9/02-9/10 Spirit Review

[VampyBuff]

OK, just got back to my home in Long Island about an hour ago. I'll write up an actual review when the depression of not being on the ship anymore has gone away :(

[jimswims]

Hi VampyBuff:

 

I hope you had a great cruise and I look forward to reading your review. We were on the Spirit 8 day back in August. We had perfect weather and a great time.

[disfan13]

Ya big tease! I thought there would be a review here LOL.. We'll be on the Spirit Next Saturday!!

[VampyBuff]

My boyfriend's passed out asleep so I figure I may as well just write this up while everything's still fresh in my mind

For the record, I am only 21, and my boyfriend is only 20. It was just the two of us traveling (and I'm pretty sure we were the youngest couple on board traveling by ourselves). I've been on two cruises prior, this was his first.

I've seen many difft. formats to write the review but I guess it'd just be easiest for me to go day by day, SO here we go.

 

Saturday - We took the train to Manhatten from Long Island, then grabbed a cab to the pier. All pretty easy and cheap. Arrived at the pier approximately 10:30am. We were pretty proud of ourselves for getting there so early, but in the end it really didn't matter much, as the Spirit had only just docked as we were arriving (it was late due to the weather). The boarding process was, as a result, pretty much a mess. People all over the place in difft. stages of embarkation, noone really knowing what was going on. At one point they set out some tables w/ coffee and cookies and what not. Whatever, I know it wasn't NCL's fault, so can't really complain.

After getting onboard about 1pm or so, we were able to eplore the ship a bit. I'd looked at so many pictures before hand that things already seemed fairly formiliar. I'm not certain but fairly sure we ate in the Blue Lagoon while waiting for our room to be ready. Of course had to order the wings, which were decent, but my BF's favorite here was the wonton soup.

It was rainy so the poolside deck party was canceled (or maybe held inside somewhere, I don't know). We grabbed a couple drinks from the Bier Garden (just to kick start that onboard account), and I do have to say that they make their drinks pretty strong. So yes, they're expensive, but you do get your money's worth. Then he went to sleep while I unpacked and checked out the casino, which opened around 7:30pm.

The ship seemed pretty empty the first day, I'm assuming due to how rocky and wavey it was. I guess everyone just retired to their cabins early. Speaking of which, the cabins were pretty decent sized. We had an inside stateroom, which was more than enough room for both of us (and I pack a lot). I also saw the window rooms and standard balcany rooms and all of them looked fairly large. We were surprized as we'd kinda prepared ourselves for the worst. The bathroom was fine, if anything I liked the inside bathroom setup (shower w/ glass sliding door, toilet and sink area on the other side) better than the balcany one (that one had the toilet in it's own sliding glass door area as well, which really only seemed to make the space seem more confined).

We made a reservation for the Tepanaki grill the first night, and that was an AMAZING experience. Very much like Benny Hanas. Basically they cook everything right in front of you. Entertaining. We ordered the surf & turf meal for two ($25) and the filet mignon was the best I've EVER had, and I've always been an avid steak lover. The lobster was put on the grill still alive, which was...interesting. One of the other girls at the table ending up getting sick when the lobster's nerves started twitching (I'm guessing), making the legs move around after it'd already been cut in half...But anyway, moving on...ha.

We'd ordered the anniversary package (the $79 one), and our strawberries and champagne arrived later that evening. We personally loved the taste of the champagne and had a total of three bottles throughout the week (one w/ the package, one was given to us and we won one in the casino), and also had it at the anniversary party and art auction. Apparently it's NCL's private brand. There had also been a bottle of wine in our room which we eventually drank, and were never charged for so I'm not really sure what that was about ::shrug:: but hey, I'm not complaining.

Didn't sleep very well at all the first night. I don't know if this had to do w/ motion sickness or not, but it definitely didn't have anything to do with the beds (though our beds werent put together untill past 2am, even though I'd called and requested for it to be done as soon as we arrived in the room. Then, the cabin steward which finally arrived past 2 had to leave and come back two difft. times because he kept bringing the wrong sized sheet. We were exhausted and this was kinda an inconveiniance but understood it'd been a hectic day for all aboard). Though my BF doesn't fully agree, I thought the beds were VERY comfortable. We had the eggcrate already on the mattesses when we arrived.

 

Sunday - Like I just stated, didn't sleep very well the first night and when I did finally get to sleep, my BF ended up calling and waking me up at 6am to go up to the top deck and watch the sunrise. We'd ordered breakfast the night before and it was all OK. Also stopped by Raffles and tried a few things there.

Wow, I knew I should have kept those Freestyle Dailies, this is harder than I thought it'd be to remember everything...hehe.

Well. I know we took a five hour nap in the middle of the day so maybe that's why this day isn't very memorable. It was also still a lil cold so the outdoor activities weren't really hopping.

11:00am was the Cruise Critic meeting. I wish we'd been a lil more awake for it, but thanks again to Sharon for setting it up and going through the trouble of making name tags and what not. Lots of head crew members were present and it was nice to meet them face to face, though we had the same basic conversation multiple times in a row.

Tonight was the Captain's dinner and we ate in The Garden. When we went, we were given one of those beeper thingys and had about a 20 minute wait. Everything was very good, we'd brought our own wine onboard and had no problem giving it to them and then they corked/saved it untill the next time we requested it a few days later. The hostess had a bit of an attitude with us though. Actually, that happened to us a few times throughout the week. It was either very nice impressive service, or down right rude. We chalked it up to our age but still. We didn't get to the restaurant till 8:30 and we wanted to see the 9:30 show, we informed them of this so they knew we were in a lil rush, and had no problem, being out of there by 9:15 the latest. I honestly don't know why everyone wrote about dinner always taking 1 1/2 - 2 hours, as we never had it go for over an hour.

I'm a club goer, my BF is not, so my typical night would end with me in the club/casino and him either in the casino or going back to the room earlier. Each night at midnight they kicked off the dancing with a short performance by the NCL dancers. The Maharani nightclub/lounge was pretty impressive and classy and I enjoyed it very much. Although it IS at the very front of the ship, so it's one of the rockiest points which made for some entertaining nights on the dance floor.

 

OKAY, I hate to do this but I need a lil break...And I only wrote about two days so far. Wow.

[petguy]

Awww.....c'mon I want to read it all....

 

Just kidding...Thanks for posting what you have so far, I will wait patiently to read the rest.

[Maryfrei]

Can't wait to read the rest:)!

[VampyBuff]

I realized I forgot to say anything about the Showtime NCL dancers/singers show Sunday night. "On the Radio". Basically it started off alright, and gradually got worse and worse, till it was so bad it was funny. It was almost as though they were purposely trying to make them as ridiculous looking as possible with the costumes. The singing was more like shouting/chanting.

 

Monday - Again we woke up fairly early. Pretty sure this was just a very relaxing day. I utilized the gym most mornings, today we also used the Aquaswim which was interesting and something worth trying (basically an indoor treadmill type mini pool). Tanned. Dinner was in Le Bistro at 6:30. It would have been a much more enjoyable experience had we not been seated right next to a large family w/ a crying toddler (and I swear, this family was EVERYWHERE on the ship we were, and this kid was ALWAYS screeching at the most inappropriate times. Le Bistro, during shows, ect. If it were an infant it'd be a lil more acceptable, but she had to be at least three or four) and then they were getting up and sitting down the entire time taking pictures of one another, bringing the child in and out of the restaurant, ect ect ect. Just very rude and I know my parents would never have stood for that sort of behavior when I was younger.

BF got the filet mignon again, I got some sort of stuffed chicken. Both amazing. We couldn't finish them so we took the rest back to our room. We received yet another bottle of wine for the anniversary package, and they brought out a cake and sang for us. The entire restaurant found this amusing because I turned bright red and was giggling the entire time. Add in the fact that we both look like we're 17 and yea. Hehe. Had the chocolate fondue and cheesecake and chocolate lava cake for desset. Had to dip the cheesecake in the fondue after everything I'd heard about it on here. Yes, it's worth it. No, I don't want to know how many calories I consumed that night.

I'm not sure what we did between dinner and the show at 9:30. I know at one point we purchased the soda sticker for my BF and we shared it throughout the week, there would have been no reason to get two difft. ones when we were constantly moving from place to place and either of us could use the card to get a drink wherever we went.

Tonight was Ed Alanzo. You may recognize the name from Saved by the Bell. His show was OK, funny, but I ended up dozing off towards the end. After the show I went to the night club/casino for a few hours, then was back in the room and asleep by 3am.

 

Tuesday - Think this was the morning we went to Windows for breakfast. Beautiful view, we were one of the first in there so we were seated right next to the large aft windows. BF got the herring in white wine sauce which was a treat. Our waiter told us he normaly only gets a couple of orders for it per cruise. I had some sort of egg white omelet. The croissants are evilly delicious.

It's a beautiful site going through all the carribbean islands to get to St. Thomas. We were able to get off the ship by noon. The town is about a 15 minute ride from the pier. $4pp each way. We went to a place called Happy Buzzard and got two 24 inch drinks with extra shots (wow, I'm starting to come off as an alcoholic in my review). We then made the mistake of going shopping while drinking these drinks. Somehow ended up spending an insane amount of money on sunglasses, jewlery, medallions, ect. Out of nowhere it then started pouring, so we took a taxi to a place I'd read about, Margarita Phil's, for some ethnic food. Very good, but very expensive. Our waitress was very friendly and around our age w. a BF in NY so we had some interesting conversation w/ her about living in St. Thomas.

Were back on the ship by 5:30, exhausted. Had originally planned on going back out since we could stay on the island untill midnight, but ended up taking a nap. Our anniversary Hor'Dieuvers were also delivered to our room this afternoon.

Thankfully, we'd forgotten to put the "Do Not Disturb" sign in our lock, so housekeeping came to our door and woke us up around 9pm so we were able to make it to the 9:30 Rebecca Lowe show. She was amazing. Wonderful beautiful talented voice, with a great personality to go with it. She only had one show that night, and I'm glad we didn't miss it. Literally brought tears to my eyes during a couple songs.

 

Wednesday - So we'd had an excursion "The Best of Tortola" scheduled for today, but we didn't get to sleep till about 4am the night before and must of slept through our wakeup call, because when we did wake up at 9:15am, we realized we'd missed the departure time by 1/2 an hour :( Managed to get off the ship by 10am. Got a bus to the beach. Thrilling experience, those busses. It's true that they have to honk their horn when they go around corners so people know that they're coming. My BF was surprized by how much poverty there was and all the run down buildings. I've been traveling since before I can remember, so it doesn't phase me at this point but I guess it would be a bit of a culture shock to someone whose only idea of what the Carribbean looks like had been molded from movies and pictures.

Once we got to the beach, it became pretty apparent that they stick all the tourists on the same beach. Dirty, over crowded, not my idea of 'paradise'. Didn't stay very long, tried out the water, ate at one of the food huts on the beach and tried conch fritters, then got back on a bus and back to the ship.

At 4pm we had the anniversary/honey mooners party in the Maharani's Night club. It was kinda awkward. Champagne and cake was offered. Then everyone introduced themselves, but they had us do things like stand in a circle on the dance floor and share ways to have a healthy relationship and it was all just too much like therapy, and I know I wasn't the only one to feel this way.

Left there to go to the Murder Mystery dinner we'd signed up for. Not at all how I expected it to be, from doing past Murder Mystery's in the city and on other vacations. Instead of their being actors involved in the event or any real structure, they simply broke everyone up into groups (we'd had to sign up for it earlier in the week, it was free, but I think it was about a 96 person limit) and had us pick charectors to be and then we ate in Windows while going thrugh these lil charector booklet/scripts. A very independant group activity, and while it had its moments, I don't think I'd have done it if I'd known that's how it was going to work.

Immediately after dinner we went to the Stardust Theater for Dr. Trance's Hilarious Hypnosis show. I volunteered and it was fun, but not nearly as good as the two I've been to/in in Las Vegas over the years. The good thing about doing things like this is that it opens up ways for conversations to start with people, because I was approached for the rest of the trip with comments and questions about it.

BF retired early, yet again, and I spent the night in the nighclub and casino, yet again. Was back in the room by maybe 2am or so.

 

OK, break.

[neverthought]

 

Nice Job Kiera! I'm glad someone else is writing the review. I hate writing anything lengthy. I was nice meeting you and BF, I hope us "old folks" weren't to boring! Glad to see you had a great time, I know DH and I did too! Although for us St.Thomas was a bust, and I have issues with a tour excursion that I will be taking up with the place itself.

[NJsharon]

Okay, here is my review of the same cruise... sorry IT IS LONG!!!!!!

 

 

MY REVIEW:

 

Hello Vampy, saw you up front for the hypnosis show, nice performance.

 

Sharon, thank you also for organizing the CC meet & mingle.

 

Jessica… THANK YOU for babysitting for us that one evening!!! That was one evening we really did enjoy!!!! :D

 

I am the wife of Knighthawke, just to let you know. So there was myself (32 yrs), DH Paul (42 yrs) & our twin girls Elise & Emily (16 months).

Overall view of the cruise was a 2 thumbs down. :( But just our personal experience & I saw Vampy’s review so far is fairly positive, so you can all read both of ours to get different perspectives.

 

Embarkation – Well the traffic was bad for us from 15 blocks south of the piers it took us about 45 minutes to drive to the pier ramp. Only thing I could think of to improve this situation though is to change traffic patterns (only about 3 or 4 cars were getting across from the pier lane to the pier ramp at a time), the rest is just NY traffic I guess! Once we were parked & in the embarkation hall we did have to wait for a few hours. This was with us getting there late (as we had seen the ship would be arriving late so we would be boarding later). So we had 2 very cranky girls with nothing for them to do in the embarkation area, but sit in their stroller. Lesson learnt though, next time pack many snacks in case it takes a long time to board & toys. Once the line did start to move then it was smooth & quick getting on board though.

 

Ship public areas – Very nice details around the ship inside, atrium looked very pretty with the fountain, piano (even though I only saw one person playing the piano when we were waiting to disembark. lol) & nice lighting. Loved the little nook to the side of the Martini bar where you could sit & look out the glass windows. The horrible orange or peachy carpet colors on the ship were nasty though, and of course that was the color for our deck too (deck 11)! The upkeep of the ship we felt was poor. We were greeted by 2 asian lion statues as we got off the gangway, one that had an eye missing & both had lots of chipped & peeling paint on them! Not a great first impression. We found this around the outside of the ship, that statues were needing a new paint job or cleaning, and wooden hand rails needed a coat of varnish, as well as the deck. Would just help to make it look in tip top shape. We felt the ship looked very worn because of this. Restrooms were much smaller than other ships we have been on & the silly toilet roll holder never seemed to work properly for me with the TP being impossible to pull out, getting 1 or 2 sheets at a time. LOL Was this just me?! Plain paper towels that you couldn’t get out of the dispenser either, which is why the top was probably missing so you could get them out that way?! Elevators were adequate & nice inside. Noticed one had a button missing for floor 10 on the last day of the cruise. lol Not sure if that would still work if you poked your nail into the tiny circle left there?!

 

Cabin – Well we had the largest inside room available & found it insanely small for us & our 2 little girls. Should definitely have gotten an oceanview or probably a balcony, just for the extra space. But live & learn. Would be adequate space for 2 people though, definitely not big or spacious but adequate is the word. We asked for the 2 single beds to be pushed together & 2 cribs. When we arrived they were separate & only one pack & play. They did put the beds together & make them for us about 2 hours after we called room service to let them know though. We didn’t get the 2nd pack & play until the next night. Bed was very comfortable we both thought but I hated the pillows (too thick & hard for me), DH thought they were fine. Once we had the 2 pack & plays in there, there was barely any room to move, add the double stroller into the mix & forget about it. LOL Bathroom was adequate for all of us, small but adequate, we both liked the shower. Also storage area (closet & drawers) was definitely enough for all 4 of us! We put the double stroller in the closet each night to give us a tiny bit of extra space. BIG BAD POINT was that when we first went in our cabin we put the girls down to crawl & explore. Then I noticed Emily chewing on something. She had an old chicken bone in her mouth! Firstly that is just plain gross that something like that is laying around when the room is meant to been clean, secondly it was dangerous if she had bitten & swallowed some of the bone! We also noticed the smoke detector & sprinkler had a thick layer of dust on them. We called reception & they apologized & said they would send someone to clean the room. Someone came within about 2 hours & they had vacuumed well it looked like, but the dust was not touched.

 

Room Service – We ordered milk for the girls every morning & also sometimes juice & toast. Breakfast was limited with no hot foods like eggs, bacon etc. But I guess adequate enough. Food was always delivered on time, but would have preferred it if they didn’t call us on the phone to tell us “your milk is on the way madam”, as it woke the girls each time they called. If they had just knocked lightly then they would not have woken up & we could have had some extra sleep (which we reeeeally needed!). Toast was always cold too. Regular room service menu was ample enough. We just ordered the grilled cheese sandwiches & I thought they were okay, Paul really liked them.

 

Activities – I participated in one craft activity called ‘Paper Boxes’, ‘Win, Lose or Draw’ game, one Bingo game, and 2 Dart Tournaments. The craft activity was a complete disaster. LOL It involved folding paper to make a paper box, well that was the idea. The staff member started by giving us each a piece of 8 ½ x 11” kids construction paper & instructing us to fold it diagonally in half to make a square & tear off the extra. Then we followed folds to make one half of the box, repeated to make the other half. Well my half resembled the shapes of kayaks. LOL They also would not stay together. I noticed that nobody had a box shaped box & everyone’s box would not stay together either. I am a very crafty person too, I’m a consultant for a scrapbooking/stamping company (Close To My Heart) so I have to be. But she told us that we were not following the instructions correctly & needed to do the folds better then it would be a perfect box shape & would stay together. Well it was a great idea for a craft activity I thought, but they really should have spent the extra tiny bit of money to have regular paper, some scissors for us to use (instead of having to tear the paper, or better yet, have it cut into a square already) & some kind of adhesive to glue the flaps in so they stayed in place. Of course she didn’t have an example to show us. After that waste of time then I didn’t go to any other craft activities. Win, Lose or Draw was a lot of fun, even though my team lost, we had fun! Dart tournaments were also fun too! Bingo… well,that was just a rip-off & now I am kicking myself for wasting $75 to play one session. I think the cheapest ‘package’ was $25 for 4 paper cards, or you could pay $75 for 72 cards on a bingo machine. They really pushed you to buy the machine as nobody wins on the paper cards & you got extra raffle tickets for the cruise drawing at the end of the voyage. Well of course I didn’t win, even with my 72 cards. LOL The payouts were lousy too! The session I played the highest payout was around $130. We went then to the bingo session on the last sea day for the cruise drawing, but didn’t participate in the bingo games. Lots of people purchasing the machines still for a $100 price because then you got 50 raffle tickets for the cruise drawing! (rolling my eyes!) One game the payout was around $340, but 14 people won, so they didn’t even make their money back! Of course we didn’t win the cruise either. Darn as we were so wanting to rush back to cruise with NCL again. We also participated in the Murder Mystery dinner (Jessica, someone from on CC babysat our girls for 3 hours so we could do this). We enjoyed it & had 2 nice couples around our age in our group, at our table. But we were expecting everyone to participate together & to maybe have to dress up for the parts etc. But each group of 6 did the same ‘game’ with the same characters & just read word for word from a folded up pamphlet. Weird way to do it. But we still had a lot of fun & joked about it afterwards.

 

Staff & Crew – Our cabin steward & maid were very friendly & nice, staff around the buffet area were always super friendly to us & our girls, staff in the bar areas were always nice & friendly too. Entertainment crew weren’t that great we felt. I said to Paul that I felt they just didn’t have any strong personalities. There was a little guy from Bosnia I think & he was always friendly & said hello to our girls if he saw us around ship & would come over & chat. But they just weren’t memorable to us. Also thought Julie, the director, seemed very fake. Was disappointed after our prior cruises with HAL & Carnival as they had super entertainment crew that had us laughing & smiling the whole time & were very personable.

 

Regular Dining Areas – Buffet was okay, very basic buffet with your hot dogs, pasta, potato, bread, cold cuts, fruit & cardboard pizza always available. Stir fry was nice & that was always there too. Crepe station when it was there was reeeally good. Also the quesadilla station was yummy. Omelette station was nice & the man working there was always very friendly to me & my girls. Desserts were small & nothing special. Oh & they had stuffed cabbage one night, so you’d think it was regular stuffed cabbage right? Nope, it is NCL stuffed cabbage, so it is stuffed with… yep, more cabbage. LOL And some lentils. LOL Gross stuff. LOL Quesadillas on Mexican night was my favorite & the cereal crusted catfish was not bad either. We dined in the Windows dining room 3 times & once it was great, once it was okay & once it was terrible! We had one server Thomas who was the best, very accommodating & chatted with the girls. Food was okay, I felt there wasn’t a huge choice & the specials each day were weird combinations. Not a big fan of savory items with fruity sauces & that seemed to be everything! Like pork chops with cranberry sauce & raisins, or something like that. Just not my style. I did have the sirloin steak one night & that was very nice. Escargot were lovely, as was the lobster. Paul ordered 2 lots of the escargot & 2 lots of the lobster! But most of the time we weren’t too impressed with the food choices available. The one time Thomas served us the food came in a timely manner. One time it took a while, another time it took forever to even get our order taken or get some water. Seems like they seated us in a section with no waiter though as there was a lot of talking & pointing at us & complaining between staff members, but nobody was coming to talk to us or serve us! Didn’t help that Emily was sick that day with a fever & so we really wanted some water for her & had to wait a long time just to get that. Another BIG BAD POINT here is that we were told by Thomas the server, that there are only 2 high chairs for each dining area! So 75% of the time we didn’t have any high chairs for the girls at all as they were all being used in all the areas. Why would they only have 2 high chairs for each area?!! That seemed ridiculous to us. Even our takeout Chinese has 2 high chairs & nobody sits in there to eat! LOL

 

Speciality Restaurants – We didn’t go to any of these, so can’t really give a review of them. We did go to the Asian one for sushi lunch & the sushi was great & very well priced. Took about 20 minutes to get our sushi though (when it was a very small basic order for different rolls) & they messed up 3 orders for customers that ordered before us & one customer walked out after arguing about his wrong order. One tip if someone hasn’t mentioned it before is to wait for reservations until the 2nd or 3rd day of the cruise as they then start to offer 50% off for port days if you make a reservation for 5.30pm or 6.30pm seating at the speciality restaurants. Had we not had the girls with us we would have taken advantage of this, but we didn’t want to disturb other patrons with our girls possibly fussing too much!

 

Entertainment– We thought this was very poor! We didn’t go to the show the first one or two nights. We saw Ed Alonzo doing his comedy magic (we took turns going to each of the shows) & I have to same he was pretty lame. Nothing I haven’t seen before & I probably would have walked out but was too embarrassed to do that as he was jumping on people when they did! An example of one of his tricks was firing a fake brick out of a fake cannon & trying to catch it in his mouth. Well of course the cannon doesn’t fire & so he looks into it & gets the brick fired into his face & waddya know it is in his mouth? Yep, it was that lame. DH went to see Rebecca Lowe & really enjoyed her, wish I could have seen her too, but just didn’t work with not having childcare for the girls. Dr Trance was okay we both thought he was alright, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. Vampy was good on stage. Couple of other people should have been let back to their seats as they did not seem hypnotized, but whatever. It was okay, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. Went to the ‘Great White Way tribute’ done by the NCL dancers/singers, by myself. I liked the songs & the performance but also went away telling my DH that I felt they were shouting a lot of the songs or maybe the sound system wasn’t that great? Saw the Crew Show on the last day at 3.30pm & should have skipped that! LOL I honestly thought it was like the American Idol tryouts! I did wonder if they rehearse at all as they were pretty bad, example being the filippino lady who sang “I will survive” and was singing “if you taught for just one seecon” in a not so in tune voice. Okay, yes English is not her first language, but couldn’t they correct her so that she didn’t sound so bad? I did leave about half way through as somehow one of my girls managed to fall asleep during the loud shouting of Bohemian Rhapsody. LOL

 

Childcare – Well thanks to Jessica from this board we had 3 hours of babysitting!!! Yay for Jessica saving the day. Can’t review NCL childcare though as it was non-existent for our girls as they were under 2 years of age. I still cannot understand why they can’t offer babysitting at least, just for a few limited hours in the evenings for children under 2 years of age? We did get to do the Murder Mystery dinner thanks to Jessica, but would have been nice to just relax by the pool together, go see a show, have a romantic dinner alone or just sit on the deck & gaze out at the ocean & night sky. It made it really hard for us having the girls around 24 hours a day. I think that was a major part of why we didn’t enjoy our cruise, we were so tired & didn’t get any time to relax on the cruise. We did try to take turns doing activities alone while the other one watched the girls, but it is hard for one person to feed them both. So then we only got a couple of hours to do one thing & then we needed to meet up again.

 

St Thomas – Well this was our first port of call & we didn’t enjoy it here. We have visited many islands before & other countries. But just felt the island was very dirty in general, lots of litter, gardens with piled up junk, houses/shacks in bad state of repair & locals weren’t overly friendly. We took a taxi into town quick to shop & the shops were fun & lots of them. Then raced back to the ship in another taxi, to be in time for our excursion to Coral World & Coki Beach. Bus ride there was an adventure in itself. The bus had no sides & no seat belts so we held on tight to our girls. One poor little boy in the seat behind us fell forward when the bus stopped suddenly, banging his eye on the hand bar & cutting his eyelid. So it was bleeding. Driver just carried on jerking the bus around swinging around corners. Got the Coral World & the skies opened up & we had heavy rain, thunder & lightening. So had to wait about 10 minutes under an awning before we could start to explore the aquarium. Then the rain kept coming & going so we did lots of running around. Took us about an hour to look around the whole aquarium so very small & really weren’t that impressed. Tiny tanks (size of regular fish tanks) inside the reef world area with different little fish. Some slightly bigger tanks outside with a few different fish & some small sharks. Underwater area was much smaller than I thought it would be & I expected to see lots of pretty coral & different colored fish outside on the sea bottom. But it was just dirty old coral with grey or silver fish, that all kind of looked the same to me? For $39 excursion (per person) I would say save your money. Coki beach we didn’t go onto as it was pouring down with rain again, so we sat on a brick wall under a tree & drank a soda instead while waiting for our crazy bus to arrive. But the beach looked VERY small & not that clean to us from what we could see.

 

Tortola– We only walked on land & explored the town next to where the ship was docked. We liked it there. Not tons of shops like at St Thomas but a bit cleaner & much friendlier locals & cute stores that were more local rather than touristy. Plus I found a British store which made my day (being that I was born & raised in England) so stocked up on my pot noodles, walkers crisps, & shandy! But we only spent a short time on land in that little town, so can’t really review the island well as a whole. But what we saw we liked & wouldn’t mind stopping there again to explore it more.

 

Bermuda – This was our favorite port of call & we both decided we want to take a cruise purely to Bermudaone day (but just not with NCL!). It was a simply beautiful island, well kept, lovely plants, trees & flowers everywhere, even in the wild areas. The most friendly people we have met at any port of call on any cruise. Just lovely natural beauty of the island too. We went it alone here & got a travel pass for the day each (I think that cost us $12 each & was worth it). Took a bus from close by the ship to Horseshoe Beach. Only had to wait about 10 minutes for the bus & was a nice bus that was air conditioned with closed sides & not a crazy driver! He showed us the beach as we passed it, told us where to catch the bus if we wanted to go back to the ship, where to catch the bus if we wanted to go to Hamilton etc. Walked down the hill to the beach & Horseshoe Beach was beautiful. Sand wasn’t as pink as I had expected, looked regular to me until you picked it up & looked closely & then you saw it has some tiny grains of pink in it. We went to the side of the beach where there was an alcove/inlet with shallow still water, small beach & some pretty fish swimming around. It was perfect for our girls & that seemed to be where most of the families hung out. Then I went & swam on the main beach too & the water was lovely. Didn’t see any fish in the water there though, only in the small inlet area. Caught the bus up to the top of the hill for $1 each which was worth it & again the driver was friendly & gave us a couple of interesting facts about the island on the way up. Then waited about another 10 minutes for a bus to take us to Hamilton. There were 2 lovely older local ladies on the bus sat next to me that I chatted to & they were so nice & friendly informing us about the island & telling us where to shop & about where they were from originally (one from London England & one from South Africa). Hamilton was a beautiful immaculate town (or is it a city?!), so clean, so well kept, beautiful shops, lovely architecture, shops & buildings are kept up well. Expensive everywhere to shop for anything. Cost me $15 for a baked potato with fillings for lunch from a pub, but admittedly was a large serving. Also bought some tourist items around here like postcards, a Christmas ornament & myself a sweater that I love! Then took the ferry back to the ship from there. The ferry had a long line but as we had a stroller we were able to get on in the front. But not everyone made it onto that ferry, so some had to wait for the next one which was 30 minutes later & cutting it fine for the ship leaving time. So be advised to catch an earlier ferry to be on the safe side!

 

Disembarking – This went very quickly & smoothly. We were in the color coded luggage tags system & had red tags which was the first group off in the colored tags. Express disembarkation was first (had to be a US citizen & be able to take all your suitcases & luggage off the ship with you) & then a couple of large groups that were on the cruise & then the color coded luggage tag system. Once they had the gangway down, it was probably 45 minutes later & we were off the ship! Straight through customs/immigration, just handing them our form we had filled out. Got a luggage carrier to help us take our cases out to the curb, while Paul went & got the car. Tipped him nicely for his help. Then Paul got to his car very easily & within about 10 minutes of waiting by the curb we were all in the car back off to NJ!!!! Much easier disembarking than embarking!

 

Sorry this is such a lengthy review, but I wanted to cover as many areas as I could as I know I personally love to read a detailed review of a ship I plan on sailing on.

 

So summary is they need some better upkeep of the ship, cleaning the cabins better, food was poor choices & strange choices but tasted okay, poor entertainment, poor entertainment staff, need more high chairs & childcare for children under 2 years of age. Great friendly staff in general & Bermuda was fantastic. But overall, thumbs down. Doubt we will cruise with NCL again as compared to HAL & Carnival it was horrible.

 

Does sound like Vampy had a better experience than us though, so maybe it was our age & the fact we had young children that we viewed things differently? Different people view things differently I guess right?! :confused: I hope some people found this useful though. :)

[tecknicole]

Thank you both for your wonderful reviews in such a fast time period! I will be going on this same cruise next Saturday. Thank you very much for your insights about the ship as well as the islands. I hope the hurricane does not damage Bermuda too badly.

Thanks again!

Nicole

[superbonnie]

NJSharon thanks for your review. I wonder if you used the kids play area at all. We will be traveling with our two grandaughters in Nov and the little one will be 15 months old. DD will be taking her own booster seat thanks. Guess we will be doing lots of shared babysitting. Did you feel ok with the transportation on the islands without car seats? We were planning on Coki beach and coral world , but now wonder if it will be worth the effort. Anyone else have an opinion about coki and coral world. I would love to go to at good snorkeling beach. Again thanks for the comments.

[VampyBuff]

Nicole, you have no idea how happy we were to have JUST missed the hurricane...Our time in Bermuda was perfect and beautiful and hopefully yours will be as well.

 

Thursday - Another sea day. I personally enjoy these just as much as Island days. Grr, unfortunately I stopped writing down the things I wanted to do each day, after Wednesday so this is gonna be a lil bit harder now.

I think this was the day of the Mr. Sexy Legs competition by the pool which was semi entertaining but ntohing spectacular. I think the Newly Weds game was also on Thursday, again, nothing spectacular. Julie, the cruise director, was nice enough, and always present in the club and during various activities, and I'm a semi laid back person so it was nice to have a more low key CD at times, but I think she could have been more humerous. Also, maybe next time I shouldn't cruise on such a family friendly cruise line because things would have been funnier/more interesting had they been able to spice them up, in my opinion .

Had lunch in Windows. Food was pretty much a hit or miss in the main restaurants, yah just never knew what would be amazing and what would taste like it'd come out of a microwavable dinner. But if the latter was the case, then you could always send it back and try something different. I know I tried a chilled soup at one point, and it was really good, but people are right in saying that it feels like you're having dessert for an appetizer, and I tend to be more calorie concious than most, so a few spoonfulls was enough for me.

Ate in The Garden with a lovely older woman who was traveling alone. Bless her for putting up with us talking her ear off the entire time (we were also on our 2nd bottle of champagne at this point), she musta felt like she was babysitting, but it was nice hearing her various stories and opinions on solo vacations. I'm pretty sure that she said she didn't like Freestyle Cruising, because it's much harder to form a connection with people when you're not sitting with them every day.

Went to the Second City Comedy Improv show that night. It was...OK, it was bad. LoL. It had maybe a few really funny moments but the rest was pretty boring. Again, this probably had to do w/ the PG rating of the show, as their Adults Only show was better.

Went to the newly Wed game afterwards, and then ended up going back to Second City with a couple we were hanging out with, so we got to sit through that again.

Of course our night ended up in the night club. Only this night we were there till about 3-4am.

 

Friday - BERMUDA!!!! Had orginally had a Snuba excursion booked, but it was canceled and refunded due to lack of interest. We slept later than we wanted to (10:30) because of our late night out and also due to losing an hour in time zones. Was off the ship by 11am. Walked across the pier and rented a mo-ped for $85. Definitely a must do if you're going off on your own. I'd been in Bermuda a few years ago but was only 17 at the time and only with my Godmother, so this time was a lot difft. We stopped at a restaurant and had lunch (escargot and sushi, sushi was amazing) then continued on to Hamilton. Was a bit of a ride, and def. scary driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, having to pass cars and there was a lot of traffic due to construction, but at least we got to see a lot of the island.

Only stayed in Hamilton long enough to discover alcohol prices were higher than on the ship, and to get directions to a good snorkeling beach (Church Bay. First beach coming from the ship to Hamilton). Took maybe 25 minutes to get there. We passed Horseshoe Bay beach on the way, and judging from the amount of people there, were glad we were directed to a much more secluded beach. There weren't many people, it wasn't huge, and was the best beach for snorkeling. The guy was awsome, we didn't have any cash on us, only credit cards, so he ended up letting us use the rental snorkeling equipment for free. Fins, masks, noodles, ect. I'd never been snorkeling before and apparently I SUCK at it. It really bugged me out to be breathing underwater, the waves kept knocking me into the rocks and I scraped the hell outta my legs, and it was impossible to get aruond the rocks and stuff with the fins. But this was just me, because my BF had no trouble with any of the above, and was able to go all the way out and see some pretty large fish.

Left the beach about 3pm. Stopped by the Dolphin Quest just so that he could see a dolphin, as he never had before, and there were also some large sea turtles. The lady had been nice enough to let us in for free since they were closing fairly soon, and the dolphin trainer put on a mini show just for us :). After that we made a quick stop at the Rum cake and Glass Blowing factory for some free samples and to watch them torch the glass. And then after a quick snack at the Pirattes Lagoon, we returned our mo-ped and were some of the last passengers to get back on the ship.

Quick showers, watched the sail away. My BF was exhausted and ended up going to sleep around 7pm so I just had a quick dinner in Raffles and watched the Show Time "Standing Room Only" show by myself. Lots of broadway songs all thrown together. Better than their first show earlier in the week, but not by much. This was also the night all the chefs and crew members came on stage after the show.

Went to the Second City adults only show. As I already mentioned, it was better than their PG show, but still not amazing. Then met up with a couple people and went to the night club and def. got pretty trashed till about 4am...Lost my evening bag, which mainly only had my room key, makeup and a credit card so no MAJOR loss, but a hassle all the same. Never turned up int he lost & found, so hope someone's enjoying it ::eyeroll::

ANYWAY, moving on. LoL.

 

Saturday - Had a lovely hang over for our last day at sea. Woke up maybe 10am. Today was the Chocoholic Buffet which was pretty dissapointing and not very impressive. All the desserts looked better than they tasted, except for the white chocolate fondue. Went to Swing dancing class. Tanned by the pool for a lil bit. Had a snack at Raffles, try the crepes, they're worth it but HUGE. Went into the hot tub at one point, then showered and got ready for dinner. Ate in Windows. My BF had the red snapper which he said was very good, and I got the pork chop which I had to force myself to choke down a few bites of before giving up.

The show was opened by Rebecca Lowe, who again was very very very good, and then Ed Alonzo did another proformance which was better than his first. He actually did one trick that was really amazing involving a woman's ring...Let's just say it ended up in a sealed pork&beans can in a jewlery box in a locked chest under a girl who was sitting on it.

Went up to Dr. Trance's Adult Only hypnosis show at 10:45. Again, I volunteered. It was really working at first, but then the thing he had me doing caused me to think too much (every time he put the microphone in front of my face, I had terrets, and it was just too much on-the-spot for me) so I came out of it. But I was approached numerous times afterwards and told I was one of the most entertaining people up there, so guess I didn't do so bad after all..lol.

By the time we were out of that show, it was about 12:30 and our bags had to be outside our room by 2am and we'd yet to pack a thing. So went back to the room to do that, getting them out maybe 5 minute to, then wandered down to the casino/night club but it was pretty much dead the last night.

 

Sunday - Debarkation day. Very depressing :( Was awake by 7am, had breakfast in Windows. It's true that by the last day the customer service goes WAYYYYY way down. Our waiter alternated between being rude and being polite but in a way that suggested he was irritated we were there for breakfast when we were about to get off the ship.

Was off the ship by 10am. My father picked us up and we were home by 11:30am. If we hadn't spent more during the cruise, than the actual cruise cost, then we would def. be planning our next vacation already. As it is we already have a week long trip to Orlando, FL coming up, and have NO clue how we're going to manage this financially. But like we kept telling ourselves while on the ship, you only live once and the money spent on alcohol, gambling, pictures, suivenieres, ect was all worth it (for the most part, at least ;) ).

 

Well, that's it. Question away if you wish, what everyone says is true, a vacation is what you make of it. Just relax and try not to let the little things get to you. If you expect perfection, you'll be dissapointed. If you're realistic, you'll be impressed.

[VampyBuff]

NJSharon, just wondering, are you the family that I talked to in the elevator at one point? I'm fairly certain I'd told you how adorable your girls are (since I can't imagin there were multiple 16 month old twins on board).

Also, we'd tried to go to one of the dart competitions but after sitting around with a bunch of other people for 15 minutes and nothing happening, we gave up.

And as an added side note to my review, we only got one towel animal and that was after I'd left a note on the pillow requesting one :( Our room stewards were nice, but we don't feel as though they went above and beyond in any way. Room service took over an hour one night. The closet door was broken so the first night when it was very rocky, we had to stick a shoe in the door to keep it from banging back and forth. My BF had a lot of complications being that he was only 20. Even though we weren't traveling with our parents, they wouldnt allow him to even get a beer, so I always had to be present for that. Also, when we first got our pictures taken and account set up, we were told that my credit card was put in for both of us, but this wasn't the case and we had to go to the front desk and fix that. Umm...Dishes that were laying around the hallway and deck areas would sometimes take many hours to collected, but honestly even as I'm writing this and trying to think of bad aspects of the cruise, all these things are very minute to me and didn't effect my experience in a negative way at all. I heard people in the elevator (which yes, I noticed the missing button in on the last day...lol...but there were more than a few mischeivias teens onboard that I wouldn't be surprized if they had anything to do with little mishaps during the week) talking about how "there was nothing to do on the damn ship" which I couldn't think was farther from the truth. If anything, I was thankful for those few hours during the week where there was nothing going on that I was interested in, and could just relax, have time for showers, checking my mail, going to the gym, grabbing a bite to eat, ect.

I guess I'm just over all a more positive person than I thought a week ago. And I got a tan and that was one of the best things I could have brought back so I'm all good =)

 

P.S. OMG I keep forgetting things. Saturday there was also the passenger talent show, and a guy won a free cruise for singing a song to his wife. He was very talented and deserved it, though one of the people we'd done the Murder Mystery dinner with played the sax and was a very close runner up in our opinion.

Then later on (I think it was Saturday?) there was the crew member variety show. The little guy from Bosnia, which Sharon mentioned in her review, sang Californication while playing the guitar, which we thought was very interesting, with his accent putting a whole new spin on it. There were also break dancers, other singers, hula dancers which were beautiful to watch, and one dance involving poles being slammed on the ground. It was very culturaly diverse and they all looked very happy to have the opportunity to show off their country on stage.

[johnql]

VampyBuff, thanks very much for the detailed review. Sounds like you had a pretty good time.

 

P.S. Did you pick your screen name because you're a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? To me, it's one of the best tv shows of all time. Sorry for the OT comment, and if my assumption is wrong, just ignore this whole paragraph.

[VampyBuff]

lol, well I'd made this username years back, but yea it was originally based on buffy the vampire slayer...and my dog's name is Buffy. Stems all the way back when I was like 12.

 

And I know I rambled on in my review but it was also for myself so that I'd just remember everything. I'm glad you enjoyed it

[NJsharon]

We did take the girls to the play area, inside the kids child care area twice. Unfortunately it was only open for 'free play' for half an hour most days (from 5.15pm-5.45pm) and a couple of days they had half an hour around 1.15pm too. The girls really enjoyed it as it was so safe & they could just climb around. There was a nice ball pit that they loved just sitting in with some other little ones & throwing balls. Then there were a few areas with just foam mats & foam pillars & foam blocks to climb on which Emily liked. They also had a small outside play area with a couple of ride on toys & a tiny paddling pool.

 

But again, only drawback was we could only use it for half an hour most days. :( The staff lady we spoke too was very kind though & did tell us that she knew our options were limited for children this age, so if we wanted to borrow any toys, crayons or books from the childcare center we could. We didn't end up taking her up on her offer as our room was way too small to play in. lol But at least that is another option.

 

Yes, take a booster seat, that would be a great idea!

 

We didn't like the bus at all for St Thomas & would have preferred a regular bus and a better driver. But having said that I would go on that kind of bus again with my girls as we simply held them tight & didn't get bumped around too much. As long as you hold them tight you should be fine. The taxi we felt very safe in, no problem there, even without the car seats.

 

Another tip for little ones is we loved the disposable place mats we took. We took those plastic ones with adhesive on the back & just stuck them to the table in Raffles buffet. Then pushed them up close & cut up some bits of finger food on there for them. We also took disposable bibs & they were great. Then when we were done we could just peel the placemat off & tear the bib off & scrunch them up on a dirty plate & the table wasn't left in a super mess!

 

I should also recommend that for the little ones they will probably enjoy Coral World. I know Emily loved this huge ugly fish that was in one of the outside tanks. lol But for adults they will be pretty bored. Our girls enjoyed it. Another couple that had a 12 month old boy with them said to us, when we were half way around (as we were taking our time), "well we looked around it all already in half an hour, now what?!" There isn't much else for little ones to see on the excursions available, so we still think for little ones this is a nice trip.

 

I would suggest maybe looking into how much it is for a taxi to the Coral World (as the Coki beach is right next to it) & then you could print off the money off coupons on their website.

 

If it had not been raining we would have been very limited for the time on the beach. The excursion was meant to be 3 hours, but apparently they included the time it took to get to the place & back, so when he dropped us off he said be back here in 2 hours. If you did it yourself you would have more time to enjoy the beach & then could maybe get a regular taxi which would be safer for traveling too?

 

 

Vampy, yes that was us that you saw in the elevator. ;)

 

 

NJSharon thanks for your review. I wonder if you used the kids play area at all. We will be traveling with our two grandaughters in Nov and the little one will be 15 months old. DD will be taking her own booster seat thanks. Guess we will be doing lots of shared babysitting. Did you feel ok with the transportation on the islands without car seats? We were planning on Coki beach and coral world , but now wonder if it will be worth the effort. Anyone else have an opinion about coki and coral world. I would love to go to at good snorkeling beach. Again thanks for the comments.

[NJsharon]

Oh couple of other things.

 

DH went to see the Second City comedy troupe for their show & said he walked out after half an hour as it was so bad. I went to see their adult show & walked out after about 20 minutes. It was just nothing special, they were just as funny and good as some high schoolers stuck on the stage & doing it. I love 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' so I guess I just was expecting something a bit more put together & professional & it wasn't. I didn't find it funny at all. :(

 

I was also very disappointed with the Chocoholic Extravaganza. Especially compared to ones I have done on other cruise lines. Very basic little chocolate flavored cakes & large cakes that were just okay tasting. It was all just serve yourself from plates of desserts laid out (except for an ice cream station & maybe 2 others?). Nice if you like chocolate, but very basic.

 

Vampy, did you go to the 'Shippendales'?! It was a male strip show for the ladies & again, was more funny than entertaining. It was staff from on ship, so a tech guy, couple of bartenders that were average looking, strippin down to their pants or sometimes underwear. Was funny to watch, but no buff hot young guys! lol

 

Paul went to the burlesque show & said it was cute. He said nice ladies did a song thing from Chicago & he got to see bottoms. LOL

[phillyf]

Buffy,

 

Thanks for a wonderful review. It sounds like you had a terrific time. We sailed on the Spirit about 3 weeks ago and had a terrific time.

 

We met some wonderful CCers and enjoyed Bermuda the most.

 

Like you said if you expect perfection you will be disappointed and if you expect to have a good time and are a realist you WILL

[brooklynphil]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the honest review. I was on the same cruise as phillyf. It was great. The only thing I disagree with you was the crew talent show. It was so entertaining. Esp. that fountain bit at the end. Also Fusion Wave was one of the best bands on any cruise.

 

Phil

[VampyBuff]

Oh couple of other things.

 

 

 

Vampy, did you go to the 'Shippendales'?! It was a male strip show for the ladies & again, was more funny than entertaining. It was staff from on ship, so a tech guy, couple of bartenders that were average looking, strippin down to their pants or sometimes underwear. Was funny to watch, but no buff hot young guys! lol

 

Paul went to the burlesque show & said it was cute. He said nice ladies did a song thing from Chicago & he got to see bottoms. LOL

 

 

The burlesque show I thought was the best one they put on in the nightclub. The Shppendales, however... I went to it...and I'm sorry, but they were all definitely intoxicated. The one dressed as superman came over to me and even though I made it clear I really didn't want him rubbing on me, he did so anyway and ended up tripping and falling into the table I was sitting on, knocking over my drink and the drink of another guy. We were both reimbursed but still...

The only guy I enjoyed was the assistant cruise director =) LoL

[TVLady3]

Enjoyed reading both reviews, thank you for taking the time to post them. To NJsharon, you mentioned you stayed in the largest inside room available. What cabin # was that? I'll be on the Spirit in 2 weeks and Im in an inside. Thinking maybe I should try for a oceanview now, even though its just the 2 of us.:confused: Also, do you remember what movies were being shown on the TV and on the big screen? :)

[TomBxyz]

I was on the Spirit a frew weeks ago. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression the outside rooms (without a balcony) are the same size as the inside. The only difference is the outside rooms have a window.

[PINECONE]

I didn't see the movies played in the theatre, but the television had 2 movie channels and the movies varied.. the list of the ones I remember:

 

Under the Tuscan Sun

Finding Nemo

Shrek 2

Wedding Planner

How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days

Rumor Has It

Failure to Launch

Pirates of the Caribbean

Derailed

 

that's all I can remember.

[montycjv]

What an amazing review!!! I don't think you left anything out.

 

We are sailing on the Spirit in November, so we will take your advice under consideration.:)

 

Question: NCL actually gave away a "cruise" for the passenger talent show??? Did they tell the guests this ahead of time or was this a surprise????

 

We went on the Dawn in '04 and I think they gave away a bottle of champagne to the winner.

 

we look forward to your comments.....

Monty

[montycjv]

Vampy..

 

 

Forgot to thank you for all the must do's and places to eat. We are planning on The Bistro and the fondue.....Who cares about calories for the week anyway......

 

diet will begin after the cruise!! You only live once!!!