Back from teh 4/19/08 SPIRIT!!

[heatherandfred]

WHEW!! Finally we’re back from our 4/19/08 Spirit cruise. Thanks to all that came to the meet and greet: Adam, Amy, Andy. We met Lisa, Familyof4, and the rest of you guys that I cannot remember names right now. We had to take a cab home, but that’s okay. Here goes the review:

Embarkation: Good god! What are the Port Authority people thinking? We got there around 10:15 am and was ushered to these chairs, sat down and the section could only hold but so many people. The folks who did not get there early had to stand on those god awful lines, for literally hours. We were the first people onboard, I mean we got on BEFORE the Latitudes/suites group. I was shocked to even be one of the first on board, after we got done with muster drill, people were still coming onboard. Some folks had to wait 5 hours to get aboard the ship!!

Cabin: It was pretty small we had room 9692 balcony cabin. We heard a ton of noise above us, it must have been the kids on the way to the arcade or someplace like that. IT sounded like the room above us was going to crash into our room. Oh, well, no problems. The bathrooms are tiny! Heaven forbid if you are a person who is a bit rotund, that toilet is a bit much to squeeze into. I did like the separate shower/toilet. Room stewards were great, Angel and Isagani. We barely saw them, but they always had a towel animal for us and chocolates on the pillows. The beds were comfortable, we had a topper(that we didn’t ask for). Attention: THERE IS NO ROOM TO STORE YOUR LUGGAGE UNDERNEATH THE BEDS! We had to put our two suitcases, behind one of the chairs and another suit bag in the closet. On Princess I had enough room to put the suitcases under the bed. We did have a problem with the toilet not flushing one time, and another time the water out of the sink was yellow???!! Gross. The environmental guys came and fixed the toilet with no problems.

Crew: I cannot say enough about the crew on the Spirit, they went above and beyond the call of duty. We were lucky enough to have Jacky Collet as our concierge, she is AWESOME!! If you come across her, tell her Sarah and Ed from 9692 say hello and thank you. Anything that I wanted, she was able to pull off, from reservations to appointments in the spa. It was all taken care of by her. The rest of the officers we met at a cocktail party, so very gracious, we even took a picture with the captain(Mark, Orhan, Darin, it was great to meet you guys and thank you for taking care of us!) It was a treat to come back to the cabin and find a goodie from one of the officers. I need to write NCL and thank them for their wonderful staff.

Ship: It’s a beauty. There are parts that are worn, but if you focus on that, then you’re not going to have a good time. We ate at Windows when we first got onboard, do not let them discourage you from going there, they are open! The other restaurants, we really didn’t do. We did eat at La Trattoria (I didn’t like the ravioli, I thought it would taste like Chef Boyardee, it didn’t L). We were buffet/room service people the whole time. Why should I pay for a restaurant onboard, when I can eat for free. The pools were always crowded, but what else is new? I enjoyed all aspects of it. The thing that really sucks is that Maharini’s nightclub is through the casino, it’s so small. They should have made Galaxy of the Stars the nightclub.

Ports: Puerto Rico, did the Segway tour.($70 for 2 hours, well worth it!!) Jose is AWESOME!!! He really knows his history. We toured the forts and old San Juan. I would highly, highly recommend this tour. The Segways are easy to master. We went to Senor Frogs afterwards and got some grub and a free shot.

Tortola: Did the Island Secrets tour, it was nice, not much history told about the island. We drove by the Bomba Shack, but didn’t stop L I was willing to throw my panties for a free drink ! LOL. It’s an interesting island, kind of reminded me of Virgin Gorda.

Samana: You have to do a tour here and they do tender the ship. We did the ATV tour through NCL and it was great. We went through the forest and saw the indigenous people, who were so great and friendly to us. On our way back we stopped at a waterfall, which was so stunning, I wanted to stay. The tour was dusty, but so worth it. When you tender in, be aware that once you get off the tender, there is nothing there, I’m not sure if you can walk to “town”, but make sure you get an excursion here.

We made it into each and every port early, which was surprising, we heard no trouble about the engines. Disregard what negative things people have to say about this ship, it’s great and so are the crew.

[Smellytoes]

Welcome home!! I was sitting on the bus waiting to go home and watching the poor Spirit folks waiting for at least 4 hours to board the ship. I'm just glad you enjoyed the Spirit (I knew you would:D ) because I just booked it for 8/09.

[heatherandfred]

Thanks. We had a blast. It was absolutely beautiful, the weather could not have been better. I'm on my way to seeing if we can book another cruise.

[asand5554]

We are sailing the same itinerary on 5/31...what was the cause of the delay in boarding the ship? How early should we plan to arrive?

Glad to hear all the positives about the Spirit. I know we will have a great time...

[asand5554]

One more thing...any sign of the 2.0 upgrades? (maybe that was why you had the mattress topper)

[plcruiser]

I did not see any 2.0 improvements. Part of the problem with embarkation related to the ship coming in late from its previous cruise; but I don't believe that this was the only problem. It was however a disaster. I have been on 15 cruises and have never seen anything like this. I know of some people who were standing in line for over 4 hours. We were lucky and got to the port early and had a seat while we were waiting. We were also some of the first people to board the ship.

 

Getting off of the ship was another disaster. So many people had decided to carry their own bags off of the ship and were waiting for hours on deck seven before they were let off.

[familyof4cruising]

Sara, I hope the noises only came from upstairs and not next door! LOL;)

You were a very good next door neighbor. The arcade was above us. I told you the VIP Platinum privileges are GREAT! The concierge makes the trip even more special.

 

It was a pleasure to meet you and your BF.

 

I do want to add that my favorite stop was SAMANA. The beach excursion was a great choice. The beach was beautiful. Although I heard different things from people who went into town. I would definitely book that excursion again. If it sells out on line, do not worry they added more times on board.

[dtiger]

Great review. Glad to hear you had a good time. I like the Spirit.

[KATHYMAC68]

I will be on the Spirit this Saturday. Do you recommend we get there by 10:30, or wait and get there for say 2?

[Tatka]

We are also off the ship today.. That is very sad.. I would love to stay longer.

 

We had a great trip.. Yes embarcation was a disaster, but I guess we were lucky. Although we were at the port very early (9:30), at least we were seated. I really felt for people who had to stand for a couple of hours.

 

Spirit is wonderfull ship. I've never been on Down class ships, but looking at ship design I like Spirit better. I like ships with terraces at the back. Also loved kids area.. so spacious. I wish all kids that traveled with us stayed there. :mad: :D But.. they envaded every jaccuzy in main pool area. Main pool area is very nice and even cozy.

 

High points for us were

 

1) Free style dining. Although we didn't dine in additional restaurants we loved walking in Windows/Garden restaurants and getting table for two by the windows.

 

2) Lounge entertainment was very good.

 

3) Design of the ship. It's not huge ship, but has beautifull atrium, cozy places. It's extremely easy to navigate

 

4) Nice and warm south asian service everywhere.

 

5) Very convenient Blue Lagoon cafeteria. Loved chicken fingers.

 

Cons:

 

1) I guess they are cutting on room attendant staff. Our room was kept clean and nice, but we had to wait till 12 pm and 9 pm to have this.

 

2) I felt that buffet food wasn't very good and various. Juices were available only in the morning. Deserts were also kind of weak.

 

Ports:

 

1) San Juan. Change from St Thomas was good, as we were there soooo many times to find something new to do. We did ships El Yunque rain forest drive and were very satisfied. Beautiful place and nice naration on the way to it.

 

2) On Tortola we did our own sail to Virgin Gorda. Bath is place you shouldn't miss!!! By the way, I don't know if this was an exception, but Speedy's had an additional run back to Tortola at 2 pm which made for more time to enjoy on the island. I would recommend to wear very comfortable shoes if you are planning to get to the Devil's Bay.

 

I was happy to find out that Spirit will do Bermuda runs next year from Boston and will definitely recommend her to my friends and family.

[Tatka]

I will be on the Spirit this Saturday. Do you recommend we get there by 10:30, or wait and get there for say 2?

 

I would arrive very early to at least get a seat.. or late, although I don't know how late, because people who got there at 2 had also long line to stand.

[klct39lg]

HeatherandFred~

So glad you enjoyed the Spirit, we sure did back in March.

[slotaddict]

Can anyone comment on the entertainment. Any shows great/not so great.

[asand5554]

Which excursion did you do in Samana? We booked the Cayo Levantado and are wondering if there are rentals there - chairs, scuba gear, etc.

It seems that the problems with embarkation and debarkation have not happened on other NY sailings....I hope that we have better luck

[Tatka]

Can anyone comment on the entertainment. Any shows great/not so great.

 

We saw both production shows (on dress up nights). Liked the second more than the first, but both were good, also liked "magician" and last night crew show. :)

[familyof4cruising]

Which excursion did you do in Samana? We booked the Cayo Levantado and are wondering if there are rentals there - chairs, scuba gear, etc.

It seems that the problems with embarkation and debarkation have not happened on other NY sailings....I hope that we have better luck

 

The chairs are free with that tour.

[KerCar]

Welcome home! Thanks for the review! Sounds like you had a great trip:)

 

How did your disembarkation go???

 

Also, who was your cruise director???

 

Thanks, again, for taking the time to post. Good luck planning your next trip:D

[Chipster2]

Thanks for your review. Glad to hear that you enjoyed your time on the Spirit. We still have a ways to go yet.

[heatherandfred]

Can anyone comment on the entertainment. Any shows great/not so great.

 

Second City was hilarious, that was the only thing that we went to. The comedian that they had on board, Greg somebody, sucked bigtime! I felt that he was just having a personal conversation with maybe 2 people in the audience.

[heatherandfred]

Sara, I hope the noises only came from upstairs and not next door! LOL;)

You were a very good next door neighbor. The arcade was above us. I told you the VIP Platinum privileges are GREAT! The concierge makes the trip even more special.

 

It was a pleasure to meet you and your BF.

 

I do want to add that my favorite stop was SAMANA. The beach excursion was a great choice. The beach was beautiful. Although I heard different things from people who went into town. I would definitely book that excursion again. If it sells out on line, do not worry they added more times on board.

 

Hey Fam, LOL..I was hoping that YOU didn't hear us. :o. I'm telling you, I wasn't expecting anything, and was super happy that they gave us priveliges. It was absolutely great. It was very nice meeting you and your family too.

[heatherandfred]

Welcome home! Thanks for the review! Sounds like you had a great trip:)

 

How did your disembarkation go???

 

Also, who was your cruise director???

 

Thanks, again, for taking the time to post. Good luck planning your next trip:D

 

Thanks, we had a ball. Disembarkation was okay for us, we did express and were off the ship by 11 or so. They called express embarkation first and we ran with our suitcases.

 

Darin was the cruise director aka "Fatty Matty, your bingo daddy" God! That got annoying.

[heatherandfred]

We are sailing the same itinerary on 5/31...what was the cause of the delay in boarding the ship? How early should we plan to arrive?

Glad to hear all the positives about the Spirit. I know we will have a great time...

 

The ship got in late, and it was kind of weird. We got there at 10:15 and got a seat and were onboard by 1pm. I was worried about getting there too early, and having to stand and wait. Now, I don't know about the seats being there for your cruise, but I'd get there early anyway.

[heatherandfred]

Which excursion did you do in Samana? We booked the Cayo Levantado and are wondering if there are rentals there - chairs, scuba gear, etc.

It seems that the problems with embarkation and debarkation have not happened on other NY sailings....I hope that we have better luck

 

We did the ATV and it was the best. It ranks up there with my Dune buggy adventure in Grand turk. You go through the lush green forest and see wild animals, trees, plants, it was fantastic. We really couldn't take pics while on the ATVs, because we were moving, but it was nice.

[bagelsnbrew]

Hey Sarah! I'm glad you had such a great time. I submitted a review yesterday....it's a little bit different than yours. Maybe arriving 1 min too late to be in the privileged center section had something to do with it? 3 1/2 hours of standing in a pen can have a negative effect! That embarkation killed any chance of me leaving from NYC again once and for all.

 

For those interested, we chose to wait on board with the last (white) luggage tags. We waited in Galaxy till the final call and walked of the ship with no effort at ~12:45.

 

One things for certain, I had a great time and it was my pleasure to meet you and Ed!!!

[heatherandfred]

Hey Sarah! I'm glad you had such a great time. I submitted a review yesterday....it's a little bit different than yours. Maybe arriving 1 min too late to be in the privileged center section had something to do with it? 3 1/2 hours of standing in a pen can have a negative effect! That embarkation killed any chance of me leaving from NYC again once and for all.

 

For those interested, we chose to wait on board with the last (white) luggage tags. We waited in Galaxy till the final call and walked of the ship with no effort at ~12:45.

 

One things for certain, I had a great time and it was my pleasure to meet you and Ed!!!

 

Hey Andy, it was great meeting you and Judy and one of the kids as well. I can't wait to read your review. The lines were absolutely ridiculous, I was worried about arriving too early, because I know how those lines can be.

 

If so, I will only leave from Bklyn or Bayonne from now on. I hate waiting in Manhattan.