Spirit May 6-17 Mediterranean Cruise Review With Photos

Paying it forward.

I hope this review will assist others cruising this itinerary. Once again, thanks to my fellow Cruise Critic posters whose valuable information assisted us in another dream vacation.

Background info …. We are mid and early 50’s. This is our third cruise in Europe and our third cruise on the Spirit. We cruised the 12 day Grand med on the Spirit in 2015 and the 9 day Baltic cruise on the Getaway in 2017. Our two boys travelled with us on both cruises. This time it was just the two of us as the boys had other commitments.

We downgraded to an inside room from balconies on our previous two European cruises. For those interested we bid $285 USD each for a balcony upgrade but is was not in the cards. The ship was sold out, unlike the Getaway last year when the boys were upgraded from inside to balcony for $70 USD apiece.

Next post our pre-cruise stay in La Spezia, Italy.

We departed May 1, and arrived in Genoa Italy the following morning. We spent four nights in La Spezia in the Cinque Terre region. We choose this town and Airbnb due to location. The Airbnb was located an easy 6 minute walk to the train station. The typical European standing room only balcony overlooked Piazza Garibaldi at the edge of the old town. The square was surrounded by restaurants in eyesight of our balcony. The nearby supermarket was handy for purchasing fruit, snacks, water, beer, wine and other goodies. Daily gelato across the narrow street was a must. The Gelato was needed as we are early diners and the reservations did not start until 7:00 pm. We enjoyed the evening meals dining outside on the busy pedestrian narrow streets.

We had one evening and three full days to explore the region. Each day we leisurely hiked between towns followed by exploring the cliff side villages. Early May is an ideal time for hiking as the temperatures are bearable and the summer crowds have yet to arrive.

We purchased a two day Cinque Terra card which included train/bus travel between Levento in the North and La Spezia in the south. This card also included the hiking passes which were required for our first two hikes. The five Cinque Terre villages dotted the coastline between these two larger towns. The third day we hiked one of the free trails and spent the afternoon at the beach in northern most village of Monterosso al Mare.

We had the nearby towns of Levento, Lerici, Portovenere, Palmaria Island and Biassa on our “just in case we have time” list but we did not want to over do it before our port intensive cruise.

Florence, Pisa and Lucca are easy day trips if so inclined.

We departed La Spezia on train #8655 Frecciabianca at 8:16 am and arrived at Civitavecchia 11:14 am. Here are some pics from our pre-cruise stay.

Next post our ship – the Spirit.

Local winery promoting their products along the hiking trails through the hillside vineyards

More Cinque Terre Photos

Not sure how this mountainside restaurant gets their supplies delivered but it sure makes for a great break along the hiking trails to take in the view and enjoy a cold beer and freshly squeezed juice mixtures.

Cinque Terre last few ...........

Wonderful pics! Looking forward to more of your review.

Awesome Review! Looking forward to reading more!

Before I get to the ship review I though I would share our Tim’s SIM Card Experience.

While in Genoa we purchased a SIM card from the largest provider in Italy. The company is called TIM. There are others Wind and Vidaphone. The card cost 25 Euros for unlimited phone calls in Italy and 4 Gigs of data for 30 days throughout the EU countries. Without the phone calls the card was about 18 euros.

TIP: Put your phone on airplane mode while at sea. When we arrived at our first port (Dubrovnik) we could not get cell service. We visited a TIM's store on day 2 in Venice and found out that we exhausted our data due to the roaming charges while at sea. We paid 5 more euros to put the data back on our phone.

The card did not work again in Split. Once we took the phone off airplane mode we received a text message in Italian welcoming us to Croatia. Some how I managed to press the correct numbers on the phone and after a few transfers spoke to an English speaking representative who reset the phone. It worked once again but we never did figure out the issue.

I will not use Tim’s Sim the next time.

Next up the Spirit.

Day six for us now. We arrived in Civitavecchia, the gateway to the Spirit.

As we exited the train station we met another couple from our cruise. They happened to arrive on the same train and also hiked the trails of Cinque Terra pre cruise. We hit it off right away. It was a nice day and since we all liked to hike we decided to take the leisurely stroll to our ship or port entrance, whichever happened to be closer.

I assumed the Spirit would be at pier 12, a short walk around the back of the castle not far from the train station. We rounded the corner of the castle and our ship was no where in sight. The ship could be seen in the far distance which I believe was pier 25.

After a bit of confusion, we caught a port shuttle bus on it’s way to the main port entrance. We picked up more passengers by the McDonald's stop. Once we arrived at the main entrance we transferred to the shuttle which delivered us to our ship. There was a line up for the shuttle. We waited about 15 to 20 minutes.

By the time we boarded our shuttle the line up was gone, everyone in the line behind us made it on board. We probably arrived at the peak boarding time. The shuttle dropped us off next to the ship. We handed our luggage to the staff at the pier and our luggage was placed in a bin and on the way to our ship. We walked a short distance to the check in area. As I recall the check in was non-eventful. It was very smooth and quick.

The Ship

As soon as we boarded we headed to the front desk to make a reservation at the Teppanyaki restaurant for the last night of the cruise, as it could only be booked once onboard. We made reservations online at the other specialty restaurants on the first day they became available. For our stateroom category this was the 80 day mark.

We encouraged our new found cruise mates to make reservations at the specialty restaurants. They were able to join us for two of the four specialty dining reservations. Both La Bistro and Cagney’s were already booked for the dates and times we reserved. I suggest booking your dining times online as early as possible. They can always be changed once you are onboard.

Back to the ship.

We love the Spirit. Although the oldest of the fleet, she is a classic. Much smaller than the Getaway we cruised on last year.

Here are some of the many (way too many to list them all) pluses in no particular order, that comes to mind at this late at night ……….

You feel like you are on a ship. The size is perfect for our liking and there are plenty of spaces to “get away” from the crowds compared to much larger Getaway LOL.The Galaxy of the Stars forward lounge on deck 12 is an excellent venue which hosted many activities.This lounge also provides a great view. The buffet layout flows nicely and has plenty of both indoor and outdoor seating. The outdoor seating has both sun and shaded tables with great views at the back of the ship. Made to order eggs and omelets in the buffet were a daily ritual. Wings and cheesecake at the blue lagoon, but only found time to eat there once. Excellent service throughout and great food most of the time. We were never hungry. La Bistro and Teppanyaki were exceptional. Cagney’s was so so. My steak was good but OH had a medium well that came out as hard and tough as a hockey puck. Windows restaurant has great window seats. It's much quieter than the Garden restaurant. As usual, you can count on NCL to provide excellent shows. We skipped a few as we have seen them before or were busy doing something better.

The promenade is the deal maker for me. It is made of teak, wide and close to the water. Walking laps on this deck is very enjoyable. Very few people use this space. It also has loungers on both sides which provide a great place in the shade to relax, read and watch the ocean go by. The wind had a nip in the air while at sea this time of the year. However,it did get hot lounging in the direct sunshine.

The back of ship is old school cruising. The tiered levels on the back provide great sea views from many angles. Plenty of outside seating to enjoy breakfast on both sea and late port arrival days.

Getting off the ship on port days was uneventful. There were very little to no line-ups at the times we got off. Maybe due to us being some of the first to disembark at most ports. For some reason we had to bring passports and show them to local officials to get back on the ship in Italy but had to turn in our passports before departing the ship in Greece.

There was a slight delay getting off in Corfu. NCL staff had the gangway down and were on the pier but customs ordered them to return to the ship. About 10 minutes later we cleared customs.

There were a couple of negatives and they were related. First, there was a sewer smell at times in certain places in the stateroom hallways. Nothing major but noticeable now and then.

Second, the bathrooms are still dated and in need of a complete overhaul. They seem no worst for wear than our last time on the Spirit (fall 2015 Caribbean cruise). Our bathroom on deck 10 had a smell of mold and or sewer. It was not unbearable but enough to have second thoughts about another cruise on our favourite ship. We were sure to keep our bathroom room door closed at all times. Compared to the Getaway bathrooms, the Spirit is big let down.

Other stuff of interest – the Internet was OK, no major issues. This cruise had the least number of both young children and young adults we have yet to see on a cruise. There were very few young adults of similar ages to our boys. This makes complete since as both these age categories are better suited for the activities and amenities provided by the mega ships. I’m sure both age groups will make more of a presence in the summer months, as it did on our August 2015 Med cruise on the Spirit.

Some pics around the Spirit

A few more pics around the ship

can't wait for more!

For those interested in the food, here are a few pics of the food you'll eat on your next cruise.

The appetizers

The salads

Cheesecake was excellent.

Eggs and Omelets made to order were my breakfast choice of the day. We ate our breakfast in the lido each day. Never did make it to the dining room for breakfast.

OH breakfast in the lido

My favourite vacation breakfast. Don't get to eat this at home...... bacon, fried eggs and sausages that is LOL

A few more items we ate .............

Cagney's Hockey pucks ......

My steak was much better ...

Enjoying the dining room view at Windows Restaurant as we departed Venice. Great meal, service and views as we passed St. Marks Square.

Excellent meal at Le Bistro. Both of us really enjoyed this evening. Food tasted much better than it looks my picture. OH had seafood.

The last meal was a great one. There were 9 in total for this meal. Restaurant seats 10 and they have four 1.5 hour settings per night. Service is fast but tasty and entertaining. I have a shellfish allergy so my food was cooked in Cagney's kitchen.

Next up our ports of call. Dubrovnik was our first port. We had a DIY day. I'll provide some insight in my next post.

Love the Spirit! Hope to travel aboard her again soon.

Enjoying your excellent review- thank you for sharing!!

Enjoying your excellent review- thank you for sharing!!

Thanks to those for following. The reviews provides a good reason to look over my photos.

Dubrovnik

We met up with our Australian friends for a leisurely DIY day. Shortly before 8 am we walked down to the gangway and off the ship. We were in the first taxi to leave the pier. Taxi fares are set at 13 euros per car and the price is clearly posted dockside. A one hour taxi tour well set you back 50 euros.

The taxi dropped us off at the Pile Gate entrance. When we entered the walled City it was eerily quiet. We were surprised that the length of the main street (Stradun) was so short.

We purchased our tickets to walk the wall (135 Kuna- they take visa) and climbed the steep stairs to the top of the wall. Temperatures were great this time of day and there were very few others on the wall. TIP - facing the Lovrijenac Fortress on your right you will notice the rising sun behind you, making for great early morning photos of the fortress.

The wall walk is not very strenuous, but then again we did it at a very slow pace as we stopped to enjoy the views of the both the coastline and city architecture. It took us about 2 plus hours to walk the wall. Speed walkers can do it in less than half that time. You will see a number of small cafes along your walk serving food and refreshments. TIP – there is a free bathroom about half way around, near the old port area.

The heat intensified as we made the last turn on the downward side of the wall. The wall was heating up by now. Temperature peaked around 26 degrees at mid-day. I’m sure it was much hotter than that on the wall.

Around the three quarter mark we noticed an increase in number of people passing us. The crowds picked up and you had to be quick snapping photos.

After walking the wall we sat in the shade by the fountain, filled up our water bottles and our friends took out Kuna’s from the bank machine. We strolled around the streets and about three quarters of the way down Stradun we turned left. The streets on this side are steep and interesting. At the top we exited the walled city to view the wall from the outside. The entrance to the cable car is near here.We found a quiet restaurant, ordered pizza and sampled the local beer. Since our Tim’s Sim was not working we appreciated the free wifi to check in on the boys and dog back home. We ate outside under the shade of some large trees. Food was good and the beer cold.

After lunch both couples split to browse shop and explore for a couple hours. We agreed to meet 2:30 pm at the fountain to check out the fortress before calling it a day. TIP the wall entrance ticket also includes entrance to the fortress. Knowing very few venture over to the fortress we headed there next.

The walk along the waterfront between the city wall and fortress is striking. Sea level provides a different perspective of the city wall, fortress and harbour. By mid afternoon the stairs leading from the waterfront to the fortress are shaded. A great place to sit, rest and take it all in. Magical indeed.

Be sure to wander to the right and left near the fortress entrance. The views are stunning. In the summer heat be sure to take your swim wear and hop in the refreshing water on the small beach area below the fortress (on the right side when facing the fortress).

TIP – visit the fortress as late as possible for best views and photos. As the day advances the sun appears behind you for the majestic views of the walled city. To be honest there is not a lot to see inside the fortress but we went to soak up the views and get away from the crowds.

After the fortress,we walked back along the waterfront to the Pile Gate entrance and took a taxi back to the ship. You can also walk back to Pile Gate through the interesting streets instead of the waterfront. We purchased an hour of internet for 3 euros at the large café next to our ship. We spent about 30 minutes or so touching base with family back home. Overall a great day. The cable car ride was on our list but ………we decided next time. Dubrovnik,we hope to return some day.

Here are some of my photos....... Next up is Venice

View down Stradun from the wall near Pile Gate

View of Fortress from top of the wall

View of the wall from top of the Fortress

View of the wall taken from beside the Fortress

About one third way around the wall. This photo shows a long section of the wall with just one person in sight. Go early and beat the crowds ....... and the heat.

View through the wall overlooking the old port area. The wall is very thick.

More Dubrovnik photos.

Narrow streets along the wall

Inside Pile Gate looking up at the Pile Gate wall entrance/exit. Fill your water bottle in the fountain.

Narrow and steep lane ways inside the walled city

View along the waterfront between Pile Gate and the Fortress

Small beach below the Fortress. Great place for a refreshing dip.

Inside the Fortress

We did a 3 day stop in Dubrovnik not with a cruise. Your pictures are bringing me back. Their was such heartache in that country, but now things are coming around. I know the tourist numbers are certainly high, but it is good for the country to be on their feet again. We loved our apartment, the food, and heading to Split and Zagreb was beautiful as well. I would go on a cruise there. One thing that sticks with me are the factories a long the river that were bombed. Your pictures are beautiful.

<p>Great review!! Excited to hear the rest!</p>

We are doing this cruise July 8th! Thanks for your review and your photos, they are beautiful. I am writing down your tips as I read. :)

We are doing this cruise July 8th! Thanks for your review and your photos, they are beautiful. I am writing down your tips as I read. :)

Thanks to the last few posters for following. Will get to Venice soon. Lots of pics on my camera and both our iPhones to look through. Been busy with house renos that we thought would be completed when we left May lst. Something keeps coming up to get in the way of my review.......

Enjoy preparing for your cruise. I would recommend organizing tours in Olympia and Koper. Maybe Malta too. I organized tours in these three ports with fellow CC members. I will eventually get to these ports.

Thanks for the review! It seems no one reviews the Spirit. We just returned from the 10 day May 17th Greek Islands from Rome. The ship is beautiful. All the main areas are clean and cozy. The rooms need updating but on a port intensive cruise you aren’t there much. Very few kids on the ship at all. We went right to the Epic for a second cruise and were able to compare a lot. The food on the Epic was far better.

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Next up Venice............Arrival, People Mover and 24 Hour Vaporetto Pass

This was a return port for us and another DIY port. Last trip we followed the boys. They figure out public transit systems with ease. This time we were on our own. Using our memory and limited pre-trip planning we figured it out. Riding the canals is the fun part of this destination. Knowing we had 29 hours before departure, there was no stress of getting back to our ship on time. Back to our arrival….

Our arrival time was 1:00 pm, very convenient, allowing for a relaxing morning. We decided to seek out a spot up front to watch the grand arrival. By the time we arrived at the top deck the prime real estate at the bow was taken. We secured a rail spot close to the front on the starboard side. Within minutes the entire side was full. The right side provides views of St. Mark’s Square during arrival. TIP: to experience the full buzz of your arrival make your way to the highest open deck on your ship and get a rail spot at the front or right side. Go early, about an hour before arrival.

With two gangways open there was no line-up getting off the ship. When you exit get a map from the hop on hop off bus people. They were at the exit just outside the terminal we were docked at. They had a couple of mobile carts located near our ship. No need to wait in the line-up with everyone purchasing tickets, just walk by and ask for the map as they have them on the side of their mobile carts for the taking. Use this info with caution, as we were the only ship in town –if you arrive on busy ship day they may be elsewhere or closer the main port exit gate..

Not sure how often the hop on hop off bus system runs or where it stops but it might be worth looking into before leaving home. Since we had a plan we did not bother to spend time looking into the service.

We took the people mover to Plaza De Roma. It is easy to find, and you can see the walkway route from your upper decks. The walk took longer than anticipated, you don’t walk a straight line. We were also docked at the furthest berth which adds a few more minutes walking compared to our last visit.

People mover tickets cost 1.5 euros and can be purchased from the ticket machine. I believe there were two machines. There were three or four people ahead of us. Hit the English directions and read along. It was very straight forward. If not, ask one of your fellow ship mates for help, sure to be some of them around. Pay in euros or credit card. We purchased four tickets and kept two for the return trip. No need to line up a second time.

Once you have your ticket turn around and you will see a couple of entry turnstiles. Scan you ticket walk through and up the steps to the people mover. The departure time of the next tram is clearly visible at the platform. Within a few minutes you will arrive at Plaza De Roma.

After exiting the people mover station we stayed to the left and crossed the street at the stop light near the buses parked in the Plaza. Once we crossed the street we purchased our 24-hour vaporetto pass just down over the steps to your left. We anticipated purchasing them from a kiosk but there were no customers at the ticket office. Ask for a schedule or route map. We did not ask.They may or may not have them, but no harm in asking. If I recall, the pass was 24 euros. The cost of a one ride pass is 7.5 euros.

Next up our afternoon in Murano and Burano

Thanks for the review! It seems no one reviews the Spirit. We just returned from the 10 day May 17th Greek Islands from Rome. The ship is beautiful. All the main areas are clean and cozy. The rooms need updating but on a port intensive cruise you aren’t there much. Very few kids on the ship at all. We went right to the Epic for a second cruise and were able to compare a lot. The food on the Epic was far better.

 

 

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A post of the differences in ships would be interesting read.

Enjoy preparing for your cruise. I would recommend organizing tours in Olympia and Koper. Maybe Malta too. I organized tours in these three ports with fellow CC members. I will eventually get to these ports.

Thanks for the advice. We hadn't planned to take a tour to Olympia as we've been to Ephesus, Athens, Pompeii, etc and have heard that you really need a good guide and strong imagination to get a lot out of Olympia. We had planned instead to take the tourist train to the beach / winery and have a more relaxed beachy/port/shopping day like we had in Mykonos on our last cruise on the Spirit.

I am the most puzzled by Koper to be honest. I just have no idea what to see / do there!! For Malta we might take the bus to Mdina or do a beach day. The blue lagoon looks awesome but might be horribly crowded.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!