cabanas and had the roads and trails blocked off. We did find an open fence and walked through it, but were stopped a few hundred yards in by some workers. Didn't get in any trouble, but we were told to turn around and go back. We like exploring, so we couldn't resist the open fence! But we are disappointed that we couldn't see more.

 

Good first cruise for the both of us. I can't imagine being on a larger ship, as we already felt overwhelmed by the size of the Spirit. I'd sail on this ship again though. We like to get away and keep to ourselves and we felt like there were plenty of areas on the ship to allow for that.

 

Thanks for posting your thoughts, always love to hear from new cruisers!

Yikes, I love Jamaica but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that island on "ganja" day!:eek:

Sounds like you had a great time, but I must warn you cruising can become highly addictive.Ha!

[FSNA5861]

Hard to imagine a bad cruise. I'm sure people have had them but overall even my worst experiences on the boat beat some of my better ones on land :)

 

That said, I have to admit to not loving this one so much. No regrets on it but some items of note.

 

My wife and I have not sailed now for a few years, and it seemed there were changes since then. Things that just didn't feel right or the same.

 

The service, for example. Still stellar overall but we noticed a few things. Supervisors and managers seemed grumpier. Staff was more resistant to doing things when asked. For example, we asked our room steward to re-make up the room once in the afternoon after it got a bit messed up. He refused, saying they wouldn't touch the rooms again till the evening. Ok, maybe that's a rule but I just never encountered a resistance to things like that before. In the buffet dining area, we never once were asked by a server if we wanted a refill on coffee, water, anything. I know it's self-serve obviously, but on every other cruise, we were always being approached by servers asking if we needed anything. And once I noticed it, and paid attention, it wasn't just us. No one seemed to get approached.

 

Just a different attitude it seemed. Still great service, but less above and beyond.

 

And the prices were much higher now for things like pictures, but that's a small nit.

 

I have to admit, I don't like the Spirit. Just an odd layout and feel. You can tell it wasn't built by NCL, it's just odd. It's not symmetrical in design, walk down one side and you end up in the theatre, the other and you end up at a dead end. For those who don't know, it was designed originally for Star I think to be an Asian casino ship.

 

The ports were good overall but some complaints about Ochos Rios. The Getaway was there at the same time and got the main pier, with shops and stuff on it. We got a side pier which seemed to double as a construction yard. And though we didn't get off, we were told by many that there were no shuttles to take you to the nice pier unless you were on an excursion, so you had to walk along the highway to get there.

 

We've not been to Great Stirrup Cay since I think 2010 or '11. So many changes, so many new buildings and setup, very nice. One comment though, could just be me. When we were there last, lunch was served straight off a BBQ setup with people grilling chicken and burgers and handing them off to you. The food on the island now seemed more processed, less fresh. It's basically a buffet now and like on the ship, the food can get stale and lose that crispness. I almost miss the old, simpler lunch style. The rest of the changes though are amazing.

 

Overall, lots of fun, but don't think we'd do the Spirit again.

 

Sorry to hear that it was not to your liking.

 

We were on this cruise which was the second segment of our B2B cruise.

 

I agree that this ship has a differentt configuration but it has some commonality with the Jewel class ships. We truly enjoyed the Atrium area which was not congested as seen on the Jewel class and Megaships. You can circulate freely without bumping on other people if you need to get access to Guest services, Ecxursion desk and Cruise consultant. The best part is that it is quiet as there is no live entertainment in the Atrium area.

 

We ate most of our dinners in the Windows MDR and found the food and service quite good. Slow service could be that with the Beverage package, servers have to get drinks from one of the bars on top of serving food at the tables.

 

I totally agree with your comments about Ocho Rios.

 

It was our second time at GSC and were disappointed to see that the Lagoon area was closed due to construction work. it will be closed until Nov 16. We too found that the food was not at par to what it was last year. We found that it was not warm enough this time around.

 

As for your cabin, the cabin steward has 16 rooms to clean daily and usually they terminate their first shift at 1430 and start at 1800 for beddown preparation. We had great service from ours but it could be the reason why he could not accommodate your request.

 

Although it is not my DW preferred ship, we will be cruising on the Spirit again on another B2B in Apr 17 after it comes out of drydock. Looking forward to see the improvements.

 

Glad to see that still had lots of fun.