FSNA5861

Since the Spirit just came out of a short Dry Dock, does anybody know what improvements have been made to the ship.

Would also like to know the name of the ship officers, cruise director, etc.

I agree, I loved the feel of the Spirit when I was on her quite awhile back. The grand foyer is something that is missing from some of the newer ships nowadays. The main staircase, glass elevators.

 

One of my best memories is sipping a martini at Champagne Charlie's listening to a wonderful entertainer who sounded almost identical to the great Frank Sinatra.

 

Galaxy of the Stars was also another favourite place, I didn't have a balcony room for that cruise, just an ocean view, so we spent a lot of time up there, enjoying the views to Alaska :)

 

I was just thinking that maybe they've done some small interior repairs, refreshers, etc. The Spirit in my opinion is the perfect size ship, not too big, not too small.

 

I really hope they don't get rid of her, I'm looking forward to sailing on her again in August, I can't wait!

I totally agree with your comments. We also like the 360 degree promenade.

We sailed on her twice last April and are sailing her again twice this upcoming April.

We really like the look and feel which is really missing on the mega ships IMOHO.

I understand I need to log into the NCL site at midnight 90 days prior to my cruise to book specialty dining reservations -- but where on the site do I go? We have 3 cabins for 8 people (all booked under each individual family) and I need to book 4 specialty dinners for our June sailing!

After you login, select your cruise. Click on "View my reservation". You will see "Explore Activities & Excursions available for booking today" menu.

Click on the "Dining tab" and then select the restaurant of your liking, select your date and size of your party.

Hope this helps

Anyone know who to contact for The Jewel to set up a meet and greet? An email or phone number would be great. Thanks .

Julie

See the following link

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1300907

Andre

I realize that Latitude Platinum member get priority check in at Port Canaveral. Can anyone confirm that Latitude Platinum members now get priority embarkation, after the suite guests?

 

As we are sailing on the Epic soon, this would be a great perk to be able to purchase Posh passes!

On our Spirit cruise last April at Port Canaveral, as Platinum members, we had priority boarding after suite guests.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if any of y'all have ordered any of the party packages for the cabins before? I'm thinking of ordering one for my parents, but still not sure if its worth it. So if you ordered it before, do you think its worth? And does anyone have any pictures, so I can see how they decorate it?

I ordered a happy anniversary party package before and they installed a banner with baloons. it also included a cake along with plates and cutlery.. The cabin was nicely decorated.

Sorry but I don't have pictures. The information provided on the NCL Web site is pretty accurate.

Hello, I am going on the NCL Spirit, out of Venice,

anyone interested in some tour or activity in Cyprus? December 3.

I would suggest that you look for your Spirit Roll Call where other members are posting and exchanging information.

My Wife and I are planning on Cruising on the Norwegian Spirit in August in the Mediterranean. We normally like to get an Aft Balcony, but, the Spirit only has Suites on the back of Deck 9. So, we are interested in a Balcony on Deck 10.

Does anybody have any information on a Balcony Room on the 10th floor ?

Are they all the same size ? Is there a bigger one ? Is there a better location ? We do tend to like the aft of the ship, but, is there something better about the front of the ship ?

Anyway, if anybody has any information or photos, we sure would appreciate it !

 

Thanks in advance,

Dave & Lee

Balcony cabins are 161 sq ft and balconies are 30 sq ft

We had a mid-ship balcony on Deck 10 last April and really enjoyed it.

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Norwegian-Spirit

We have neever been forced to fill a Hero card but as others have mentioned, we always do to recognize those who stand out from the crowd.

We always fill the comment cards in the dining facilities. Those comments are taken seriously and are reviewed on a daily basis by those in the chain of command for the dining facilities. it gives you an opportunity to comment on your entree and service provided by your table steward.

No, I don't think every fare will be at par, I'm just saying the one I'm looking at is pretty darn close to at par. But just the fare. Taxes and Promo fee is the regular exchange rate.

 

$849 plus everything else on top of that (DSC, Taxes, UBP promo, Hotel, OBC etc) is too high for my cruise fare budget, so I'll take my chances and wait to book much closer to the month of sailing.

I hear you. Good luck with your booking and I hope that you will find a deal that fits your budget.

I'm on NCL.com doing a mock booking and it automatically took me to a page in Canadian dollars! Is that something new NCL is doing? Like Royal Caribbean's website?

 

Edited to add: Looks like the cruise fare is almost at par with the US dollar?

Taxes and Promos are regular exchange...

 

April 23 - GA - IF inside $829 US / $849 CDN

Tried to do a mock booking for a European cruise in Oct 17 this morning on the NCL web site and all prices were effectively in CDN.

Although it indicates at PAR, I tried a mock booking on a TA web site for same sailing and this is what I found out:

TA site $2199 USD for Balcony, $189pp Taxes

NCL $2876 CAD for Balcony, $243.35 pp Taxes

This is not at PAR as the exchange rate is 1.307

We should not take it for granted that the advertised CDN rate is really at PAR.

Thanks for your review. Looking forward to read more. We will be on the Spirit on a B2B in Apr 17 starting in Venice and ending in Barcelona.

It is the reason I booked my cruise. I haven't seen anything for sure either way. I know it's been delayed and delayed....:rolleyes:

 

 

Thanks so much!

I just looked on the NCL web site and it says that launching of Harvest Caye is November 2016.

We sailed on the Spirit in July. LOVED it!!! Great ship with wonderful crew. It has a wonderful thing not on Getaway, Breakaway or Escape...a lounge like Galaxy of the Stars! It has wonderful views, the best bartenders and a great space for shows, games and dancing!!

Hi folks, i was wondering if anyone has been on the Norwegian spirit recently....it appears that this is a smaller, older ship and I was wondering if there are any recommendations out there??

We were on the Spirit Apr 16. The Atrium is also very quiet and you can really relax while having a beverage and you can engage a conversation without having to yell to be heard. It also has a full Promenade to walk around the ship or just a place to relax.

It is a great ship with a great crew and the food is good. Service in the MDRs, Specialty restaurants and bars is very good.

Andre

And hopefully they will upgrade the staterooms and cabin bathrooms... The pictures I have seen look horrendous and a lot of complaints about odor. Does anyone know what areas will be changed?

I know the spirit is going into dry dock early 2017,

Just wondering does anyone know what changes are likely to be made such as new dining or drinking areas?

On our Spirit B2B cruise April 2016, we were told that La Cucina (italian) will be a formal restaurant as opposed to a cordoned area of the Buffet on the Port side.

They will be replacing carpets in various areas. They mentioned something about redoing the ceramic/grout in the cabin bathrooms.

Sorry but my memory fails me wrt the other changes.

It is unfortunate that NCL does not publish detailed proposed upgrades to their fleet. It is always a generic statement part of their Edge program.

Andre

I'm expecting a lot of flaming on this BUT!!

 

In New Zealand we have the principle of "User Pays". I am all in favour of cruising with the same principle. Pay for the cruise, and that includes 3 meals a day in MDRs and all day in the buffet and other free restaurants and nothing else, as one price. Then pay for everything else on a "user pays" principle as we do now, when we don't have the various perks, for specialty dining, for shorex, for alcohol, for the spa.

I agree with your opinion.

When we started cruising in 2012, it was exactly as you described it. The rates were affordable then. It definitely was a "users pay" for drinks, specialty restaurants and the like.

The Free at Sea promotions , although appealing to many, have resulted in major price increases wich makes it not so affordable for young families and retirees.

I am looking for after the 28 may, as I am not keen on the and of april without a balcony and then I cannot sail until the end of may due to exam timetable (I am a tutor :))

There are no itineraries shown for the Spirit between Jun and Dec 17.

On the phone the ncl rep told me she is in dry doc end of feb to early march - there is a gap in the sailings for sale to match that.

The Spirit is doing the 14 Day Mediterranean from Barcelona 4-18 May 17.

The Spirit is doing the 10 Day Western Mediterranean from Rome (Civitavecchia) 18-28 May 17.

These itineraries are all showing on the US website

Hi I have never cruised with NCL before an I have been waiting for the release of the spirit for April and May 2017. They are not yet on the NCL UK web site but I asked while booking a holiday on the phone for my parents and they said they are now available to book on the phone but on the sailing we are looking at the balcony cabins are sold out.

Does this mean that the ship has been partly booked by a large group - I asked the sales rep but they couldn't tell me why all the balcony are gone before the sailing was even on their web. (looking at the 23rd April)

 

 

Thanks for any help on this

If you are looking for the NCL Spirit April 23rd 2017 cruise from Venice to Barcelona, you are correct in saying that it looks like the balcony cabins are all sold out on the NCL website.

We booked that cruise along with another one starting on April 12th 2017 back in February 2016 and already had problems getting the same balcony cabin for both cruise segments .

Not sure if there was a large group booking, but these April 2017 cruises have been on the US NCL website for months.

I hope that you will be able to get a cabin for your desired cruise.

 

Dislikes:

 

1) The use of the Atrium for the Newlywed Game and Perfect Couple Show. The seating is inadequate, the resulting site lines are horrible. They need another venue in the ship to accommodate the large crowds who enjoy these entertaining shows.

Totally agree. They should be using the Tropicana MDR which has a great seating capacity.

This is where the Jewel class ships have an advantage over the big ships as they have a Lounge on Deck 12 FWD.

Thanks for the beautiful pictures.

We cruised on the Spirit on a B2B last month and had a great time. The food quality is good overall and the crew is friendly and forthcoming.

We are already booked on her on another B2B next April in the Mediterranean and are really looking forward to see the improvements following its refurbishment in Jan 17 .

For an older ship, it is in a very good condition and the maintenance crew is doing a great job.

Geez, I feel like Debbie Downer. We just did the Bermuda Cruise on the Breakaway (5/01), will post a full review later. to summarize:

 

The (non-buffet) food was great, the staff members were 99.8% great,

BUT THERE WERE JUST TOO MANY PEOPLE for the onboard facilities!

 

everything involved a wait in line, food service slow, only two courses of elevators serving the whole ship, internet access was almost non-existent, there was noise and a feeling of being crowded everywhere you went.

 

We're definitely downsizing next time.

 

Did anyone else get this feeling or are we just old farts?

You are definitely not old farts

Although we were not on the Breakaway, we were on the Getaway on April 24th and we had a similar experience and share your feelings. Our ship was at full capacity with people all over.

On the GA, the Atrium area had live entertainment daily and was jammed with people and lots of noise and it was difficult to move around.

We also noticed that service was slow in both Taste and Savor MDR at dinner time but was quite good at breakfast time.

We have also come to the conclusion that megaships were not for us and that we much prefer the Sun and Jewel class ships

Hard to imagine a bad cruise. I'm sure people have had them but overall even my worst experiences on the boat beat some of my better ones on land :)

 

That said, I have to admit to not loving this one so much. No regrets on it but some items of note.

 

My wife and I have not sailed now for a few years, and it seemed there were changes since then. Things that just didn't feel right or the same.

 

The service, for example. Still stellar overall but we noticed a few things. Supervisors and managers seemed grumpier. Staff was more resistant to doing things when asked. For example, we asked our room steward to re-make up the room once in the afternoon after it got a bit messed up. He refused, saying they wouldn't touch the rooms again till the evening. Ok, maybe that's a rule but I just never encountered a resistance to things like that before. In the buffet dining area, we never once were asked by a server if we wanted a refill on coffee, water, anything. I know it's self-serve obviously, but on every other cruise, we were always being approached by servers asking if we needed anything. And once I noticed it, and paid attention, it wasn't just us. No one seemed to get approached.

 

Just a different attitude it seemed. Still great service, but less above and beyond.

 

And the prices were much higher now for things like pictures, but that's a small nit.

 

I have to admit, I don't like the Spirit. Just an odd layout and feel. You can tell it wasn't built by NCL, it's just odd. It's not symmetrical in design, walk down one side and you end up in the theatre, the other and you end up at a dead end. For those who don't know, it was designed originally for Star I think to be an Asian casino ship.

 

The ports were good overall but some complaints about Ochos Rios. The Getaway was there at the same time and got the main pier, with shops and stuff on it. We got a side pier which seemed to double as a construction yard. And though we didn't get off, we were told by many that there were no shuttles to take you to the nice pier unless you were on an excursion, so you had to walk along the highway to get there.

 

We've not been to Great Stirrup Cay since I think 2010 or '11. So many changes, so many new buildings and setup, very nice. One comment though, could just be me. When we were there last, lunch was served straight off a BBQ setup with people grilling chicken and burgers and handing them off to you. The food on the island now seemed more processed, less fresh. It's basically a buffet now and like on the ship, the food can get stale and lose that crispness. I almost miss the old, simpler lunch style. The rest of the changes though are amazing.

 

Overall, lots of fun, but don't think we'd do the Spirit again.

Sorry to hear that it was not to your liking.

We were on this cruise which was the second segment of our B2B cruise.

I agree that this ship has a differentt configuration but it has some commonality with the Jewel class ships. We truly enjoyed the Atrium area which was not congested as seen on the Jewel class and Megaships. You can circulate freely without bumping on other people if you need to get access to Guest services, Ecxursion desk and Cruise consultant. The best part is that it is quiet as there is no live entertainment in the Atrium area.

We ate most of our dinners in the Windows MDR and found the food and service quite good. Slow service could be that with the Beverage package, servers have to get drinks from one of the bars on top of serving food at the tables.

I totally agree with your comments about Ocho Rios.

It was our second time at GSC and were disappointed to see that the Lagoon area was closed due to construction work. it will be closed until Nov 16. We too found that the food was not at par to what it was last year. We found that it was not warm enough this time around.

As for your cabin, the cabin steward has 16 rooms to clean daily and usually they terminate their first shift at 1430 and start at 1800 for beddown preparation. We had great service from ours but it could be the reason why he could not accommodate your request.

Although it is not my DW preferred ship, we will be cruising on the Spirit again on another B2B in Apr 17 after it comes out of drydock. Looking forward to see the improvements.

Glad to see that still had lots of fun.

I have a 12:24 pm flight from MIA and have been reading some are standing in customs lines for almost 2 1/2 hrs., I know this is not the norm. I want to have breakfast in the dining room before debarkation. Do you feel not doing walk off I will still make the flight? (Hope this made sense)

If you do self-disembarkation and if all the planets are aligned, it could be done. To exit the ship, you have to go through the Casino on Deck 7 and it could take quite a bit of time.

On our recent cruise, even with self-disembarkation, it took a very long time to exit the ship and make it through customs and we would have missed the flight.

If you put tags on your luggage and left it outside your cabin before going to bed, although you have a disembarkation time, remember that it may take some time to get off the ship and then you have to retrieve your luggage in the hangar which we noticed could be a challenge.

You also have to take into consideration possible traffic jams en route to the airport.

Okay so we have freestlye dining which I quite like the idea of. However I can see we can 'prebook' a table in the MDR at allocated time slots. My concerns are

1. the time slots online booking seem to go in one hour slots at half past each hour.

2. for the majority of the days the later times seem to be full and only 5.30 or 6.30pm remain.

 

I want to enjoy freestyle in the sense that its meant to be...ie I want to turn up at the dining room at say 7.15 one night then 7.45 pm the next. So how does it work in reality given that the times appear to be booked up and I cant see any quarter to quarter past or on the hour time slots?

 

I have cruised with NCL many years ago (before you have the privilege of booking online) and know that you could just turn up at the dining room and ask for a table, but in reality whats the situation these days with people prebooking? Will I struggle to be seated when I want

(And please noone suggest the buffet - I dont do self service in the evenings);)

We just returned from B2B on the Spirit (9-23 Apr 16).

We had dinner in the Windows MDR most evenings aside from four dinners in Le Bistro. We never pre-book before a cuise as we do not want to be tied to a schedule. We ate at different times and never had a problem getting a table.

For those who want to attend the shows in the Theatre which are held at 1930 and 2130, there may be a bit of planning required. You have to allow at least 90 minutes for your meal to be served specially if you order drinks. If you are in a rush, simply tell your server that you have an engagement to attend and they will do their best to accommodate you.

Should you desire to do so, you can make your reservation for specific seating times directly at the MDR hostess.

For large groups, I would definitely make reservations to allow the MDR personnel time to arrange the required tables for your group for your requested seating time.

If you have a reservation for dinner in the Windows MDR, you will be directed to enter the MDR from the Starboard side (right-hand side facing forward of the vessel) and those with no reservation enter the MDR from the Port side (left-hand side facing forward of the vessel).

We never experienced long waiting times and the MDR staff is great and we truly enjoyed our dining experience.