Jump to content

Review of Mediterranean Cruise - 14 Days on NCL Spirit May 4-18, 2017 (with photos)


Recommended Posts

Hello everyone. This is a review of our 14 day Mediterranean cruise on the NCL Spirit. This was such an incredible, unforgettable vacation! Truly amazing! We saw and experienced so many spectacular things that I will share with you through my words and photos.

 

This was originally supposed to be an Eastern Mediterranean and Holy Land cruise but that was cancelled by NCL about a year ago to remove Turkey from the itinerary. So we were offered this cruise as a replacement.

 

Our outstanding itinerary was as follows:

 

Cruise started in Barcelona, Spain

Valencia, Spain

Cartagena, Spain

Malaga (Granada), Spain

At Sea

Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy

Valletta, Malta

At Sea

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

Santorini, Greece

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

At Sea

Messina, Sicily, Italy

Naples,Italy

Cruise ended in Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

 

This itinerary was very appealing to us as we had not been to any of these places other than Santorini. 11 of the 12 places we visited were new to us. Score!

 

About us, married couple in our late 40’s with no children. This vacation was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! We had only been to Europe one other time, 10 years ago for our honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean so we decided it was time to go back to the wonderful Mediterranean again on a new itinerary!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sunday, April 30. Home to Airport Area. We live near Seattle so it was going to be a looonnnggg day of flying to Barcelona. We had to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m flight so we decided to get a hotel close the airport.

 

We stayed one night at Cedarbrook Lodge, about 5 minutes from Sea-Tac Airport. It was our first time staying here. I was very, very impressed with this place. Such a nice, peaceful setting with beautifully manicured grounds. Really nice room. And great food and great service overall. Really top notch staff here. We will definitely stay here again on future trips if we have an early flight like we did this time. Such a nice, quiet oasis near a busy airport. And very quintessential Northwest. A true hidden gem! And a nice bonus I was able to get this room for free using my rewards points with my credit card.

 

Not your typical setting near an airport

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

View down to the dining room

 

ry%3D400

 

So for those of you coming to Seattle for Alaska cruises may want to consider this place, although it may be better as a post cruise option since it’s near the airport. Thank you Cedarbrook Lodge, I will be back!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monday, May 1. Seattle to Barcelona, Spain. Here we go! Only 5,400 miles to go :rolleyes:.This was a 3 leg flight journey. The first leg of our journey was Seattle to Newark, NJ. We had a nearly 3 hour layover in Newark which was good as it took us about 1.5 hours to get through security! Then the second leg of the trip to Lisbon, Portugal involved an overnight flight. I was so tired and had not slept at all during those 2 legs and only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before we left Seattle. Now it’s another 3 hour layover before it was finally time for the third and final leg of the trip from Lisbon to Barcelona.

 

Tuesday, May 2. Barcelona, Spain. We arrived in Barcelona around noon, well more than 24 hours after we left home in Seattle. I was beyond exhausted at this point. Both of us were very, very tired but decided not to take a nap when we got to Barcelona and waited to go to sleep until that evening as we thought it would help us adjust better to the new time zone which is 9 hours ahead of Seattle time.

 

We stayed 2 nights at Hotel Barcelona Universal. Since this trip was celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary we splurged a little extra to get one of the Junior Suite rooms with a private terrace! We also booked under a special Anniversary Package which included breakfast (and was a pretty elaborate spread IMO, definitely not just a continental breakfast), a chocolate cake and a bottle of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine). The hotel also has free wi-fi, 2 rooftop terraces and a rooftop pool.

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

Hello big bathtub!

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We thought the nightly rate of about $200.00 was a very reasonable price, especially considering all the extras we received and having a private terrace! I booked this hotel about 8 months in advance to make sure to get a terrace room. This was a nice, clean hotel with excellent service. It gets very good reviews too. It is in a very convenient location and was within a 10 minute walk to Las Ramblas, close to a hoho bus stop, and metro line directly across the street from the hotel.

We did not have any particular plans or excursions that first day in Barcelona as we wanted to just take it easy after no sleep on the flights and adjust to the new time zone so we just did some exploring of our hotel and nearby area. We really enjoyed sitting out on our terrace that afternoon since we were so exhausted. It was a huge terrace! We had a corner room so the terrace was somewhat of a wraparound.

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

ry%3D400

 

View from our terrace

 

ry%3D400

We found a great little pizza place for dinner (La Strada) just a couple blocks from our hotel. We could barely function that first day and had been awake for over 30 hours straight before we went to bed that first night. So after dinner we called it a day. We really needed a good night’s sleep as the next day was going to be Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and a flamenco show/dinner!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wednesday, May 3. Still in Barcelona.

Our day started at Sagrada Familia. We purchased tickets in advance online before we left home and arrived right at the opening time, 9:00 a.m. This place was amazing! We were just in awe of it! Construction started in 1882 and is still ongoing at the present time. It is supposed to be completed somewhere between 2026 and 2028.

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After spending about 2 hours at Sagrada Familia, next we were off to Park Guell. We took the hoho bus to get there from Sagrada (the cost was somewhere between 26.00 and 29.00 Euros per person to ride all day, I can't remember the exact amount. And I think the amount varies depending on the time of year you visit). I’d say it was about a 10-15 minute walk to the park after getting off the bus and most of it is an uphill walk. We also purchased tickets online in advance from home for the park for a 12:00 noon arrival time. This was another amazing place!

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love your review! Thank you so much for sharing. Great hotel find in Barcelona and congrats on the anniversary celebration! Can't wait for more!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

ry%3D400

 

After several hours exploring Sagrada Familia and Park Guell we got back on the hoho bus for more touring around the city just as it started raining (good timing). After riding the bus around for awhile it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and a flamenco show! No time to rest!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We went to Tablao Flamenco Cordobes dinner and show on Las Ramblas, about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We met up with a very nice couple from our CC meet and greet here and shared a table together. It was a buffet style dinner with good food and a fair amount of variety of foods and desserts.

 

They did not allow photos to be taken during the show until the last 10 minutes so I don’t have a lot of photos. But it was a really good show and we enjoyed the experience!

 

ry%3D400

ry%3D400

ry%3D400

 

We capped off our amazing day/evening by having our anniversary cake and champagne, compliments of the hotel (our actual anniversary date was not until later in the trip - more on that later). We were laughing at the size of this cake! We thought it would be a mini size cake for two, but it was a full size cake! Don't tell anyone but we ended up eating half of it! ;p

 

 

ry%3D400

 

 

Then we enjoyed the sunset from our terrace on our last night in Barcelona!

 

ry%3D400

 

 

I'm going to have to stop my review here for tonight. I will pick up again tomorrow. Up next: Cruise embarkation day!

Edited by SeahawkSiren
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thursday, May 4 – Cruise Departs from Barcelona. Here we are, cruise embarkation day! It was time to board the NCL Spirit! This was our first time on this ship. Embarkation process was very smooth for us as we were at the terminal around noon and were one of the firsts in line so we were on the ship very quickly.

 

My first shot of the Spirit just before boarding!

ry%3D400

Here was our first view inside the ship. What a stunning atrium!

ry%3D400

ry%3D400

 

 

ry%3D400

 

 

ry%3D400

 

 

ry%3D400

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...