NCL Spirit 1-Day Trip vs. Dawn

[Dunder]

:) We took the Spirit 1-day trip on Sept 1-2. It was a wonderful trip and I intend to send a letter to NCL to let them know. The food, crew and entertainment were excellent.

 

What a difference from the Dawn. We took the Dawn for a 1-day trip on Cinco-de-Mayo in May. Everything was wrong with the trip and we swore off NCL. I documented that trip's extremely poor food, ignorant crew and sorry entertainment well on this forum.

 

However, my 12 yr son wanted to do a one-nighter this summer so I reluctantly:p booked the Spirit (secretly wishing Carnival had a 1-day trip). To my surprise everything was better than excellent. The crew smiled constantly from embark to deembark. The food was great and we didn't do any pay-restaurants. A BIG hello to asst wait-staff Elvira from Russia who is tranferring to the Jewel. She is an asset to NCL. This was the happiest crew of any ship I've sailed. The Broadway revue, the lounge acts and the bands never failed. We even stopped in to hear the band play old folks songs at 5pm as we viewed the Captains Deck down the winding stairs.

 

Above all this, the ship was clean and fun. The Roman pool theme worked and all the decor (many of it Asian) was elegant. This is a true Freestyle ship. They didn't push us off the ship when we returned to port like the Dawn crew does. The Spirit crew would say 'whenever you are ready you can disembark' while the Dawn crew banged on our doors promptly at 7am.

 

Only two faults on this ship - turn up the A/C in the casino - it was HOT! Also, be prepared for thin walls between cabins. We could hear everything in the next cabins. Luckily they weren't loud but we could hear them nonetheless.

 

:) As a final word, I can highly recommend the NCL Spirit based on this 1-night trip. I do not recommend the Dawn.

[smeyer418]

I have done 1 nighters on both the Dawn and the Spirit and this is nothing against what you wrote but the Dawn was better. I didn't like the entertainment on the Spirit....but to each their own...and I am glad you enjoyed this one.

[Janchris]

:) We took the Spirit 1-day trip on Sept 1-2. It was a wonderful trip and I intend to send a letter to NCL to let them know. The food, crew and entertainment were excellent.

 

I am glad to read your excellent review of the 1 night cruise aboard the Spirit. I am taking this cruise on Sept. 29th and looking forward to it. I have been on the Dawn twice and really had a very positive experience with this ship. This will be my first time aboard the Spirit.

 

Carnival has a 2 night cruise to nowhere but it is a little costly. You can almost take a 7 night cruise for what you pay for the 2 nighter. I was on the Carnival Miricle on June 28th and loved everything about it, except for the many "chair hogs". LOL:) :confused:

 

Janet

[trock]

:) We took the Spirit 1-day trip on Sept 1-2. It was a wonderful trip and I intend to send a letter to NCL to let them know. The food, crew and entertainment were excellent.

 

What a difference from the Dawn. We took the Dawn for a 1-day trip on Cinco-de-Mayo in May. Everything was wrong with the trip and we swore off NCL. I documented that trip's extremely poor food, ignorant crew and sorry entertainment well on this forum.

 

However, my 12 yr son wanted to do a one-nighter this summer so I reluctantly:p booked the Spirit (secretly wishing Carnival had a 1-day trip). To my surprise everything was better than excellent. The crew smiled constantly from embark to deembark. The food was great and we didn't do any pay-restaurants. A BIG hello to asst wait-staff Elvira from Russia who is tranferring to the Jewel. She is an asset to NCL. This was the happiest crew of any ship I've sailed. The Broadway revue, the lounge acts and the bands never failed. We even stopped in to hear the band play old folks songs at 5pm as we viewed the Captains Deck down the winding stairs.

 

Above all this, the ship was clean and fun. The Roman pool theme worked and all the decor (many of it Asian) was elegant. This is a true Freestyle ship. They didn't push us off the ship when we returned to port like the Dawn crew does. The Spirit crew would say 'whenever you are ready you can disembark' while the Dawn crew banged on our doors promptly at 7am.

 

Only two faults on this ship - turn up the A/C in the casino - it was HOT! Also, be prepared for thin walls between cabins. We could hear everything in the next cabins. Luckily they weren't loud but we could hear them nonetheless.

 

:) As a final word, I can highly recommend the NCL Spirit based on this 1-night trip. I do not recommend the Dawn.

 

We just did the one nighter on the Dawn last week.. It was awesome! The ship was immaculate, beautiful! (I heard it had renovations recently)

We loved it.. we were not pushed off .. my only complaint was the food was just ok.. but its not easy to judge the food on a night cruise!

 

The spirit looks a little smaller??

Give it another go!

[ace6636634]

As a final word, I can highly recommend the NCL Spirit based on this 1-night trip. I do not recommend the Dawn.

 

 

 

I couldn't agree with you more. I did the NCL Dawn one nighter in May. It was my third time on the dawn. The one nighter had awful food, service etc.

 

I took the Spirit one nighter on Saturday and had the direct opposite exp. In fact, I'm booked another one nighter on 10/13.

 

Go Spirit!!! Sounded like the Dawn may have gotten better - but for me it was too little too late. Wont go on the Dawn again.

[nyflush]

We just did the Dawn 1 nighter Sept 1st-2nd we had an awsome time service was great:) We ate at Salsa Restaurant it was really good. The Casino rocked it was three girls in our party we all won! We got massages very good. The show was Band on the run it was a lot of fun. We got off the ship at 10 ish no rush at all good thing because we were up until 5am:p Glad to hear you enjoyed the Spirit maybe we will give that a try too.

[TITISSA]

I also did the Spirit on September 1 and actualy wrote a little review about it. I have also done 1 night on the Dawn on Cinco de Mayo. I have to agree that the Spirit was much better. It is a prettier ship, the crew was excellent, food was good and I didn't see as many drunk people on the Spirit as I saw on the Dawn. The Dawn on Cinco de Mayo looked like people were drinking as much as possible as fast as they could. On both ships my husband and I did not allow our 2 teenager daughters (16 & 14) to go to the teen club at night. It just didn't feel safe for them to be walking around the ship by themselves. However, I love these little escapades because they are very convenient. I have booked 2 more weekends on the Dawn and on the Gem to break up winter a little bit. I know what to expect and I love being on a cruise ship.

[HMK]

TITISSA...

 

I wrote to give you a Big Thank you on the Celebrity Century Roll call. It is after reading your post, I saw that you are going on NCL Spirit this month for 1 night. Well....now I am going, leaving in a few mins for my overnight cruise to celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary!

Thank you again....and I will see you on the Century in Dec.:D

[TITISSA]

TITISSA...

 

I wrote to give you a Big Thank you on the Celebrity Century Roll call. It is after reading your post, I saw that you are going on NCL Spirit this month for 1 night. Well....now I am going, leaving in a few mins for my overnight cruise to celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary!

Thank you again....and I will see you on the Century in Dec.:D

 

 

Congratulations! Happy 22nd Anniversary:) ! You are going to have perfect weather. Enjoy your cruise. See you on Xmas...