Anyone just back from the Spirit?

Hoping to hear some more positive reviews from those coming back. What did you think? How is the crew? The food? Also looking for pictures if anyone has them. Updated ones. It really does help the time pass.

 

Thank you all for all your opinions and thoughts. I so appreciate it..

 

Norma

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288983

You are one funny lady as I don't have a ton of hair (I keep it short plus it is going missing)! My DW has about shoulder length hair and surprisingly she was o.k. with it. Whenever she used it though it sounded like an old style Hoover vacuum cleaner - it didn't have a ton of power it seemed, but again, she was fine with it.

 

I'm trying to remember all the various questions - I jotted them down and took notes along the way. Some off the top of my head:

 

The Spirit is using Terminal 1 at PC. It is about one year old and a very nice terminal. Traffic wasn't very congested. When you go in you are greeted by the port folks. The line on the left to go through security is for all passengers and the line on the right is a security line for suite guests. There was no one in that line.

 

Once you get past that you go upstairs and you get directed to which ever particular group you are in. We were in a suite so they had an escort through the area to the far end where we waited for the next agent. Did the usual stuff. Then they took us to an open area (roped off) for the suite/vip guests. Typical snack stuff there. They started boarding at 11:20 and we were 3rd and 4th on. There were some TAs on board touring as well as the B2B folks.

 

We walked around the ship for awhile and throughout our 7 days noticed the ship was in very good ship for its age (better than what I've seen on the Dawn being a younger ship).

 

Crew was generally very pleasant and smiling. We did hear a few things about the crew feeling nickel-and-dimed (their words, not mine) under the new management. They got a party for getting a 100% on their last health inspection - that seemed to be very meaningful to them.

 

I have all the Dailies and will try to post sooner than later. Platinum dinner certificates said you could go to Le Bistro, the Italian Place (don't recall if they used La Trattoria name or La Cucina), and the Brazilian Steakhouse (which they don't have on the Spirit).

 

They had the Captain's cocktail party on Sunday night, a Latitudes Party on Sunday afternoon, and I think it was a CruiseNext party later in the week. We didn't buy a certificate this time.

 

Food - as always, subjective. We had great service everywhere which surprised us a bit compared to what we've had over the years. The MDR menus and what we had seemed better than what we've had over the past few years. Blue Lagoon service was great compared to some of the other ships and the last time we were on the Spirit.

 

Many, many people with the drink package. Created some waits but not too bad. They were generally putting drinks in the plastic cups - maybe 12 oz? Ship to us never really felt too crowded being at 2244 pax (I think I incorrectly posted 2242 on a different post).

Thanks for your review I enjoyed it.

Do you mind posting the dailies?

Thanks for your review I enjoyed it.

Do you mind posting the dailies?

I do have them - they are for the Western. I'll look into posting them.

Did you have any specific questions in the interim?

New to this board, not sure what I am doing. But I have been reading many not so good reviews about the late December NCL Spirit cruises and my trip is coming up in less than two weeks. How bad is it really? Our last cruise was Disney in 2005. It is really two couples just getting away to relax and hang out together both celebrating 25 year anniversaries. No super high expectations - we just want to relax, eat good food, and see some nice beaches.

Just on the Spirit from the 12/19/15 sailing.

Overall a really good cruise, we liked the ship and the layout it felt very classy and easy to navigate. Pretty easy to get drinks and we really enjoyed Lester in Henry's.

The food on the other hand was terrible! The worst being at the buffet at lunch time, it was hard to find anything that was edible. I am not that picky of an eater but the whole family agreed it was just awful. How about a taco bar or a deli, instead of those pre-made sandwiches!

The dining room was ok, fish was terrible, some entrees not even hot, warm soup. So we ended up ordering 2 entrees just to find one you could pick at! We certainly did not gain weight from the food!

The ship really rocks and rolls like no other ship I that I have been on! It was like that on the way out and on the return, so be ready with your Bonine or ginger or sea bands if you use them!!

The casino was pretty stingy, but that is not suprising;)

Any trip is what you make of it and we just enjoyed our family time and escaping to some sun shine!

Hi. Onboard now. It's an older ship but nice ship in my opinion. However, having a few issues as a first time Norwegian. Mostly inconvenient things. Room key not working after several resets. And the picture below. They finally moved me after 2 requests so I could avoid an accident. After being moved - guess what. Key situation happens again. Not sure what to think. Still keeping positive attitude. Cabin 9136. Email me any questions if you are booked in this cabin. Adamdallas@att.net

Onboard until 01/09.

Hi. Onboard now. It's an older ship but nice ship in my opinion. However, having a few issues as a first time Norwegian. Mostly inconvenient things. Room key not working after several resets. And the picture below. They finally moved me after 2 requests so I could avoid an accident. After being moved - guess what. Key situation happens again. Not sure what to think. Still keeping positive attitude. Cabin 9136. Email me any questions if you are booked in this cabin. Adamdallas@att.net

Onboard until 01/09.

[ATTACH]372731[/ATTACH][ATTACH]372732[/ATTACH]

Did you tender or dock in St. Thomas?

We tendered using the life boats in St. Thomas. We are now in Tortola at the dock. 😊

Did you tender or dock in St. Thomas?

If you look at the kroozcams site, the Spirit is still showing it yesterday at St. Thomas so you can get an idea (sort of).

I wanted to give an update and special thanks to NCL for the very thoughtful room delivery.

Also, for talking to the ship casino. LOL [emoji6]

I wanted to give an update and special thanks to NCL for the very thoughtful room delivery.

[ATTACH]372793[/ATTACH]

Also, for talking to the ship casino. LOL [emoji6]

[ATTACH]372794[/ATTACH]

Nice!

Looks like NCL took care of you:D

Enjoy your trip!

We tendered using the life boats in St. Thomas. We are now in Tortola at the dock. 😊

Yet we docked on the Dec 5th sailing.

Yet we docked on the Dec 5th sailing.

Depends upon berth availability. If there are six ships, Spirit tenders.

Was the ship's time changed to match the local time?

When we did the Western a few weeks back, the indication for the future Eastern cruises was the Spirit was going to be doing quite a few tendering trips in St. Thomas this year. There was also some indication that NCL might try to get some larger tenders to do this rather than the lifeboats but from the report this week it sounds like that hasn't happened yet and whether it will, who knows.

If you look at the kroozcams site, the Spirit is still showing it yesterday at St. Thomas so you can get an idea (sort of).

The Spirit kroozcam has been out of sync sporadically for sometime. It looked liked STT but knew they were in Tortola, lol Just didn't look carefully at the date (it is rather small, lol) :)

I wanted to give an update and special thanks to NCL for the very thoughtful room delivery.

[ATTACH]372793[/ATTACH]

Also, for talking to the ship casino. LOL [emoji6]

[ATTACH]372794[/ATTACH]

Very nice indeed! My DH likes the "paper gift" the best, lol :D

Yet we docked on the Dec 5th sailing.

I'm hopeful we'll have room to dock on Feb.2 - only 4 ships that day in ST. Thomas ;)

I'm hopeful we'll have room to dock on Feb.2 - only 4 ships that day in ST. Thomas ;)

We had 5.........the two NCL ships docked at Havensight,while the other three ships docked at Crown Bay.

I wanted to give an update and special thanks to NCL for the very thoughtful room delivery.

[ATTACH]372793[/ATTACH]

Also, for talking to the ship casino. LOL [emoji6]

[ATTACH]372794[/ATTACH]

Thanks for taking time out of your vacation to calm all of us down waiting to sail her. Nice win at the casino!

Hi. Onboard now. It's an older ship but nice ship in my opinion. However, having a few issues as a first time Norwegian. Mostly inconvenient things. Room key not working after several resets. And the picture below. They finally moved me after 2 requests so I could avoid an accident. After being moved - guess what. Key situation happens again. Not sure what to think. Still keeping positive attitude. Cabin 9136. Email me any questions if you are booked in this cabin. Adamdallas@att.net

Onboard until 01/09.

[ATTACH]372731[/ATTACH][ATTACH]372732[/ATTACH]

Magnetized cards are easily de-magnatized. Try keeping it wrapped in a bit of paper and separate from anything else.

When we did the Western a few weeks back, the indication for the future Eastern cruises was the Spirit was going to be doing quite a few tendering trips in St. Thomas this year. There was also some indication that NCL might try to get some larger tenders to do this rather than the lifeboats but from the report this week it sounds like that hasn't happened yet and whether it will, who knows.

I believe 19th of January will be the last day she'll have to tender in St. Thomas.

Escape has been experimenting with loaning her much larger tenders to supplement Spirit's own for tendering ops. It helps, but nothing compares to actually docking in Havensight or Crown Bay. Long lines and frustration continue to be an issue.

I believe 19th of January will be the last day she'll have to tender in St. Thomas.

 

Escape has been experimenting with loaning her much larger tenders to supplement Spirit's own for tendering ops. It helps, but nothing compares to actually docking in Havensight or Crown Bay. Long lines and frustration continue to be an issue.

I so hope this is true! St. Thomas has always been my favorite port but I fear this time may not be if we have to tender, later arrival (11:00) and I think five other ships in port. It's our first time there with our boys and I am hoping it will continue to be our favorite! We are on the 2/13 sailing.

I wanted to give an update and special thanks to NCL for the very thoughtful room delivery.

[ATTACH]372793[/ATTACH]

Also, for talking to the ship casino. LOL [emoji6]

[ATTACH]372794[/ATTACH]

Did you win that on slots? Video poker?

Hey all. The trip is winding down. Final sea night. The cabin key card issues were also happening to the Staff. It took security to come to the cabin and reset the lock for it all to work. No more problems after that. [emoji4]

I have had some amazing luck in the casino. All on slots. Elisabeth and Joan are part of the casino staff and they are amazing. I never thought I'd ever be anything but Loyal to Royal. NCL has earned my future repeated business as well. Some of the cruise critic members I have met onboard are going to be long time friends. I can't believe I was so nervous about going solo. It's been an awesome time and experience. The ship is fine in my honest opinion.