NCL Spirit 7/22-7/30 Long, Detailed Review/Grades

[1stTimeNCL]

Let me preface things by saying this was my 4th cruise, twice before with Celebrity, once on the Voyager of the Seas...1st time on NCL. 25 yrs old, sailing with my wife of 4 yrs.

 

I'll try and break everything on the cruise into sections, give some details, and a grade based upon my experiences.

 

Embarkation- Being that we aren't Latitudes members, that might affect my score a bit. I found the parking/bags/porter situation to be tremendously easy to manage. We arrived at about 10:30 on Sat morning, and were probably one of the first 10 or so passengers there in the non-Latituides waiting area. If one thing could be improved here, I have no idea why they let us get our SeaPass cards, and register, and then maybe 20 mins later, they removed the booth and took it to another section. This crerated mass confusion because people didn't realize they couldn't just get on the ship once Embarkation began. I'd say NCL needs a bullhorn or something to keep the process a bit more orderly, that being said we were on board by 12:15, everything was fine.---------A-

 

Ship- Truly a unique vessel. I prefer the size of this ship to the mega RCCL ships, its easy to get around and an extremely attractive ship, cleanliness was not a problem. The Asian influences on the ship are striking, and I found the low-key, non-glitzy nature of the ship quite nice. As far as the layout of the ship, instead of walking down main halways in the public decks, everything seems to flow through narrow corridors. The ship also had the casino in the front of the ship, theatre in the rear, which was different from other ships. Overall, a very good ship to sail on.----B+

 

Public Rooms(Section by Section)

-Casino-where I spent probably too much time. Bigger than the casino on the VOS, had a good selection of table games and slots.---A

 

-Bars and Clubs-Mahirinis was pretty cool, definite club atmosphere. Henry's Pub was a fun little bar that served fish and chips, and hosted the trivia every day. Champagne Charlies and the Shanghai bar were generally empty. For a medium sized ships, I was fairly impressed here. A-

 

-Theatres-Stardust was probably a little smaller than the other theatres we had been used to at sea. I also didn't prefer the setup of the theatre....the stage was kinda far back from the first row of seats, and the the seats didn't lend themselves to bar service. The best place to sit was on the upper levels at the tables, IMO. The Galaxy of the Stars was OK, but its sight lines were pretty bad, and way too small a venue for some of the bigger acts they have there. Not the Spirit's strongest suit....C

 

-Pool Areas-Again, pretty weak. The pool is pretty small, and this is the first ship I've been on without a 2nd pool. They did have a pretty cool looking Kids Area with slides etc. Bier Garten was a nice area to relax. C+

 

Food- OK, this is always the most important, and most debated subject. We ate just about everywhere, so I'll go venue by venue.

 

Main Dining Rooms-First, I preferred the Garden Room tremendously. Service was exceptionally faster, food and meus are the same at both. That being said, this is definetly the area where NCL lacked the most of our other cruises. This isn't to say that we had awful meals or that the menu choices were lacking, just that nothing was special at all about either place. We at the main rooms twice, once each. Its just seems odd not to have your own waiter, and the pacing of the meals were strange. At Windows, we didn't see a waiter for maybe 15-20 minutes, and then once the food came out it all seemed to come out once. Based upon our experiences with Celebrity and RCCL, I'd say the entrees were fairly close in taste/presentation, but the appetizer/soups/salads were very mediocre at best. Desserts were always good. Also, we looked at all the menus on the first day. I'll say this, you'll never go hungry, but you'll never be impressed either. The consensus on the ship was this was probably most people least favorite dining room food ever. I dunno, sometimes I felt like they were bribing you into paying for dinner. C-

 

Main Dining Room Lunch-Ate there two or three times. Food tasted much better at lunch, service was very good. Chilled soups are awesome. B+

 

Le Bistro-Without question, the finest meal I have ever eaten at sea. I had Surf and Turf, the wife had sea bass. Appetizers, Soups, Salads perfect. AN indication of when a meal is very good. You can eat a Caesar salad in one of seemingly 20 places on the Spirit, but fomr some reason at the Bistro, even 6 days into the trip, we loved our salads. Desserts were unreal...chocolate fondue, lemojn tart, creme brulee. And, the Captain sat at the next table, pretty cool night. A+

 

Cagneys-I found a bit overrated. That said, I had a pretty good steak. Appetizers had good variety, finally a shrimp cocktail worth mentioning. Wife enjoyed her lobter, but the lobster here didn't compare to the twin tails at Le Bistro. B+/B

 

Shogun-Great, great food. So good we ate there twice. Very good selection of Asian foods. The Chinese Chicken salad, peking duck, and esp. the Banana Pancake were some of the best things we ate all week. Service was very good, not hard to get reservations here, didn't eat at the Sushi Bar. A

 

Teppanaki-A fun meal. Not the greatest food, esp. if you are used to hibachi style cooking on land. I thought it was funny...Steak and Shrimp meant 2 shrimp, that's it. Scallops were very good. If we cruised again with NCL I doubt I'd go back. B/B-

 

Tratorria- Didn't eat here, but had two people tell me it was embarrassingly bad, I beleive the words were Cafeteria-style Italian.

 

Blue Lagoon-Nice place. Burgers/Fries/3 chicken wings an order, everything here came out fast, and was very good. During the week we had the burgers/tomato soup/wonton soup/wings, everything tasted great. Nothing like a 3AM post casino cheesburger....A

 

Raffles-The surprise of the trip. We went to dinner here on the last night, and maybe we were just hungry, but we found the food in Raffles for dinner better than either Windows or Garden. They had a great selection of carved items, fish, pork, good side dishes and salads. Ice Cream bar is never a bad idea either. Desserts all seemed to taste the same after 8 days, but my wife really enjoyed the blueberry crepes at dinner. We also thought the lunches here were very good. I really liked how this place was constantly open. Even if you went in at an odd hour, say 3 or 4,there was food out. Definitely the best buffet we've had at sea...A/A-

 

Entertainment-Again a huge area for discussion. Julie was our CD, she was OK. She tried hard, but she ddin't nearly get as involved with the passengers as other CD's we've had. I thought the rest of the staff was excellent, the side activities (bingo, sports tourneys, trivia) were all well-run.

 

The production shows were about average for cruise fare. I thought the best show was "On the Radio"...non-stop singing and dancing for 50 minutes. The Broadway show was decent, maybe a little too ambitious for the size of the company. The other show "America's Beat' was so weird we left after 15 minutes.

 

The headliners were very good. Seymour and Alfred were a fun dance/comedy group that livened up any show. They appeared 3 times during the week, and their main show was a lot of fun.

 

Dr. Trance was a comedy style hypmotist, I wont say much because I'm guessing your gonna wanna here from Bonnie(reg. CC memeber) on this one.

 

Second City I enjoyed. They did a main show which was mainly pre-written sketch comedy, and then a improv late night show. Its very hard to do improv comedy, and I thought they were very funny...althogh some clearly didn't find it amusing(they had quite a few walk-outs)

 

There was a solo female act on the last night but we didn't go, wondering if anyone saw her, how was she?

 

Overall, entertainment was a strong suit I felt, with the exception of America's Beat, I liked every show. Oh, don't miss the crew show either, very fun.........A-

 

Staterooom-We had Balcony Cabin 11100. It was perfectly fine. TV selection wasn't bad for a cruise. Balcony seemed smaller than other ships we've been on. Bathroom was well laid out. B+

 

Ports- St Thomas we did Coki Beach and then shopping. Tortola we did the Virgin Gorda Snorkel and Swim, and in Bermuda we were kinda beached out so we took a taxi to the Aquarium/Zoo in Flats village. I still have no idea why we went to Tortola, not much to do there. And, why spend till 1AM in St Thomas, when there is zero to do at night there. If you are gonna stay till 1AM somewhere, go to San Juan...or make Bermuda longer. I'd gove this itenerary a B

 

Finally, Disembarkation- Smooth as can be imagined. They called our tags at 10 AM,. we were in our car by 10:30. A+

 

Overall, as the CD would say, we had an Excellent cruise. The Spirit was kind of a quirky ship, filled with surprises and some disappointments. Would I sail NCL again, of course I would. The "Freestyle' concept is a good one, but still needs ironed out in some areas, namely main didning room. Also, without set dining times, its hard to see all the shows, as they aren't built around seating times at dinner. I also kinda wondered how the service would play w/ set tips...but our Cabin Steward, Glen, was GREAT!!

 

Would I sail the Spirit again, of course. It was an enjoyable ship, a great cruise, and an excellent vacation.

 

 

ANY and ALL questions PLEASE ask!

 

 

1st Time NCL

[hotglass]

Can you tell me if any of the electricity in your cabin was 110 or was it all 220?

[shoreguy]

Can you tell me if any of the electricity in your cabin was 110 or was it all 220?

 

Both

[shoreguy]

Great review - I loved the formate and the justification for the grades.

[sweetpea-2]

awesome review...... thanks for taking the time to do such a detailed one, the grades & why etc.

[1stTimeNCL]

To be honest, we never even noticed. The only thing we ever plugged in was our cell phone charger at some points during the cruise.

 

 

Also, I forgot to mention, we went to the CC meeting. It was great, very nice turnout. Don and Scott were very nice to meet, as were "paulies mom", "sailorsixx", and my wife met "letsgocruisin" later in the cruise. I didn't get a chancve to meet Bonnie personally, but I think everyone who went to see Dr. Trance feels like they know her.

 

I hope I didn't knock the food too much in my review. I really can't overstate how much better Raffles was than other buffets on other ships we've been on. Food is VERY subjective, so others might have Hated raffles, or loved the main dining room.

[scintrigue]

What type of age groups are on this ship. Im 22 and my girlfriend is 24 we want some people in are age group.

[Maryfrei]

Thanks, really enjoyed your detailed review with great explanations:)!

[mypyr]

Great review!

 

Question: are Le Bistro and Cagney's open for breakfast and lunch? Are they open to all passsengers? Do you make a reservation?

[Zeno]

I enjoyed this detailed review.

[jimswims]

Thank you for the great review....we are on the 8 day leaving 8/19....thanks for the info!

[1stTimeNCL]

Responses.....

 

 

At 24 and 22 you guys will fit right in on the ship. We are 25 and 26, and thought that this cruise was mainly people in their late 20's, 30's and 40's. I didn't notice a ton of kids, or teenagers, and everyone seemed well behaved. Either that, or NCL has an excellent kids program.

 

 

UNfortunately, Le Bistro and Cagney are only dinner restaurants. The only "specialty" restaurant open for lunch is the Shogun Sushi bar.

 

For lunch, the options are Windows(better than dinner IMO), Raffles(always good), Blue Lagoon(Burgers and fries), Pool buffet(Excellent grilled chicken, burgers etc.), and I think the BierGarten and Henry's Pub have VERY limited luch fare. You could also do room service, but really, there was nothing on that menu at all, esp considering our cabin was directly under the buffet, we were never in need of room service.

 

As for reservations, we made them immediately upon boarding. I loved how they had the dining room menus out to look at to plan ahead. On the last night of the cruise, we hadn't booked anything, so we tried to get a table for 2...anywhere.....everything but Shogun was full, and we didn't want a 3rd dinner there.

 

 

Keep the questions coming

[pengu1n]

We leave Saturday on this same itinerary. Where and when did you have your CC meeting? Did you plan it with the ship or just do it on your own? Can you suggest a good time & place for our CC meeting? I was thinking about sometime on the 1st sea day but don't want to set it up when something really good is going on.

[phillyf]

On my last NCL cruise they served Sushi twice from 5-6 in one of the bars, did they do anything similar on the Spirit? Great way to bring in Cruisers for a pre dinner drink.

[sailorsixx]

We leave Saturday on this same itinerary. Where and when did you have your CC meeting? Did you plan it with the ship or just do it on your own? Can you suggest a good time & place for our CC meeting? I was thinking about sometime on the 1st sea day but don't want to set it up when something really good is going on.

I was on the 7/22 cruise with 1sttime NCL. Hi guys. To answer your question, Logcabin turned out to be our "leader" from our roll call board. Our meet was scheduled in advance (arrangements made with the ship by Logcabin) & it was on the second sea day--Sun. at 10:30 am in Henry's Pub which turned out to be a great location. The 1st day is too busy. Everyone is getting their things put away, checking out the ship, making dinner reservations, etc. By the way, look for my review later this week. Enjoy your cruise.:)

[dongordon]

I was also on the 7/22 Spirit cruise with both 1stTimeNCL and Sailorsixx....we had a great time.

 

Having cruised twice on the Dawn and loving that ship, it was hard not to make comparisons.

 

I was in a Penthouse Suite (10502), under the bridge with a marvelous view.

The suite had a front and side balcony. However, the balconies are quite narrow and smaller than most other ships I have cruised. My three married daughters (with their hubbies) who also had balcony cabins observed the same. It would have been nice to have a small table on either balcony to place a drink or snacks while enjoying the view.

 

This review was excellent and I agree with David on most of his "ratings" and would like to share these comments on the cruise.

 

Here are my ratings and comments:

Embarkation: A-

We boarded at 12:15 AM and were in Windows eating lunch by 12:45 PM after dropping off our carry-ons in our suite. It was great meeting our roll call members in Lattitudes before boarding.

 

Ship:B+

I agree...very unique ship, beautiful decor throughout. I enjoyed the bridge observation area located in Galaxy of the Stars.

 

Public rooms:

 

Casino: B+

Great casino, plenty of slots. They had only one $5 Blackjack table (all filled with a waiting line) and had empty higher denomination tables with dealers standing awaiting customers, which I find frustrating.

The slots were numerous and similar to what you would find in Atlantic City or Vegas (and both my daughter and wife won!).

 

Bars and Lounges: A-

Henry's and Maherini (large) were outstanding for their decor.

Other lounges, a bit small.

 

Stardust Theatre: C

Too small and appeared "tired"

 

Pool: C-

Small, closed a few times during the cruise, lounge chairs here and throughour the ship were difficult to find when the "chair hogs" are around. There is plenty of space in the other areas other than the pool area, but not enough lounges. I suggested to the reception area that they purchase 100-150 more lounges to compensate for the problem and fill the spaces. By the way, I checked on their rules and you may remove towels from the chairs when not in use, but they were not as inclined to allow me to remove personal belongs, suggesting that I notify security (wherever they may be?). Waiting and watching a lounge chair for a half hour in the hot sun was not something that I wanted to do, so my family and I gave up sun bathing that day.

 

Food:

Service: B-

Service in all dining areas (including the specialty areas) is spotty and not because of the staff, because for the most part they were great. In my opinion, they do not have enough staff or do not deploy their staff correctly to take care of dining needs that make a dining experience A+ (filling water glasses, pouring the wine, second and third cups of coffee, replacing rolls and butter, etc.)

With traditional cruise dining, this is never a problem since the server and assistant server are assigned to a certain number of tables and their income is based on their ratings. If they get high ratings, they have tables added, thus increasing their income and vice versa. I believe on NCL, the job assignments are divided and your server may expect others to look after the other dining ammenities that I mentioned before. Only when I asked for more water or bread and butter did he/she provide it.

 

Food Quality:

B+

Specialty restaurants high (A or A-) and main restaurants (B or B+)

Le Bistro.. the best.

Garden...better thatn Windows

 

Shogun sushi...according to my daughter who is a sushi afficionado...the best she has ever had!

 

Entertainment:

A-

Only saw Dr. Trance..he was great

The lounges also provided very good entertainment, but I felt that the lounges should all have entertainment continuosly throughout the evening staring at 5:00 PM. Sometimes you had to search your Freestyle Daily to find out where and when to find the entertainment during cocktail hours.

 

Ports: A-

Great ports, except I am somewhat tired with St. Thomas after cruising so many years. It did come in handy for my wife who needed to purchase Marlboros. The ship's duty free did not have them, nor did they have them on my previous one-night cruise. So if you smoke Marlboros, you may not find them on the Spirit.

 

Tortola was beautiful...did the Beach Break tour.

 

Bermuda...the best - Horseshoe and Elbow beaches were great!

 

Staff Kudos:

My Butler Erlito was great.

Concierge Marieke fantastic.

Stewards Fergie and Jane....the best!

Hayley Evans at reception was the nicest reception peron I ever met.

Anita in Garden Restaurant was superb

Lolando in Windows was marvelous

Luis in Le Bistro was wonderful.

 

Overall, I have never been on a cruise I did not enjoy.

The Spirit had many positives, a few negatives, but I loved the cruise and wish I was still cruising on the ship!

 

PS:

We had a great group on our Roll Call and it was so nice talking to them throughout the cruise and sharing experiences.

 

Don

[JeryJule]

I was on the Spirit sailing last week as well and was thoroughly disappointed. I've been on eight Carnival cruises prior to this and feel that they do a much better job. I was on the Spirit with a group of 31 and we all found lots of issues.

 

The rooms were too small and run down. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of mold in the shower.

 

The food at Raffles is great if you are a Carbohydrate Addict. They provide no trays to carry your plates and are very slow to clean up the tables.

 

Dining rooms were ok but lacked the presentation that I've noticed on other cruises. Also....what happened to the midnight buffets!!!

 

The pool area was horrendous. I'm not a big fan of trying to see how many drunk, sloppy people can be squeezed into one pool.

 

If you've never been on a cruise before, you might not be disappointed but if you've traveled on larger, newer ships, you might be a bit taken a back.

 

Entertainment was ok. Julie needs to go. Also, don't bother going to the Galaxy Lounge for any dance parties. As soon as it gets good, they stop the music and direct you to the night club so that you can listen to bad music all night. They had a great Comedy show, the BlackStreet Boys but they're second appearance was cut from the schedule thanks to a decision by Julie the cruise director.

 

I don't think that I'll ever be traveling on Norwegian again...especially not the Spirit. Free Style Cruising is great if you want to spend hours on line trying to make reservations for dinner. Also, don't purchase any alcohol during your trip unless you are prepared to wait on line for one hour during the last day of your cruise in a crowded hallway that's about 90 degrees just to get the items that you've already purchased. NCL really needs to become better organized.

 

The biggest positives were the ports of call. Tortola is amazing and the excursions were very good.

 

Fell free to ask any questions.

[JeryJule]

Only one 110 outlet in the entire cabin (we had a balcony cabin). Be careful what you plug into the other outlets even with a converter. We blew out the entire cabin after plugging in a travel iron.

[logcabin]

My wife and I were also on this sailing. I agree with what much of the OP said and a lot of what Don said. I couldn't agree less with Jeryjule and their negative remarks.

 

I will be posting a very detailed review later in the week. It's taking me much time to write. However, here are a few of my observations.

 

1. Galaxay Of Stars is a poor place to feature shows. Much too small for them. We tried twice to see acts there (Dr Trance and Blackstreet Boys), both ties far to crowded and we left. These late night acts should remain in the theatre as there was nothing else going on in there at those times.

 

2. Over-all service was wonderful throughout the ship. Cudos goes to the following : Anita in Garden, Anna in Le Bistro, Randy our Butler (wonderful!), Gladys and Uzel our room stewards, Meirike (sp) the Conceirge. All were stand outs in our mind.

 

3. Food, subjective I know. But, sometimes I have to wonder if people were on the same ship and sailing as we were (i.e. Jeryjule). We enjoyed every meal we ate. The food was tasty and very well presented. We ate in Windows (4X) Garden (2X) Le Bistro (2X) Shongun (1X) Cagney's (1X). Of all the meals perhaps Cagney's was the only one I was not as pleased with. This was the ONLY place that I felt the service was slow. Otherwise, all meals were VERY enjoyable, well served and nicely presented. The Buffet (snacked in) was a typical buffet but nowhere near as bad as has been reported in the past. I gained 10lbs on this cruise... Not that I'm proud of that, but shows the food was more then enjoyable. I am not into the waiters doing "shows" at dinner. Personally, I feel their jobs are difficult enough without having to "perform" as well. So, the "Carnival Cruises food shows" were never appealing to me. However, if that's what you like and expect, you will not find that on NCL ships. A good thing in my book as I feel it's kind of "degrading" to the server.

 

4. We NEVER had to wait to be seated for dinner nor did we have any problems getting reservations. Perhaps this is because we always chose to eat later in the evening. Typically after the first show, around 9pm.

 

5. Lounge chairs... My personal opinion is that leaving a "ships towel" on a chair dosen't mean it's saved. Personal items such as books, shoes, a bag, etc. OK.. But a ships towel, no. If I spotted a lounge chair with a ships towel on it I would watch it for 5 minutes or so, then remove the towel and sit. Never had a problem, never had a confrontation.

 

6. The pool is no smaller then any other pool on a ship of this size. The layout actually makes it easier to navagate and find a place away from the main pool area.

 

7. Typically, mid-night buffets are slowing being nixed on many cruise lines and ships due to the tremendous waste in food. There was always food to be found on the Spirit no matter the hour. Never a problem.

 

8. The ship is beautiful and absolutely spotless. They were constantly cleaning and doing maintenance around the ship. Our suite was spotless and well cared for. The balcony chairs have seen better days, but the salty air will do that to wood. The rest of the ship is in great shape. Easy to navagate and find things. Nothing looked too worn to me for a ship nearly 10 years old. It is VERY well cared for.

 

9. Ports: St Thomas was a disappointment to us. Not as "clean" or "beautiful" as we thought it would be. We took a catamaran sail and snorkel and were driven through some of the most run down, dirty parts of the island. The tour was wonderful, however.

 

Tortola: Much nicer then St Thomas. However, do not do the Dolphin Swim tour here. VERY touresty and commercial. Their whole goal was to sell you stuff, not teach you about the dolphins. If you want a GREAT dolphin experience and swim, Dolphin Discovery at Kings Warf in Bermuda is by far the best out there.

 

Bermuda: Just beautiful and the best port of call.

 

Well, that's all I'll say here. As I stated, my detailed review will be out later in the week. However, suffice to say that the ship and vacation was great. If your traveling on the Spirit any time soon, you won't be disappointed (unless your a Carnival Cruise junkie), then maybe you'll be disappointed. But, if your looking for a nice relaxing vacation with good food and service, aboard a very pretty well cared for ship, then you'll enjoy the Spirit very much.

[mypyr]

Dongordon- We are going on the Spirit on 8/19 and appreciate your review. It sounds like it was fun! We will be next to where you were, in 10500. I have lots of specific questions if you have the time. Thanks in advance.

 

-How did you like the cabin?

-Were you able to use your front cabin under way?

-How was the motion?

-Is it really bad in the cabin?

-How was the service?

- Was Erlindo the butler for all 4 AB suites?

-Did he do anything special that we should ask for?

-Did Marieke make your dinner reservations or did you do it upon boarding?

-Speaking about embarkation/disembarkation, how did the priority suite service go?

 

Anything else you can suggest would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your help!

 

Cindy

Cindy

[dongordon]

Dongordon- We are going on the Spirit on 8/19 and appreciate your review. It sounds like it was fun! We will be next to where you were, in 10500. I have lots of specific questions if you have the time. Thanks in advance.

 

-How did you like the cabin?

-Were you able to use your front cabin under way?

-How was the motion?

-Is it really bad in the cabin?

-How was the service?

- Was Erlindo the butler for all 4 AB suites?

-Did he do anything special that we should ask for?

-Did Marieke make your dinner reservations or did you do it upon boarding?

-Speaking about embarkation/disembarkation, how did the priority suite service go?

 

Anything else you can suggest would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your help!

 

Cindy

Cindy

 

Hi Cindy,

 

I really enjoyed my suite...it was beautiful and nicely decorated.

My disappointments were:

-narrow balcony (as I previously mentioned)

-a bit small for our group of 10 for entertaining, but if you are 4 or less, it is fine. Our suite had a side balcony that you will not have. We enjoyed it since we like to keep the sliding door open at night to hear the waves crashing against the ship. We sacrificed that on the forward suite last year on the Dawn.

 

The motion was there at times (first day at sea and the last day), nothing severe, but we loved it......to me, that is what cruising is all about. It was especially nice at night, sort of sways you to sleep! The view is fantastic!

 

The service is great. Erlindo will be your butler and he is so nice and accomodating. He provided the necessary hors dourves for our bon voyage party the first day and soda for our bar set up. We brought on board our own juices as mixers.. We had him provide rolls, coffee and and danish every morning at 8:00 AM and earlier on port days. I had these nourishments with my wife and then met my daughters and their hubbies in Windows for a full breakfast. Each day in the afternoon he usually brings a special treat (chocolate covered strawberries, sushi, cheese and crackers, etc.) with a note compliments of the various officers (hotel manager, captain, cruise director, concierge, etc.). We also ordered afternoon sandwiches and snacks, ice tea, soda, etc. One day he set up a birthday party for my 13 year old daughter's friend's birthday. They had pizza, chicken fingers and a birthday cake. He had the cake beautifully decorated on a folded tablecloth on the coffee table with flowers.....quite nice. My daughter invited another friend she met on the cruise and the three had a dinner birthday party in our suite (we left before the surprise!)

 

I provided a list of specialty restaurants, days and times I wanted to eat for Merieke as soon as I met her. I chose to eat at the specialty restaurants on sea days and port days in the main restaurants. She was great and provided all that I asked for. She changed and cancelled excursions for me during the cruise, helped expedite my daughter's in a balcony cabin hot water problem, and provided VIP tags for early disembarking that I did not use. I am never in a rush to leave the cruise in NYC!

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any other questions that might arise.

 

Don

[mypyr]

Don-thanks SO much for taking the time to answer all my questions. A few more:

They say that the bed is a queen size bed, but it looks sort of small to me, more like a double. We ae quite large, so we are worried that we won't fit!

What did you think?

 

Since your concierge made all the dinner reservations, you didn't make ANY upon boarding? I feel like I should make a few for the specialty restaurants, since we want to eat and Le Bistro our first night...any other suggestions for our first night?

 

Tell me about boarding. What time did you get to the pier? Was the waiting area air-conditioned? What time did you actually board?

 

I read somewhere that there is priority seating at the shows for AB and AC suites..is that true? My DD loves shows and it will be important that we get decent seats..Is this something I could ask Marieke(sp)?

 

Would you cruise on Spirit again-I couldn't quite tell from your review...

 

Thanks Don!

 

Cindy

[Shawnee Indian]

Just A Quick Note To The OP...

 

The reason there is a large gap between the Stage and the First Row of seats in the Theater...

 

The ship was Built as the Super Star Leo...For Star Cruises...and The Asian Market...

 

The Asian Market LOVES Live Animal Acts....

 

Thus...The Space Between The Stage and First Row........

 

PS - I would have thought "ERon" would be all over this........

[Meridianfan]

Cindy, I was also on the same cruise as Don, Scott and Paula. We met with Merieke on the pier and gave her our reservations for the first four days and later in the week we gave her the reservations for the remainder of the week. The bed is large, at least a queen. We arrived at the pier around 11:15 and boarded around 12:15. The waiting area was comfortable, not hot at all. I don't know how it is when the weather is very hot. I never heard of priority seating for suites at the shows. The first arrivals get the best seats. I prefer the ones on deck 8. They have tables where you can have a drink and it is more comfortable.

 

We were in cabin 10022 and Randy was our butler also. He came by a few times a day to see if we needed something. Every day at 5:30 he brought us something, two or three days chocolate covered strawberries, one day sushi, another day small sandwiches. At night if we were in the cabin, we were brought cookies. Our steward, Roberto, was very good and charming.

 

I would have to agree with JeryJule on one point only, the pick up of liquor purchases was absurd. We had to wait for an hour to get our liquor. They lost my son's and then said that they had given it to him. He finally told them that he would go with them while they checked the cameras to prove that he didn't get the liquor. They finally made a more thorough search and found it.

 

Tortola was magnificent. The beach was beautiful and we took a tour of the island. The flowers were gorgeous. I didn't like St. Thomas at all. It is run down and even one shopkeeper said that there is no point going into town if you are not buying jewelry. In Bermuda, stop by the crafts market between the fort and the clocktower. They have some interesting things there. We ate at the Frog & Onion which is at the back of the building with the crafts market.

 

I have sailed nine times and the Spirit is my favorite ship. She is beautiful, the food was good and the staff was wonderful. I would sail on her again tomorrow if I could.

 

Marge

[dongordon]

Cindy,

 

I agree with Marge...the bed is large and comfortable.

I never requested reservations for the show, but I did see reserved seating on the Dawn for suite passengers. I would give it a try...Merieke is very accomodating on almost everything. We even requested certain servers and reservations in the main restaurants since we had a large group of 10 and Merieke made it happen.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that NCL goes the extra mile in providing for their suite passengers.

 

Would I cruise the Spirit again?

Having been on the Dawn twice, I really preferred thd Dawn and would probably choose that ship over the Spirit. That being said, it was still a great ship and the ports were different and better than the Dawn. Going to the Bahamas and Florida was not something I was going to do for a third straight time. I also wanted a longer cruise than 7 days.

 

One thing I would add about the buffet, although I only had dessert there, it was usually very busy and people appeared to be enjoying the food there. I guess it wasn't as bad as some people described. In fact, the Blue Lagoon is an excellent alternative for quick, casual dining at any time of the day. The shepard's pie is great!

 

Don