Spirit 7/30-8/5 (with comparisons to Dawn)

[ennjay]

Just got back from the Spirit (6-day Bahamas & Florida). Overall, we had a great time! I was on the Dawn at the beginning of the summer and loved that cruise so much that when I saw a deal on this Spirit sailing, I jumped for it!

 

The Spirit is a lovely ship. I loved the classy Asian flair and decor, and found that preferable in many ways to the neon, modern look of the Dawn. But the Dawn is a bit bigger, so in some ways the Spirit was less impressive for me.

 

Embarkation

Embarkation was easy -- we got to the pier around 11 and were boarding by 12. We were on board by 12:20 or so. I found the check-in process slightly more complex on this cruise than on the Dawn in June, however. This time we had to go provide our credit cards, show our passports and take our photos for our cards in one place, then go to another station in order to pick up our cards, then go to another station in which we were required to sign our cards, and then finally the obligatory "embarkation" photo stop and right on board. On the June cruise on the Dawn, we simply got our cards right at check-in and signed them once we were on board -- we didn't have to stop 3 places in order to do all this. Also, the entry on to the Spirit is less impressive than on the Dawn -- on the Dawn we entered right into the Atrium, but on the Spirit, we entered in a hallway/stairwell area (aft, I believe). So there's less "wow" factor from the start.

 

Dining

The Spirit has one fewer main restaurant, and one fewer specialty restaurant than the Dawn, and I really felt that on this cruise. On the Dawn, we never, ever waited for a table for two, and the restaurants never seemed too crowded. On the Spirit, I believe 2 out of the 4 nights we ate in a main restaurant (once at Windows and once at Garden Room), we were given a beeper and waited a minimum of 20-40 minutes for a table of 2. That was a little annoying. One night by the time a table was ready, we decided to come back later after the show because we wouldn't have time at that point to make the show if we ate then.

 

I found the dining room service could be a little hit-or-miss on the Spirit, as opposed to very reliable on the Dawn. 3 out of the 4 mornings we ate breakfast in Windows, we were not approached with the pastry/muffin tray (my favorite!) at all (twice we asked for it -- after our main meal had already come -- and the third time we just gave up). One day, in spite of the fact that Windows was practically empty, we tried to have a quick (1 hour?) lunch at Windows, but it ended up taking over 90 minutes because the service was so slow, and we missed the wine tasting we wanted to attend. However, some days, the servers were quick and attentive at the main restaurants, and the one night we ate at Le Bistro the service (Anna) was just incredible. I guess they probably put their best servers in the specialty restaurants (which makes sense).

 

I really liked the food on both the Dawn and the Spirit (they were pretty identical -- which was a little sad, but ah well). My favorites are the muffins in the morning and the souffles for dessert. One of the things I missed most on the Spirit was that they don't have fish & chips in the Blue Lagoon like they did on the Dawn. I LOVED those! On the Spirit they have fish&chips only in Henry's Pub from 12-2pm on sea days only. That was hugely disappointing to me.

 

Entertainment, Bars, Lounges, etc.

We're not big on the planned events, so the cruise director doesn't usually make a huge impact on me. Julie was our cruise director, and I got a giggle every time I thought about the fact that we had a cruise director named Julie (heehee). I kind of liked that she was a little classier (lower key) than Matt Baker on the Dawn, but he was more fun, I think (wiggy-wiggy-wa, etc.). This was only my 2nd NCL cruise, but I was amazed at how prescribed everything is from cruise to cruise, from ship to ship. Julie told the exact same jokes, the exact same stories, as Matt. That was a little creepy. I guess NCL wants to stick with what works and go with a guaranteed experience, but I think I would have preferred a little more originality and personalization of the experience. (Plus, Julie delivered the lame jokes much worse than Matt had!)

 

We did go to most of the shows, and enjoyed them for the most part but I think I preferred the Jean Ann Ryan company onboard the Dawn to the NCL production company onboard the Spirit. Alfred & Seymour were very funny (though a little one-joked), and we really liked Dr. Trance in his mainshow but the adults-only show at the Galaxy of the Stars was PAINFUL. Maybe it just depends on the audience members -- it seemed more real to me in the mainstage show, but it seemed like every single one of 'em was faking it (so obviously) in the Galaxy of the Stars show. We left early, it was that painful. Speaking of the Galaxy of the Stars -- it's smaller than the Spinnaker on board the Dawn (I believe), and it's way too small for the popularity of the shows they had there in the evening. For Dr. Trance, Second City, and the Liars Club, it was just way too packed to be enjoyable, and many people were left standing, sitting on folding chairs, or sitting in the outside rooms where you can't really see or hear.

 

One thing we were looking forward to was the martini/margarita tastings as I had really enjoyed them on the Dawn. Well, the martini tasting was scheduled for 2pm on the first sea day, and only around 6-8 people showed up. John, the head of the bartending staff, said that he couldn't do it for fewer than 10 people due to the amounts of alcohol (or something). We asked why they didn't have it slightly later in the afternoon or early evening (I think the Dawn did them at 4:00 or 4:30), and maybe more people would be interested in drinking 7 martinis at that time!! He said that usually it's very popular in the early afternoon hours -- but not this week, apparently. So it was cancelled. That was disappointing, though he did give us all a complimentary (tasting-sized) martini of our choice to try, so that was nice. The margarita tasting was held on deck (at the Biergarten area) on Thursday at 3pm. Perhaps due to location, this one was better attended. We had 8 (!) margaritas to try, but I was slightly disappointed because they were frozen margaritas made from the store-bought mixes, rather than good on-the-rocks margaritas like we had at Salsa onboard the Dawn. I felt so sick after from all that sugar! The next day, Friday, our last sea day, they tried to do the martini tasting again, this time at 1pm. The same 5 people that were there on Monday showed up again, but nobody else. John said sorry, he would have to cancel it again. We all complained and asked him to do it anyway, and tried to get passersby to come join us, but to no avail. Finally after our pleas, John called "his boss" and asked permission to do it for the 5 of us. He got permission, and we had a nice martini clinic -- trying 6 different martinis. It was fun, and John was great. The martini clinic was followed immediately by the Chocolate buffet! Martinis and chocolate made for a great afternoon! I like the chocolate buffet much better on the Spirit than on the Dawn -- more selection and variation, I think.

 

We went to bingo the first day -- the "teaser" -- mostly because we happened to be in the Galaxy of the Stars when they did it, not because we planned to (we're not big bingo players). It wasn't much of a "teaser"... they were disorganized and had a hard time getting it started. Then when someone won, this old man in a motorized wheelchair, they somehow said that he hadn't really won, and almost kept going with the game, but then realized the mistake and announced that he had won after all! They almost screwed that guy out of $400+!

 

The casino is nice, but I never saw any $5 blackjack tables like I liked to play on the Dawn. All the tables I saw were $10 or more -- yuck. They did have one $5 blackjack table up on the pool deck by the window on the 1st sea day (and maybe the 2nd sea day too, but I didn't go) -- that was kind of nice, to gamble in my bathing suit and looking out into the ocean while listening to the band, instead of listening to the "ching-ching" of slot-machines in a smoky casino! In the casino, though, I did learn a new game, Caribbean Stud Poker, which the dealer was very patient in teaching me -- and I won over $200 in a little bit of beginner's luck!

 

One of my favorite places on board for a drink was Maharini's... earlier in the evening before it got too crowded. We loved drinking martinis on the chic daybeds!

 

Ports

We didn't choose this trip for the ports, and barely got off the ship. We chose mostly for the value, the timing, and definitely the embarkation point in our hometown, New York. We didn't even get off in Canaveral at all, as my parents live there half the year and we get a lot of time to tour around for less money than the excursions cost. It was nice just to enjoy the comparatively empty ship while docked in Florida. In Nassau, we got off for a couple of hours to do a small amount of shopping, and we loved the morning spent at Great Stirrup Cay though we didn't get off for the evening beach party, not being party people and having heard bad things from previous cruisers about bad flies and bad pizza. But we got up early and were on the first tender to the island (around 7:30) and it was SOOO nice! Love that island. We swam a lot and saw two sting rays up close, and lots of fish.

 

Cabin and Cabin Stewards

Booked a Cat. N inside and got bumped up a bit to an inside cabin on the 11th deck (slightly forward). It was a great location, with easy access to the pool, casino, and atrium. A slight trek to go eat (we never really ate in the buffet), but for most everything else it was very convenient. I think this cabin was slightly larger than the one I had on the Dawn, which was nice. Missed having a mini-fridge, though.

 

We had GREAT room stewards on this cruise, who would fill up my little mini-cooler with ice for our sodas without being ever asked, and who gave us two cute towel animals (a frog and a snake). This was an improvement from our last cruise, when our steward would actually ignore some of our requests, plus we never got towel animals. They were exceedingly friendly everytime we saw them in the hall.

 

 

All in all, we had a really nice cruise, and I will definitely cruise with NCL out of NYC again, though I think next time I would take the Dawn over the Spirit (if itineraries/prices were relatively comparable). Even though the Spirit was aesthetically more pleasing in many ways than the Dawn, I felt less crowded and more genuinely "freestyle" on the Dawn, and I really enjoyed having the additional restaurants to choose from on that ship. But there was NOTHING wrong with the Spirit and we enjoyed our week IMMENSELY (as an aside -- the seas were VERY smooth on this trip -- smoother than to Bermuda on the Dawn). I would definitely go back on either ship -- and I'm looking forward to trying the new NCL ship coming to NYC late next year (is it the Gem?).

[judyf]

Also, the entry on to the Spirit is less impressive than on the Dawn -- on the Dawn we entered right into the Atrium, but on the Spirit, we entered in a hallway/stairwell area (aft, I believe). So there's less "wow" factor from the start.

 

I said the same thing in my review. A few ships do this must be a reason.

 

The Spirit has one fewer main restaurant, and one fewer specialty restaurant than the Dawn, and I really felt that on this cruise. On the Dawn, we never, ever waited for a table for two

 

Now this we never noticed. It was fine and we never waited and went to dinner twice with friends and there's was 6 of us and no wait.

 

I also enjoy the tasting we had a good crowd on ours. On the Star belive it or not the martini was at 11am! I was glad to see it at 2pm. On our Spirit sailing the martini and chocolate buffet was at the same time 2pm. We went and got in line first at the C.B. and then went with our plates to the M.T.

 

We didn't choose this trip for the ports, and barely got off the ship. We chose mostly for the value, the timing, and definitely the embarkation point in our hometown, New York

 

We did the same thing for the same reasons. Did just about the same thing you did in the ports.

[Dancyalien]

Ennjay,

 

Thanks for the review... Ill be on the spirit in Sept. Yes, the new ship out of NY is the GEM. They already starting selling. Inaugeral voyage is Nov 3, 2007

[torilyn]

Hi

 

Does the Spirit change their ports of call each week. Is it one week Bermuda St. Thomas etc. and the next week Port Canaveral, Bahamas etc.

 

Thanks