Rob_H

We ate in Le Bistro tonight. Excellent service and food. There are only four speciality restaurants on the Spirit: Le Bistro, Cagneys, Onda, and Teppenyaki. Latitudes vouchers are valid in all except Teppenyaki. We had a couple of reasons to call Guest Services today and they are now answering the phones! And quickly. The TV got fixed, after I reported it for the third time on day three. Another ongoing problem we had got resolved today as well. We booked a tour for Moorea, one of the few available, using the app. For the first time ever, the price charged to our account was automatically adjusted to include the Diamond discount. Even the Encore and Bliss can't manage that yet, they have a manual process at the end of the cruise to adjust. Great to see after all these years we don't have to visit or call the shorex desk to get the discount applied!

Yes, catching up on a couple of missed years! I'll look at it on a sea day (or maybe hear it - it's above our room). The inital freestyle dailies said the casino was closed "for the remainder of the cruise", a left over from the previous cruise I presume. That has since been corrected to say it'll open tomorrow night, after we leave US waters.

No, but it's hard to see what isn't there. 🙂 The main dining room has a menu which seems normal and complete, basically identical to other ships. Buffet (garden cafe) is small but they manage to pack a lot of choices into it. They reprovisioned very well in Honolulu, sailiaway was late there because there was so much to load! Like all the cruises we've been on in April and May, there's not a lot of covid precautions by passengers, most are behaving as if it's 2019 (including us, although we do make some effort to keep away from crowds). No restrictions on elevators or social distancing. Venues use every seat. Crew are wearing masks at all times, but only a minority of passengers. Similar to most parts of the world on land. To be clear, wearing a mask at all times on board is seen as normal behavior but it's really not that many people. Not very reassuring I know, but that's the reality. We got our 4th dose (second booster) shortly before this cruise and are working on the basis that anything we catch will almost certainly be mild. There are plenty of health risks in travel (especially mosquito-bourne diseases) that we accept the risk for. For us, this is another risk that we've decided to accept. Otherwise we'd always be home. You're right it's hard to tell yet with just port days so far. Buffet isn't packed, and the great thing about these smaller ships is the amount of outdoor tables available, no need to ever eat indoors at the buffet on a warm weather cruise like this. Not a pizza eater, but it's always on at the Garden Cafe. Don't think it's anywhere else, so that make it the best. 🙂 Norwegian wifi is the same as usual, close to useless, I woudn't pay for it. We have some free minutes but since there are so many port days I'm mostly using mobile data (Google Fi). In the main dining room on the second day the servers were having a hard time keeping up. That's not unusual at the beginning of a cruise when so many are in training and meetings (happens every time), so it should improve. There seems to be enough housekeeping staff, they are excellent. There's a two pin shaver socket in the ceiling by the mirror. I wouldn't use it for anything else. In case anybody asks, yes each room does have a hair dryer. We were in a (closed) Australia for nearly two years during covid, safe and in a bubble. When the border finally opened (last November) we had to make the decision, do we venture out or essentially stay home forever? We made the decision to continue travelling while we can, but it's a personal choice.

Yes. It's not combinable with certain travel agent fares, maybe casinos at sea, but all general public fares are valid regardless of discounts and offers. To be clear, it's still valid with free at sea, cruise next, future cruise credit.

Interior cabin decor.

Even if you get a confirmation, even if it appears on your vacation summary, check onboard that it is on your account by the end of the second cruise day. If it isn't, go to guest services onboard, and they'll ask you to email them all the data you sent for the shareholder request so they can follow it up with Miami. We've had to do this for 5 out of our 7 cruises so far this year. Most of the time, even if it's on the vacation summary, the credit is simply not applied to the account.

Yesterday we (Rob and Yanet) boarded the Norwegian Spirit in Honolulu, for a 24 day back-to-back voyage to French Polynesia (Tahiti) and back. This is only the second cruise of the Spirit since her restart on May 7th (the last Norwegian ship back in service). I'm happy to (try to) answer any questions about the ship and the destinations, as we travel. We've been on the Spirit before, in October 2019, before the refurbishment. We arrived in Honolulu four days before embarkation, directly off a 35 day b2b2b on the Encore. It's going to be tempting to compare with that ship (and the Bliss, which we spent 37 days on in January and February) but I'll try to resist as they are a very different size and experience. We got to the port around 10.30. Boarding was the usual current process of waiting to have vaccine cards and test results checked, with no separate queue or priority for any level of latitudes membership. Once past that and security, there was a priority lane for latitudes which saved a little time. We were given boarding group A so after a short wait, with entertainment provided by some Hawaiian musicians and dancers, we got on board by 11.30. Lunch was in the Windows main dining room, service was excellent, providing a good first impression. The decor in Windows, and really most of the ship, is however quite bland. The elegant decor and beautiful Asian art of the pre-refurbishment Spirit has been replaced with an inoffensive and boring look similar to a modern budget hotel - lots of mid brown laminates and cream. Our inside cabin was ready by the time we finished, with luggage already delivered. The amount of space to store things in the room seems less than we remember before, it's now as bad as the modern big ships. No elegance or wow factor in the cabins for sure, bland again. There are 1100 passengers on this first leg. Surprising, as there are very few people on the roll call or on another social media group. There wasn't enough interest for a meet and greet, which would be awkward anyway as this cruise has day five as the first sea day. There are four port days in Hawaii, then four sea days, then four port days in French Polynesia. That's enough for an intro! I'll keep the next updates short, as things happen. Questions welcome!