NCL Spirit Trip Report: Summer Solstice Norway Cruise

[projecthandbag]

Becky, thank you for such a wonderful, informative and pictorial review!  We are sailing on the Spirit soon and it was so good to hear you liked the ship and see all the pictures.  Now I want to go to Norway after seeing your review and pictures!  Thanks so much.

[LTC]

Thanks so much for your fantastic review. Love your pictures and write-ups. Went to the Norwegian Fjords last year on the Jade and loved it so much that we're booked on the 14 day Norway and Arctic Circle cruise next June on the Star. Was excited before but after reading this review, June can't come fast enough!

[luckybecky]

Thank you, projecthandbag and LTC. I know you will both enjoy your upcoming cruises!

 

Onward:

 

I have mentioned some of the perks we had with the dining and beverage package. Our package also included phone calls and wifi. We called our kids several times during the cruise and always had a good connection. It was nice to be able to check in at home and not have to worry about the cost. 

 

Wifi was a different story. It worked fine for the first couple of days, but quit working sometime around day 4. I tried to connect repeatedly without success. But I was able to get online using my phone when we were in ports and I wasn't too worried about it. However after a few days I finally went to the internet lounge to ask for help. It was only staffed for a few hours a day and no one happened to be there when I went, but there was a sign saying wifi was unavailable due to the ship's location. OK.

 

I went back again a couple of days later. A manager told me that it would be working the next day. It wasn't. So I went back yet again, and he changed some settings on my phone and finally it was working again. By this time the cruise was almost over so the 250 minute package was almost entirely wasted. I would definitely recommend that you make sure the wifi is going to work before you invest in an expensive wifi package. I wasn't planning to spend much time online but enjoyed posting pics on facebook when we had some down time.

 

Anyway, on with our cruise.

 

Day 9 Geiranger

 

This was one of the most beautiful of all our ports, and I think it's fair to say one of the most beautiful places in the world. We had a busy day planned. Here is the view from the ship.

 

 

And here is the schedule for today

 

 

[luckybecky]

We had a big breakfast and then headed ashore for our first adventure. We and several roll call members had arranged to rent little electric cars and drive up the mountain. Well, this was quite an experience!

 

The car was TINY! It seats two, with the passenger seated behind the driver. Paul is 6' 2" and I'm not a small person. It was a challenge to get in and out of the car, especially if you are older and maybe not as flexible as you used to be. In fact, one roll call member told us he just stopped getting out of the car when they would pull off at a scenic spot -- it was just too hard to get in and out! 

 

The second problem with the car is that it has no windows. So you get to enjoy the crisp mountain air. By the time we got to the top of the mountain, we were positively frozen. It was cold up there! We were even getting a light mix of sleet and snow. 

 

But it was fun and easy to drive and the advantage of doing the E car was that we set our own pace, and could stop at whichever scenic pullouts we wanted,as opposed to being on a nice warm bus where you are on their schedule. 

 

The drive was gorgeous. We had the car for 3 hours.

 

Here we are getting a quick lesson on how to drive the car with a few other members of the roll call.

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from the top of Mt. Dalsnibba. If you look closely you can see our ship in the fjord far, far below. It is just a speck near the center of the picture.

 

 

 

 

Here we are with some of the group

 

[luckybecky]

Here is some of the amazing scenery from the drive up and down the mountain.

 

 

A partially frozen lake. And remember, this is the Norwegian summer!

 

 

 

 

We saw tons of campers everywhere we went in Norway. This must be a very popular way to see the country.

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

We got back on board for a late lunch. Then we had a kayak tour scheduled for later in the afternoon. The weather had turned out nice and we were really looking forward to this as a highlight of our trip in such a beautiful setting.

We got back off the ship about 45 minutes before our scheduled tour and asked at the tourist information center where to find the kayak center. It turns out that it was a very long walk from the pier, all the way on the other side of the fjord. There was nothing on our reservation confirmation that indicated this. We are fast walkers, and we took off with we hoped time to spare. We walked briskly for about 30 minutes, finally reaching the kayak spot at 3:20 pm for our tour that was scheduled at 3:30.

 

We approached a guy standing there and asked if we were in the right place. He said, yes, but they just left. We said, what do you mean they just left? It's not scheduled until 3:30. Oh, they changed the time to 3:00. They waited for you but left when you weren't here by 3:15. 

 

Well that was a drag! They had made no effort to contact us to tell us they had changed the time. We could easily have been there on time if we had known.

 

Thankfully they refunded our money with no argument, but it still was very disappointing to us to have missed this tour. Later, we sat on our balcony and watched the kayakers return. There were only 3 of them. We would have loved going on this small group tour!

 

You surely know by now that I greatly prefer to book my own tours and save money over the cost of excursions through the cruise line. But this experience shows one drawback. This would never had happened on an NCL tour. For one thing, the ship won't make you walk 30 minutes to get to your tour. They would provide transportation. And if they changed the time, you would be notified. 

 

Oh well. We were very disappointed but what are you going to do? We spent a little time walking around town but we aren't big shoppers so we got back on board early. We enjoyed the view and some cocktails in the Galaxy lounge.

 

Here are the NCL excursions that were available in this port:

 

 

 

Our 3 hour electric car rental cost 1,850 NOK, or approximately $216.

 

Our kayak tour, had we been able to go, cost 1,360 NOK,  about $159 total for the two of us.

 

Word to the wise, if you make your reservations far in advance, it would be prudent to contact the provider closer to your trip just to re-confirm. If I had done this, we would have had the correct time.

Edited July 15, 2019 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Here is the ship docked in Geiranger.

 

 

[luckybecky]

We saw two shows tonight: the aerialists duo Jocka and Maria in the main showroom, and "Broadway Cabaret" with some of the production cast singers and the Spirit show band doing broadway musical hit songs in the Galaxy lounge. Both shows were excellent as always.

 

We ate at Windows again, and this was the only time we were actually seated near the big rear windows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese

 

 

Bruschetta

 

 

Roast beef

 

 

It seems I usually forgot to take a picture of the dessert menu, but I did get it tonight.

 

[luckybecky]

Meanwhile we watched the sailaway from Geiranger. It was stunning. I must have taken a hundred photos because every moment seemed even more beautiful than the last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know it is special when even the crew abandon their posts to go outside and take photos. 🙂

 

 

 

We have another amazingly beautiful port coming up tomorrow. I'll be back later to try and finish this review.

[luckybecky]

Day 10 

Today we arrived in the beautiful town of Flam. We had scheduled the Flam railway. We booked many months in advance. Our roll call was really helpful here.  Online bookings were limited. Someone on our roll call w as eagle eyed and posted a heads up for the rest of us when bookings opened for the date we would be in Flam. We jumped on it as quickly as possible and were able to secure tickets for the afternoon train. These tickets sold out many months in advance. I'll once again compare our train ride with the similar excursion offered by NCL. I'm not trying to promote or denigrate any tour operator. It's just  good to know what your options are. 

 

Our train ride cost 1180 NOK for the two of us, or about $143. An NCL excursion on the exact same train cost $179 per person.

 

This is said to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, and I believe it. Here are the NCL excursions for this port.

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from our balcony:

 

 

And the town seen from the upper decks:

 

 

 

This is the view from the bow of the ship:

 

[luckybecky]

Photos from the train ride

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

There were some interesting food vendors in the center of town.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Later, after our train ride, we walked around town and came across a local festival. We learned that these summer festivals are common in some Norwegian towns. There was a band, lots of food, and a big bonfire. The locals seemed oblivious to the influx of cruise ship passengers.
 

 

 

 

 

Once back on board, I don't remember exactly what we did. The show tonight was the hypnotist again, and we didn't go. He was entertaining when we saw him a few days ago, but I'm skeptical about the hypnosis and we didn't need to see him again. 

 

Here is the daily schedule

 

 

 

We had dinner at Teppanyaki. We still had some of that onboard credit to spend and we had seen an opening in the Teppanyaki bookings so we grabbed it.  We enjoyed our dinner. Everything was delicious. I'm glad we went. It was really fun although some of our tablemates weren't very social. There were two empty spaces at our table for a couple that did not show up. This would be very fun to do with a group of people that you know. 

 

 

 

 

Sailaway from Flam was stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

[karoo]

Great review! I'm loving it. Just thought I'd add for anyone wanting to do a similar itinerary and book their tours privately. I booked the Blue Puffin Tour through the Tourist Office when I got off the ship. it was a similar price 900+ NOK, but I didn't get the early bird (booking) discount. I had disembarked around 9.30 and the tour left at 10am. It was excellent. I think from memory the CC groups left around 9, but you can correct me if I'm wrong. We had a young girl (uni student) as guide who had lived in the town/area her whole life and she was just so informative as well as interesting. I would thoroughly recommend this fantastic tour! The dried fish they had hanging up she called stock fish. (They were possibly cod originally.) I also booked on the day, the Flam Railway at the ticket/tourist office. There was plenty of availability as apparently various tourist companies book the tickets in blocks. What they don't sell they hand back a few days beforehand. I was also in Flam on the cruise before this one (B2B) and for all those passengers who wanted to book privately as they disembarked they were able to do so on the day. Some booked a package where you took the train up, then cycled down, others got off at one of the stations to zipline, while others booked a train, cruise and land combination, all available through the ticket office. I personally did the train only, but if I ever visit Flam again I will consider the biplane option.The NCL excursion is on the same train, they have about three carriages booked exclusively for the NCL shore excursions. Much more expensive, than just booking privately -but they do get a waffle and coffee. This option was also available as passengers I met onboard told me you could book to stop off for coffee etc and they combined this with cycling down the mountain. 

Edited July 16, 2019 by karoo

[tanyaewa]

Oh my goodness I am just lovIng this!

[MKA76]

Becky,

Thank you for the wonderful review. It brings back great memories. Your photos are amazing. Looking forward to future reviews. I’ve attached a photo of the Blue Nose Arctic Crossing ceremony. Thanks for the information about the whale. We missed seeing him. 

Mary Kay (Wisconsin)

[luckybecky]

Thanks for the info karoo and MKA76!  I'm sorry we missed the blue nose ceremony. Maybe we just didn't wait long enough, I guess that is how we missed it. Great picture Mary Kay!

 

I"m going to try to finish up this review. Sorry to have dragged it out. It takes a long time to organize all my photos. Norway was so beautiful, I took about a gazillion pictures. We just have a couple of days left on this amazing cruise.

 

 

Day 11 Haugesund

This was our last port. 

Our excursion today was a little bit of a letdown after the stunning beauty of Geiranger and Flam. This was my least favorite port, but maybe that was just due to our choice of excursions. Maybe if we had done something different, we would have had a very different impression. 

 

There was a free shuttle bus at the pier that took us to the historic cathedral in the center of town. We had a quick look inside the cathedral. Our excursion departed from directly in front of the cathedral, where the shuttle bus stopped.  

 

We rode a bus to the Viking farm. The historic St Olav's church is adjacent to the viking farm and is listed as part of the excursion both on the NCL and the outside provider's tour description. Unfortunately it is competely covered in scaffolding and is closed at this time. The farm itself is a reconstruction of what a typical Viking village might have looked like, and included people in period dress, with games and even a chance to try your archery skills.

 

After touring the Viking farm, we had admission to the Norwegian History Center next door. This museum included a movie and exhibits about Norwegian culture and history. One last comparison: we paid 560 NOK, about $66, for the two of us to do this tour. A similar NCL tour to this same Viking farm was priced at $109 per person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After returning from the Viking farm to the center of town, we had a look around but there wasn't much to do since we aren't into shopping. We walked down the main street but soon returned to the ship.

[luckybecky]

Here are the daily schedule and the NCL excursions for this port.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Later, we went to the show "Elements." This is the production show where they really pull out all the stops. I mean it was sensory overload. Really crazy and incredible. Singing, dancing, thumping music, flashing lights, brilliant costumes, just over the top. We usually went to the theater around 15 minutes or so before showtime and never had trouble getting a good seat. But tonight we went a little earlier and we noticed the theater filling up quickly. It is a popular show that really just takes everything over the top so get there early if you want to see it.

 

 

 

 

We ate at Windows. I had begun having memory problems with my phone -- had to happen right in the middle of vacation, right?! -- so I don't seem to have pics of the menu. But here is some food porn. There was one appetizer that did not look so .... appetizing. I don't know what it was.

 

 

Some kind of salad

 

 

Chicken parmesan

 

 

NY Strip. Wasn't the same as Cagney's, of course. But not bad. 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Day 12

 

Today was a sea day, and our last day on board. We slept in. We packed in the early afternoon. Wanted to get that out of the way so we could enjoy our evening. We went to the afternoon matinee show "Spirit of the Legends" which was good. They didn't often do a matinee show.
 

Here is the schedule for today:

 

 

 

 

We still had almost $200 in on board credit, so we went shopping. A lot of other people were doing the same thing. The shops were busy. We finally settled on a bottle of scotch, and some cologne for Paul. The scotch, Glenmorangie, cost $67.50 for a 1 L bottle. Later, back at home, we comparison shopped at Costco and found a 1.75L bottle for approximately the same price. And this is why I have said I never shop on board. They call it a duty free shop, which makes you think you'll get a bargain, but the truth is that the prices are very high. And of course any alchohol you purchase on board cannot be taken back to your room until the last night. You can't buy some early in the cruise to make drinks in your room. They will store it for you and deliver it to you the last evening.

 

We did better with the cologne, though. It was on sale, and the price was roughly the same as we would pay at home. Either way, these purchases were essentially "free" to us since they were paid with our on board credit so I'm not complaining, just offering the information. We normally would not buy items like these if not for the credit. 

 

I enjoyed a cocktail in the Galaxy lounge while they played "Win a Cruise" Bingo. The bingo cards were expensive and I didn't play, but somewhere along the way I had acquired a single raffle ticket for the cruise they were giving away. When I saw other people with dozens of raffle tickets, I realized that my chances were not very good. LOL Sadly, I was not the winner.
 

 

[luckybecky]

We went to Le Bistro for dinner. It was very good. It is a small venue and had very nice ambiance. The food and service were excellent. My photo of the menu turned out too blurry to be legible. Sorry about that.

 

Some kind of seafood appetizer.

 

 

French onion soup was different from that served in Windows. It was very good.

 

 

Escargot

 

 

Filet mignon

 

 

 

I did get the dessert menu

 

 

 

Cheese plate

 

 

 

 

After dinner we participated in the "Perfect Couple" game. That was a big mistake! LOL We have seen similar shows (or so we thought) on other ships. The format was always the same: they pick 3 couples from the audience. One newlywed couple, one couple that has been married 20 years or so, and a couple who has been married the longest. Then they ask a series of funny questions and see if the couple can come up with the same answers.

 

Tonight, no long married couple was volunteering, so finally we did. We've been married 32 years. Not the longest on board, but no one else was foolish enough to volunteer. 🙂

 

Well, surprise surprise, this was not the same format game show we have seen before where you just have to answer questions. They made us compete in a series of silly contests like running with balloons between our legs and popping the balloons by smashing them between our bodies. And worse. 😉

 

It was all very silly. The audience was laughing hard at our antics. Paul and I did poorly on a couple of the challenges, better on another. But we won on the applause meter and were declared the winners. I think they took pity on us. LOL. We won a bottle of champagne and a goodie bag with a couple of t-shirts, key chains and other trinkets. The other two couples also got champagne.

 

It was another beautiful night. So sad to have to say goodbye to this.

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by luckybecky

[PhillyTravelBug]

It’s rare to see in depth reviews for Norway, but this is so detailed. One of the best. Thank you for putting the time into this. It’s appreciated.

[luckybecky]

Debarkation Day

 

Sadly, we have to leave the ship. This was a long cruise, 12 days, but it flew by. Debarkation was easy. We always carry our own bags. We got up around 7:30 or so. Dressed quickly and had a big breakfast at Raffles. We got off the ship around 8:30. There was no customs or passport check of any kind. We just walked off the ship when we were ready. 

 

Here are the excursions/transfers offered by NCL, and other debarkation info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Ubered to the bus station, and then took a National Express bus to London. We stayed 4 nights in London and had a fantastic time. We packed a lot into those few days: Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, Kew Gardens, The Shard, the Borough Market, Tate Gallery, Serpentine Galleries, Victoria & Albert museum, the British Museum, Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, a play in the West End, and more.

 

We finally flew home on June 30, happy to sleep in our own bed after a marvelous trip. We loved our cruise and our time in London. We would definitely cruise NCL again, but we don't feel married to any particular cruise line. It really comes down to itinerary and price when we choose our vacation. This itinerary was just marvelous and I would absolutely recommend NCL and Norway to anyone. Now it's time for me to start planning our next adventure. 😀
 

 

[aroundthehorn]

Thank you! This was great!

[Sand and Seas]

Excellent review!   Thanks for sharing with us, and we loved your photos😊