Review of NCL Spirit- April 12-23,2017 Eastern Med. & Holy Land

[mikeanddiane4849]

After suffering from jet lag for a while after our cruise and land vacation, I am finally ready to do a review. We spent two days pre cruise in Venice, visited Crete, Israel, Cyprus, Rhodes Greece, Montenegro and Croatia and then spent five nights in Rome after the cruise. We booked this cruise in 1/16 and got a very good deal on a balcony cabin on deck nine, cabin # 9186.

 

Our info- we are a married couple in our late 60's from Central Oregon. We were celebrating our 50th Anniversary on this cruise and it was "a trip of a lifetime"! We have cruised once before on NCL and also on Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, Premier (back in 80's) and the Spirit of America. This was our first cruise to Europe together, though both of us have been to Europe before- me as a child and my husband through work.

 

We flew out on April 9th, and arrived in Venice on April 10th around noon. We flew Redmond to SEA on Alaska, SEA to London on BA and then London to Venice on BA. This flight was a killer as we did not sleep the whole way! Venice airport was a zoo and packed full of people. We took the bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma since our hotel Palazzo Odoni, was in that location and it was close to the cruise port and train station. After our cruise we took the fast train from Santa Lucia train station to Rome Termini train station, since our hotel was in easy walking distance or so we thought!!

 

Palazzo Odoni review- it was a good hotel, with a great breakfast and was in a good location for our needs and the price wasn't too bad. The room was small, but it had a great marble bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. We had to cross two bridges to get to it from the bus. I can not stress enough- pack light! We did not, had two carry ons, one large bag and a medium size bag. One bridge had a ramp, the other bridge has small steps the whole way! We were exhausted and grumpy when we arrived to find our hotel with two large stair cases and no lift. Poor planning on my part, especially since I was using a cane on our arrival to Venice due to the long flight and a knee injury in January. The first night we walked around, ate dinner and headed to bed early.

 

Venice- We loved it and wish we could have stayed longer. We bought a two day Vaporetto 48 hour pass and used it to get around Venice using line # 1. This is the slow water bus, but you can get on/off as you please and it helps you to understand your way around Venice. We used it and walking to get around and it served it's purpose. We saw most of Venice that we wanted to see, but spent a fair amount of time relaxing, shopping, people watching and having a beer or glass of wine! We visited San Marco at night and enjoyed less people, but of course the sights were all closed. The orchestra was playing, people were dancing and it made for a wonderful, romantic time in Venice. We may be old, but we aren't dead folks and by then I was able to get around without my cane, so we were in heaven! We even managed to buy a nice painting on linen by an artist on the way back to our hotel for 20 Euro!

 

Cruise- We paid to have our luggage moved from our hotel to the people mover and then rolled it ourselves the rest of the way to the cruise ship. It was 5 euro per bag, but to us, worth it. We loved the Spirit, it's small size and our balcony cabin was good size with enough storage. Pros on this cruise- our room Stewart Suitely, most meals, our cabin, the ports visited and the views of the ports and sunsets from our room/balcony.

Cons- some meals, crowds in Buffet on some days, some servers in the MDR, and the day time noise above us in our cabin. We had a nice meet and greet and met some wonderful people.

 

We like to relax on our cruise, so spent most of our time doing just that. We had one meal in La Bistro which was wonderful, but ate most of our meals in the MDR. I would consider this cruise our best ever, even with some of the negatives.

 

I will write more later. Any question I will try to answer.

[irvington]

Thanks. This was really good to hear, since I will be on the Spirit in about a month. Different itinerary, but similar cabin I think (9176). Curious about:

- any dining tips, since you said some meals were better than others

- more about the entertainment. Are the shows worth it? some better than others? are there small musical groups and are they good? are there pubs or bars that are especially fun (just for one drink)? I think I will be too busy touring for much night life, but don't want to miss something especially fun.

- any tips about the cabin, since it sounds like we may be somewhere similar?

- any thing that looked fun for teenagers? They are looking forward to the basketball court and the pool. Are there movies on board?

 

Sorry for so many questions -- feel free to say no idea!

[easyboy]

Would like to know the shore excursion you had in Israel. Thanks.

 

 

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[mikeanddiane4849]

Our cabin was right under the youth center, so it was daytime noise and quiet at night. I don't think 9176 will have that problem since it is more mid ship.

 

As far as poor meals- ham dinner on Easter was a big disappointment. I think it was pressed meat like spam! La Bistro we had the steak and leg of lamb-both excellent. The other meals that I remember as being less than great were in the buffet. Deserts were also disappointing except for La Bistro- some kind of fruit tart-ymmmm!

 

We only went to a couple of shows as we were tired from touring and they were both good. We didn't think the Magician was worth watching though.

 

I think there are movies, but I don't think they had a special designated theater as we didn't watch any, except for a couple foreign films on TV. Not sure about activities for teens.

 

We did like the pub on the Spirit and my husband had a beer and I had a Bellini, which was very good. We did not have a drink package, so most of the alcohol we had was off ship. I think my husband had beer or wine in all the countries we visited! Good prices and taste excellent!

 

Wish I knew how to add pictures as I have some excellent ones. Maybe someone can give me some tips. I have quite a few on my iPhone.

[mikeanddiane4849]

Easyboy- we used Leo at Guided tours Israel at info@GuidedToursIsrael.com. We had Mickey as our tour guide and she was excellent! We spent Easter in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and did a Christian based tour toNorthern Galilee the next day. Around 12 hours the first day, and ten the second day. Since it was a Holy Day for Christians, Jewish and Muslims, the areas we visited were packed, but they were able to get us into all the sights they promised. Words can not describe how wonderful both tours were. Be sure and rest up though- it is a very busy schedule and a lot of walking. Weather was perfect- high 60's and low 70's.

[irvington]

Thanks. That's really helpful. We are on this trip for the itinerary, not so much the ship, but I wanted to know what to expect. My teens love going to a buffet but good to know to have lower expectations for the food. I didn't get the drink package and assume I won't have much to drink on the ship, but was curious if there were good places to hang out for a short while if I had the energy.

 

I'm not sure but I think if you go into the "advanced" reply options, you can add attachments such as photos.