Ncl spirit review

[collegecruiser346]

I just posted this in my "live" thread, but I'll put it here too.

EMBARKATION:
This was my 4th cruise, 2nd on the Norwegian Spirit. This was my first time visiting Bermuda. I took Amtrak from my house in Western MA to Boston South Station the afternoon before the cruise. It takes around 3 hours to drive the distance, but due to the many stops the train makes, it took around 4 hours by train. We stayed at the Double Tree Inn Bayside. It’s a nice hotel, but not over the top. They give you cookies upon check-in, and there’s also an Au Bon Pain bakery/café that serves breakfast, and then they serve pizza for lunch and dinner. There is also a small lounge/bar in the main lobby. The cab from the hotel to the cruise terminal took about 15 minutes, and it was under $20. Check-in at Boston was surprisingly easy. Porters took out luggage when we got out of the Taxi, and then we headed inside the terminal. Once inside, we were given the standard health questionnaire. After the questionnaire was filled out, we headed through security. It only took a few minutes to get cleared by security. After that, we headed to the check-in line. There were lines for non latitudes members, latitudes members, platinum members, and then guests staying in suites. The lines for non latitudes members and latitudes members had about the same amount of people in them, and the other lines were empty. It took 15 minutes to get through the line and checked in. We then headed for the ship, where they took an embarkation souvenir photo. Once on the ship, we were given Champagne or Orange Juice. If you don’t want to carry around the luggage you walked on board with, head down to the casino where they have a luggage check. Then just head back to get it when your cabin is ready. There were signs on the doors leading to the cabins stating that the cabins wouldn’t be ready until 2p.m. We decided to have lunch at Raffles buffet and sit outside at Raffles terrace. It wasn’t overly crowded, and tables were readily available. Lunch was also available at Windows for those who didn’t want the buffet. After eating lunch, we walked around the ship more until our cabin was ready at 2p.m.
CABIN:
We were in cabin 10523. It’s an inside cabin on deck 10 FWD. I picked this cabin because it was right off the forward elevators. It’s the first cabin once you get off the elevators, right next to a crew hallway. The cabin was in good shape. We had a fruit platter and a bottle of wine waiting for us in there that I had arranged for prior. Our cabin had 2 double beds, one bunk bed, a rollaway bed, as well as a bed that came out of a chair. There were only two of us in the cabin, so we just had the 2 double beds made into a queen size bed. The cabin itself was smaller than other inside cabins I’ve had on other ships, but it was adequate. The shower was nice because it had the sliding door, so you didn’t have to worry about water spraying everywhere like you would with a curtain. There was also a coffee maker in the cabin and a safe. Our cabin was serviced twice a day, and we had towel animals several days at turndown. Towels were replaced daily, including our beach towels. Bottled water and sparkling water was available in the cabin. The bottled water ( 1 liter) was $4.50 each. I’m not sure how much the sparkling water was.
FOOD:
We ate at Windows, Garden Room, Tappyanki, Shogun, Cagney’s, Bier Garten and Raffles. Service in Windows and Garden room was hit or miss. I ordered soda, and there seemed to be a lot of confusion amongst the staff as to who was responsible for getting it. Several of them refused, and told me they would have a bar waitress come over. Once the bar waitress came over, she said it was our waiters job to get it, because it’s free. (Soda isn’t free, so I don’t know why she said that). Other times I would order a coffee with dessert, and it wouldn’t arrive until 15 minutes after dessert was served. There was never a long wait for a table for two in Windows or Garden room. They would say it would be about 20 minutes, but then in less than 5 minutes we were seated. The food was always good in the main dining rooms; it’s just the service that lacked at times. Shogun, Cagney’s and Tappyanki were great. Definitely worth the extra charge. One that that struck me as odd though was that in the specialty restaurants, there were “house specialties” that cost an extra $10, plus the standard charge. I didn’t try any of them, but they all sounded good. Most of them were steak or lobster dishes. Raffles Buffet always had a good selection of different foods, but sometimes it was overly crowded with people cutting you in line. As long as you stay flexible and understand that this is the case with all buffets, you won’t be overly bothered. Whenever you were finished with a plate, it was cleared within minutes. Everything was kept very clean and neat. Bier Garten had excellent burgers, fries, hot dogs, bratwursts, sausages etc. It’s the perfect place to get lunch and eat out side. One thing that really bothered me is how liberal people take the “dress up or not” mentality of freestyle dining. There was one person in particular who was in Windows and Cagney’s the same nights as us. He wore loose ripped shorts, work boots with holes in them, and last but not least, a Mohawk with 6 inch spikes. I’m all for self expression and I don’t want to turn this into a debate, but is this type of dress really acceptable in a fine dining restaurant such as Windows or Cagney’s? I understand that NCL wants to accommodate everyone, but isn’t this a little over the edge? What’s worse is that they have photographers taking pictures in the dining rooms and specialty restaurants. We had a really nice picture taken of us in Cagney’s, and we would have purchased it, but guess what; the person with the Mohawk was sitting directly behind us and he appeared in the picture. We were in shirts and ties, while he was in ripped shorts, work boots with holes and a Mohawk. There were other people who I think were pushing the dress code, but he was by far the worse.
ENTERTAINMENT:
We went to three shows that the Second City comedy troupe put on. They were very good. Some are for families, while others are listed as Adults only in the freestyle daily. Don’t take your children to the Adults Only shows. They use very adult comedy. Really not appropriate for kids. We also saw master illusionist Richard Burr and Josette. They put on 3 different shows. We only went to the first one, but it was very good. The last night of the cruise, they have the international crew show. It was very entertaining as some of the crew have amazing talents. We also went to the Quest. Once again, adults only. Don’t take your children. The ship also had a few bands playing, and someone playing the piano at Champagne Charlie’s. He was really good, and we listened to him several nights. We also did the Pub Crawl. For $25, you visit 6 bars and have 6 drinks in around an hour. This is offered twice during the week. It was fun, but the drinks are really strong, so if you’re not a “drinker”, I don’t advise it. We played trivia a few times, and the hosts really make it fun. Even if you come in last place, you’ll have a good time. Overall the entertainment was top notch. There was always something to do.
BERMUDA:
I absolutely loved Bermuda. We didn’t do any NCL excursions, instead we made of list of things we wanted to see and do, and we did them on our own. Definitely get the 3-day transportation pass. For $28 you can ride the ferry and busses as many times as you want. We got off the ship later than we had intended on the first day, so instead of going to horseshoe bay, we figured we would try Snorkel Park instead since it was so close to the ship. We walked over there, and saw that it was closed due to a private party. We then decided to stick to our original plan, and head to horseshoe bay. We took the bus from the dockyard, which took around 30 minutes. There is a long walk down to the beach, but it’s not too bad. There are shower and bathroom facilities at the bottom of the hill. Not the cleanest, but not bad. Even though it was already around 3pm, we wanted to rent an umbrella and chairs so we wouldn’t bake in the afternoon sun. The people at the rental counter were very rude to us when we tried to rent them because they were closing at 4:30pm, and didn’t want to give out any more chairs. We told them that we understood we wouldn’t have much time, but that we still wanted them. We paid $30, plus a $15 deposit for the chairs and umbrella. The beach is very beautiful, and although there were a lot of people there, the water didn’t seem over crowded. The beach is smaller than I expected though. After an hour it started to downpour, so we packed up and brought our chairs and umbrella back. We somehow lost the receipt they had given us, so we couldn’t get the deposit back. We were at least able to have fun in the water for an hour, so spending $45 was worth it. Since it was raining so hard we didn’t want to wait for the bus at the top of the hill. (For $2 you can have the shuttle take you to the top, but then you still have to wait for the bus). There was a woman in the parking lot arranging for taxis, so we stood in line and after a few minutes we shared a big taxi with other people from the ship. It ended up costing $8 per person for the ride back to the ship. Half way back to the ship the weather cleared up, and we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the dockyard area. The second day, we took the 11am ferry from the dockyards to St. Georges. We got to St. Georges before noon. We walked around the town square and visited a few gift shops before catching the bus to crystal caves. We had lunch at Café’ Ole which is the snack bar at the caves. The prices were reasonable, and the portions were good. It came out to $20 for a burger, club sandwich, and 2 sodas. After lunch we bought our tickets for crystal caves. I can’t remember the exact price for crystal caves, but it was under $20. You could also get a combo ticket for about $10 more and see both caves. Crystal cave was so beautiful inside. If you get claustrophobic, this may not be the activity for you. Although it wasn’t terribly small inside, if you are claustrophobic, you may think it is. It took about 45 minutes to get through the guided tour. There were about 20 people in our group, which was a little too big I think. After touring the caves, we took a bus to Hamilton where we walked around before taking the ferry back to the dockyards. The third day, we took the 9am ferry to St. Georges. We had a light breakfast, and then took a cab to Alexandria Battery in search of sea glass. It was $10 for the cab. We probably could have just walked there, but we didn’t know exactly where to go. I can’t recommend going to Alexandria Battery enough. It was absolutely beautiful. It’s a large area with a small beach, rocks, a cave, then you have the fort and a lot of grassy areas around it. There were only two other people there while we were there. If you are in search of sea glass, head for the rocks next to the beach area. You can get it by the bucket full. If you are feeling adventurous, climb down the rocks and go into the cave. Go at low tide to get the most sea glass. Wear sneakers while climbing down the rocks, they are sharp. After filling a bag with sea glass, we walked around the fort and took many many pictures of the views from the top. There are no facilities there, so if nature calls, you may be out of luck. After spending a few hours there, I called a taxi (get a tour book that has the numbers of taxi companies) and they arrived about 15 minutes later, and took us back to the center of St. Georges. We had lunch at a waterfront restaurant. It was a bit pricey. We split a pizza and an appetizer and had two sodas each. It was $45 including the tip. After that, we walked around St. George’s some more, grabbed some bottled water, and walked to Tobacco Bay Beach. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the center of town, but it’s got very steep hills. I was told that it’s an excellent beach for snorkeling, but we just waded around in the water and laid out in the sun. The beach area is pretty much completely surrounded by rocks, so there are no waves at all. There are several rocks you can jump off of, but they require you to swim out a rather long way. We swam out to the rocks, but didn’t jump off them. There was a beach bar, café, and bathrooms there. You could rent lounge chairs and water toys for $10. If you want to see some amazing views and take some great pictures, walk behind the beach area, down a little path, and climb the rocks. We left the beach and walked back to the center of St. Georges where we took the ferry to the dockyards. We didn’t think we would be able to catch a ferry since it was already 6pm. I heard people saying that when a cruise ship is docked at the dockyard, they run an extra ferry at 6pm to accommodate more people. I wouldn’t always count on this though, you should ask one of the ferry employees when the last one will leave. A note about the ferries: Get there at least 15 minutes before the ferry is scheduled to leave. I saw very long lines, especially at the dockyard and they were turning people away since there wasn’t enough room.
DISEMBARKATION:
We opted to carry our own luggage off the ship. There was a short line to get off the ship, but we got through it in less than 15 minutes. We handed our customs form to the officers on the gang way, went down the escalators, and waited for a taxi. They were pretty organized with the taxis, so we only had to wait about 10 minutes, and then we headed for the train station. I saw a lot of people waiting for their luggage, so if you can handle your luggage yourself, I recommend just walking off with it.

[LindaKE]

Enjoyed your review. That will be us in a month. What time did you arrive at Black Falcon for embarkation?

[collegecruiser346]

I was there by 11am. On board before noon.