Spirit Western Carribean June 12-19 Review...LONG

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I tend to do a lot of research on these boards for our trips and don't post very often unless I have something to add that hasn't been stated previously. I have broken my review into parts that cover embarkation, disembarkation as well as all of the ports including our stay in New Orleans. Hopefully this will help someone else in the same way that many of you have unknowingly helped me when planning our cruises. Feel free to ask any questions.

 

 

Background

This was a girls only vacation for my mom and I to celebrate the end of the school year for both of us. I always book through my local travel agent as she has been able to get us some incredible deals on our vacations over the years. We were upgraded from an ocean view to a balcony cabin for this trip and received a $100 OBC from our travel agent. We don't usually care about the category of cabin we book unless it's a special trip such as Alaska or the Panama Canal. We are just happy to be on the ship going somewhere. All of the ports accept dollars easily. I prefer to use pesos in Mexico as I tend to get a better deal since we shop locally and not at the pier. I wasn't as careful writing down everyone's name this trip so I do not refer to everyone by name.

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We arrived in New Orleans the day before the Spirit departed. I used Big Easy Limos to transport us from the airport to our hotel. Our driver was waiting for us in baggage claim and immediately grabbed our bags and took us to our waiting town car. Total cost including tip was $72 and well worth it to ride in air conditioned comfort since it was so hot outside. We stayed at the Chateau Bourbon on the corner of Iberville Street and Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. Our room at this hotel was free using airline miles. When making the reservation a quiet room was requested. We were given room 411 which was located off of the main corridor in its own secluded space. The room was quite large with a king size bed, large bathroom with double sinks and separate shower. The room also included a jacuzzi tub in a corner of the room. There was a ceiling fan to help keep the room cool although the air conditioning did a great job on its own so the ceiling fan was a nice added touch. Our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel before lunch but the bellman was kind enough to keep our luggage while we went out to explore the French Quarter. We walked to Daisy Dukes for lunch to use a coupon purchased at a discount from restaurants.com. Mom had the fried oysters and I had the fried green tomato PO-boy. Both were delicious and a total cost of $10 for lunch was an excellent start to our stay in New Orleans. After lunch we wandered down Royal Street window shopping and looking in several antique stores before finding Joan Good Antique Jewelry again. This store has high end, low end and everything in between in the way of antique jewelry. I ended up with a beautiful antique crown pin from the 1950's. I have bought several other pieces of jewelry from this shop over the years and have never been disappointed. We wandered through Jackson Square taking in all the street vendors and their merchandise before heading to Aunt Sally's Pralines for praline pecans which are a family favorite. We used a coupon found on the NOLA tourism website that gave a us a free praline with any purchase over $5. We then meandered our way to the Riverwalk Mall for some cooler shopping since the day had gotten progressively hotter. I redeemed another coupon for a free Jazz CD at Destination New Orleans along with a coupon book for different shops at the Riverwalk. A coupon in this book netted my mom a new necklace at a terrific discount at one of the shops. We then caught the Canal Street trolley for $1.25 each (exact change required) for a ride back to our hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. We stopped at the CVS on Canal Street, across the street from our hotel's back entrance, to get a case of coke and two bottles of water for our first excursion day. About the only thing we don't like about Norwegian is the fact that they only serve Pepsi. I did notice while in CVS that they also had a fairly large selection of wine and adult beverages. Since we don't drink I can't comment on brands or prices, just that I noticed they sold these types of drinks. We went back to the hotel where we were promptly checked in, retrieved our luggage and went to our room. We rested, took hot showers and got dressed and grabbed a taxi for $6 for our dinner at The Pelican Club. This is my favorite restaurant in NOLA. It's usually filled with locals and not many tourists find it as it is located in Exchange Alley off the beaten path. They currently have a prixe fix 4 course menu for the cost of your entree that includes choice of soup, choice of appetizer, choice of entree and choice of dessert. It's a lot of food but it is delicious. My favorite is the filet which is so tender you can almost cut it with your fork. This is the first time my mom has eaten here and she can't wait to go again. She is still raving about the oyster appetizer and the ribeye that she ate that night. We walked back to the hotel. The only difficulty we ran into was that neither of our room keys would work to get us into our room after dinner. It took three trips to the front desk to finally get someone to open the outer door that led to our room. I had to make a fuss the third time but other than this we enjoyed our stay at this hotel.

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A quick trip in a taxi for $7 per person and a very nice tip; since we had to hail our own cab as the bellman running the front entrance at the hotel was disinclined to do this for us. Not a problem as there were several taxis waiting at the curb across the street at the Ritz Carlton. The taxi driver could not take our two small pieces of rolling luggage and case of coke quickly enough after starting the car and turning on the A/C for my mom...he got the tip I had in my hand for the bellman. The trip to the pier was quick and painless. We arrived about 10:30. I decided to check all of luggage at the pier this trip so we could have an easier boarding process. The only thing is they won't check a case of drinks in NOLA so I had to carry those on board myself. Check in at the pier was extremely quick and painless. We actually spent more time sitting and waiting for them to call our letter A than we spent checking in. The waiting area had a nice assortment of muffins, breads, and cookies as well as coffee and juices and no we are not VIP or in a suite this trip. They finally started boarding us about 11:30. Upon boarding the ship we were greeted warmly by many ship personnel. Several of them were wondering if the case of coke that I carried was for them as they were like us and preferred Coke over Pepsi. We joked that we would be handing out Cokes as part of our tips for the week. We had lunch in Windows dining room. My favorite if the Cobb salad with no blue cheese and no dressing. The wait staff were very attentive and lunch was a truly relaxing experience. The lunch and breakfast menus are the same everyday in the main dining room. We explored the ship and I got all of my first day business out of the way. Cruise card hole punched at the front desk and put on my lanyard which I pulled out of my tote bag. Had to add mom's to my lanyard as well since she had packed her lanyard in her luggage that we had checked. I asked for a deck of cards at the front desk when I turned in our letter with OBC from NCL. I filled out a future cruise certificate and turned it in to the front desk only to find out later in the cruise that they had not forwarded it to the cruise consultant. Not a problem as all I had to do was sign another one and the cruise consultant added it to my account the last port day along with my $100 OBC. After lunch we went to the casino to get our casino cards and to turn in our slot credit vouchers that I had purchased ahead of time. Added the casino cards to my lanyard. We also found the secret staircase in the back of the Galaxy Lounge that takes you down to the bridge viewing area. My mom especially enjoyed reading all of the plaques and awards that the ship had received. We then went to the library where I was able to pick up the daily crossword, Sudoku, and trivia sheets which I enjoy. Checking out books was not necessary as I had brought my own stash of 4 and my mom had 2. Staterooms were ready about 1:30 and we went to check out our room. We had cabin 9552 which is just around the corner from the forward elevators. The cabin was pleasantly appointed with a king size bed, desk with chair, loveseat, small television, ample closet and storage space. The bathroom was sectioned into three areas which we quite liked but was the typical small size we have come to expect. The balcony area was small but adequate with two chairs and a small square table between them. I spent a lot of time sitting on the balcony reading and listening to my Ipod while enjoying the scenery and quiet. We did not enjoy the boat drill as the Spirit has everyone standing outside on Deck 7 at their assigned area, unlike our last 2 cruises in which we sat in a lounge or bar area and had the drill conducted in air conditioned comfort. We were not required to bring/wear our life jackets but it sure was hot/muggy. I was glad that I had my folding fan to affect a breeze while we were waiting. Afterward we went back to our room to cool off and begin unpacking as our luggage had arrived just as we were leaving to go to the boat drill. The departure from the pier and turn around by the bridge were so smooth we didn't even realize the ship had left the pier and started cruising down the Mississippi until we had passed the French Quarter. We quickly went out on our balcony and I begin pointing out the sites along the way and reading from my travel book. This is a small book that I put together for each trip that has everything listed in it from airport/airline info, hotel info, cruise info, packing lists, expenses for pre/post cruise stays, taxi, car service, restaurants, maps and port info. Basically this is the travel bible that I refer to throughout our trip. My mom was very happy to have the balcony and enjoyed sail away in the quiet rather than the noisy sail away upstairs on the outer deck that we have done in the past. She also enjoyed my running commentary of what she was seeing as we sailed down the Mississippi. Once the casino officially opened and we went to play our first slot game is when we found out that we had not been given our full credits. A quick trip back to the casino desk fixed the problem. We attempted to eat in the main dining room about 7:00 the first night but the lines were ridiculously long outside both dining rooms so we ate at Shogun restaurant and were the only ones there. The service was attentive and dinner was delicious. Mom had the egg drop soup and said it tasted very authentic. The dumplings that were steamed were excellent and we could have made a meal from them. The spring rolls were good. The fried rice was the only disappointment during our meal. We ordered the pork dish which comes with four pancakes and enjoyed it tremendously along with the beef and vegetable dish. The coconut ice cream is my personal favorite for dessert. Until June 30th, Spirit is having a reduced fees at all of it's specialty restaurants. Dinner at Shogun for the two of us was only $20. The shops on board offered 10% off the first night they were open as well. We picked up a NCL notepad with pen for $5. We sent out a bag of laundry the first night to be laundered and ended up getting it back the next night at ½ price. We're not sure if they do this on a regular basis since the first night offers a ½ price pressing deal but I sure wasn't complaining about the cost.

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We had our Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle in Henry's Pub at 10:00. Mom got up very early and went to Raffles Buffet for breakfast. She brought me a croissant and a plate of fruit when she returned to the cabin and stated that she would not be dining in the buffet again. It was simply too busy and too crowded for her. I don't eat at buffets so I never went to Raffles. We enjoyed meeting our cruise critic friends. We also attended the latitudes party that was held in the Galaxy Lounge. My mom enjoyed her free beer and I enjoyed the free glass of ginger ale that I asked for at the bar since I don't drink. We enjoyed the music provided by Emily and Arvin. The prizes given away during the prize drawing varied from very nice (spa services or internet package) to cheap (plastic NCL bag). We didn't win anything but still had a nice time. Over 300 latitudes members were invited to the party but only about 50-100 actually came. After the party we went to the Main dining room for lunch where I was able to have another Cobb salad and my mom ordered the steak. Service was a little slow but it didn't impact our enjoyment of our meal. I then went to the casino and played the penny slots. I spent the afternoon on our balcony reading and my mom sat out on the pool deck for a time as well as in the Galaxy lounge reading her book and chatting with fellow passengers that she had met. Dinner that night was in Le Bistro. We had met the chef earlier in the day at our meet and mingle and he remembered us. I was sitting right in his line of sight and he would check with me with thumbs up or down as to how we were enjoying our dinner. The smoked salmon dip that he sent out when we arrived was to die for. My mom and I were actually fighting over who was going to eat it. Mom had the asparagus with mushrooms no sauce, mussels, salmon and crème brulee. She raved the entire meal at how delicious everything was. I had the asparagus with mushrooms but didn't care for the sauce – too sweet tasting for me – so I just ate the asparagus and mushrooms. I had the onion soup which was delicious. I had the filet and chocolate torte. The filet was excellent...not as good as the one at The Pelican Club but it was pretty close. The chocolate torte was very rich and I didn't even attempt to finish it. Our server Aninicia was wonderful and really added a lot to our experience in Le Bistro. After dinner I went back to the room to put on my pj’s and enjoyed sitting on the deck reading again. I was very tired tonight and ended up going to bed early. Mom tried to stay awake to go to the show but ended up falling asleep as well and missed it. I had noticed earlier in the day while wandering around the ship that some people had green and white striped beach towels instead of the blue striped ones. The green striped beach towels matched my beach bag much better than the blue ones so I asked our room stewards if they would please switch out one of our blue striped towels for a green one. They were most delighted to bring a green striped towel with them when they came to turn down the bed tonight. They took great pleasure in making sure that we had everything we needed and the cabin was arranged the way we wanted.

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We had put out the breakfast room service card the night before, so we had a phone wake up call 5 minutes before they actually delivered breakfast. We ordered fruit and rolls along with a pot of hot water for tea and oj. We got off the ship as soon as we could so we could have a full day in Mahahual. I had reserved chairs via email at Tropicante for the day. Steve, the owner is great to work with and is prompt in responding to email questions and handling reservations. We bought tickets for the bus and I paid 70 pesos for us to ride to Mahaual. I only use pesos in Mexico as I get a better deal and I never ask for prices in USD even though these were accepted at both of our Mexican port stops. We were dropped at another beach club which we just walked through to the Malceon then turned right and walked a short ways to get to Tropicante. We looked in several of the shops/tables along the way but didn't buy anything. We also passed several more beach clubs with people offering their services to us for the day. We just said no thanks and kept walking. When we arrived at Tropicante they quickly set us up in the shade. I burn easily even with SPF 5 million so shade is the only way I can sit at the beach. We were quickly brought two lounge chairs that we used after lunch in which mom napped and I read. We ordered a couple of drinks to start and just sat enjoying the breeze, scenery and people watching. There were a few vendors on the beach selling things but a quick smile and no thank you sent them on their way. We were not overly bothered. We did walk back along the Malceon where my mom purchased a beautiful coral and shell necklace for 200 pesos. She also bought several small hand painted ceramic pieces for gifts for 150 pesos. I bought a beautifully colored hand made headband for 30 pesos. I always wear one of these under my sun hat to catch most of my sweat. These pull apart and look like bandana that a motorcycle rider wears only in a pretty girly color/style. We returned to Tropicante for lunch which consisted of chips and salsa, 4 mini burritos and fish tacos. All of the food was really good. My mom started with the mini burritos and I started with the fish tacos. She didn't want to trade with me to let me try the burritos because they were so good. I agreed that they were delicious but I enjoyed the fish tacos more. We agreed that if we return to Costa Maya we would definitely go to Tropicante again and order the same food but the only thing we will share is the chips and salsa. The staff were very attentive and brought us drinks and made sure we were having a good time. I left my beach bag with my Ipad with them while we went shopping before lunch and didn't have any trouble. I was able to use the wifi while I was there. Steve will give you a ten digit code to access it. It works great inside the restaurant and sitting at the tables in the shade but does not work down by the water. Steve even has a phone that you can use to call home at no charge if you need to. I checked email and sent a couple of emails and was done for the day. Our total bill including our tip was 400 pesos for both of us for the day. When we were ready to go back to the ship the staff called to the taxi drivers right next door to make sure that we were taken care of. The taxi ride back to the pier was 50 pesos for both of us and I gave the driver a 20 peso tip because he was so friendly. We stopped in two stores at the pier to look and then headed back to the ship. Prices at the pier were ridiculously high compared to in town. We ate dinner in Windows that night and enjoyed our meal and the service from the staff. Since we only ate dinner in the main dining room twice I forgot to write down what we actually ate. We had a table in the aft window where we could watch the ship's wake as we sailed away. Service during dinner was good and the food was good as well. I went to the casino again after dinner. At this point I had made back the money I had spent buying the slot credits to begin with so I was quite happy. After the casino I went back to the room where I put on my pj’s again and sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the ocean while reading my book. I went to bed early as we had an early port time tomorrow. Mom didn't make it to the show again either as she decided to have an early evening.

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We had the same room service breakfast delivered again this morning so we had our wake up call. I had booked a private excursion with Victor Bodden. Reading the excursion boards I had three names of guides to ask for. I got my second choice of Lany, who is now my first choice should we get back to Roatan again. We had the best tour of the island. Lany was very knowledgeable about his home and took great pride in telling us about it while showing us around. We saw some of the poorest areas as well as some richest areas and everything in between. Lany made sure that he stopped for photo opportunities at several scenic overlooks as well as as several shipwrecks in the harbor. When told that we only wanted to buy locally handcrafted items and not things made in China he took us to two local shops that had just that. We bought a small mahogany wooden bowl $2, a hand painted picture $8, a small piece of Lencan pottery $12, a handcrafted mahogany wood monkey magnet $2 and a small beaded purse $5. We were quite pleased with the quality of the items that we purchased and love the fact that everything has been hand made. We stopped at Victor's house to see the monkeys and other animals. At this stop is where I paid for our tour with Lany, including the $5 per person to see the monkeys for a total of $90 for both of us. We thoroughly enjoyed our time seeing the different animals. My mother was particularly found of the baby monkeys. She couldn't get over how the one kept stealing her hat off her head and then turning it upside down before crawling inside and laying down. It really was funny and a very enjoyable game for the little thief. The birds were absolutely beautiful. Our guide was knowledgeable about the different animals and graciously answered all of our questions. Lunch was at Celeste's for baleadas. Mom had the shrimp and I had the fish. We invited Lany to join us and he had the pork. Lany told us that these are the best baleada's on the island. The parrots were very funny as well. One large male liked to talk very loudly. When the barman would shush him he would get quiet but as soon as the barman had his back turned the parrot would start being loud again. It was really funny. When we were eating there were two parrots that came by our table to beg for scraps. They were both very polite about it, but it was really funny to watch their different approaches to begging for a bite. As soon as the food was eaten they both disappeared in a hurry as well which just added to the humor. Overall we had another great day. Lany made sure that we saw all 35 miles of Roatan. He was able to answer all of our questions with ease and took great pride in showing off his home. We will definitely be asking for him if we are ever in Roatan again. We ate dinner in Blue Lagoon and had spinach artichoke dip, fish and chips, and a dozen oysters for mom that cost an extra $10.95. After dinner I went and played the slots in the casino for a short while. Afterward I went back to the cabin to enjoy sitting on our balcony which was nice and quiet. I sent out another bag of laundry to be washed at regular price and it was returned the next day on hangers. It cost $41.50 and when I added this to the first night's laundry bill I still came out for less than what the airline charges to check two pieces of luggage.

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We went to the dining room for a leisurely breakfast since we did not have an excursion booked. This was the only day of bad weather that we had during the cruise as well. We took the tender to the tourist village about 9:30 in the morning. We did not get tender tickets since we were in no hurry to get off and just waited until open tendering began before going downstairs. We were on the first open tender to leave the ship. Once we arrived at the tourist village the sky opened up and it poured the rain. We wandered through the shops but my mom was not impressed with the “junk” being offered for sale nor the high prices that were being asked. I spent a whopping $2 for a deck of playing cards that have a picture of Belize on them to give to one of the teachers I work with to use in her classroom for math activities. There was a break in the weather for about 20-30 minutes and we ventured outside the tourism village to the handcraft market across the street. We were accosted and followed by several vendors wanting us to take a tour with them but we just said no thanks and kept walking. My mom did not see anything she liked at the craft market run by the locals and was fed up with being pestered to take a tour so we headed back to the ship. Inside the tourist village we stopped so mom could try a Belikan beer and I had a bottle of water. I was charged $5 for both of these from the small yellow hut nearest the shops. My mom enjoyed the beer and is trying to figure out a way to get some here. The tender ride back was uneventful. We went to the main dining room for lunch upon our return. We both had the steak and thought it was really delicious. The service was good and there was little lag time between our requests for items. We then spent a pleasant afternoon on our balcony reading and watching it rain periodically. We ate dinner in La Trattoria the Italian restaurant. I had a coupon from NCL that allowed us both to eat but only pay one cover charge of $5 since we had dined in Le Bistro earlier in the week. The Italian restaurant is usually my favorite. I enjoyed most of the appetizers that we tried but I was disappointed by my main course of chicken Parmesan. My chicken was quite dry and lacking in flavor. The side of spaghetti was lukewarm at best and the sauce had a canned taste to it. Out of all the meals we had eaten so far this was my least favorite. The wait staff were very polite and efficient making our meal enjoyable. The Maitre D made up for the lackluster meal when I asked for coconut ice cream for dessert instead of one the desserts offered on the menu. She sent a staff member downstairs to Shogun to retrieve my requested dessert. Turns out coconut ice cream is her favorite as well so she understood why I would want this dessert instead of one offered in the Italian restaurant. We went to see the Second City Comedy show and found them to be even funnier than the group that was on Epic last year. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. I retired to our cabin afterward in order to sit and enjoy the balcony.

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We had another room service breakfast that consisted of fruit, hot tea and oj. We wanted to get off the ship as soon as we could after docking and were actually off the ship just before 8:00 and well before the announcement was made that the ship had been cleared. I had watched from the Promenade deck for the placement of the gangway and when I saw the first passengers exiting we quickly followed. We worked our way through the pier area to get out to the main street. I wanted to take my mom to Zermatt's bakery for breakfast before everything was picked over followed by shopping in town at the local market. We grabbed a taxi to the bakery for 20 pesos and were there in less than 5 minutes. Our taxi driver was quite impressed that two tourists from a cruise ship even knew about Zermatt's. The bakery was as good as I had been told it would be. I spent about 70 pesos total and my mom had a nice bag of fresh bread for her afternoon snack as well as having had a wonderful breakfast for both of us. We especially enjoyed the ham and cheese empanadas along with the regular baguette style bread. We wandered through some of the shops off the main square but didn't see anything that was a must have. I did find some sandals identical to the ones I was wearing but the vendor wanted way to much for them so I passed on them. We walked past the local market in order to get to a local shoe store with handmade sandals. I picked up two pairs of handmade sandals for less than the first vendor wanted for only one pair (200 pesos). This store definitely does not take American dollars, credit cards and the owner did not speak any English. I was extremely happy to speak enough Spanish to communicate with the owner and to have pesos to make my purchase. We stopped at the local market on the way back and looked through to see how the locals shop. We stopped for a very cheap bottle of coke and water – 10 pesos for both. We had lunch at La Choza since they began serving lunch at 11:30. I had a coupon for 15% off our bill that came when I booked my mom's dolphin swim. Mom had the bean and cheese nachos and I ordered the azteca soup along with the steak quesadillas. Mom said the nachos were delicious. I really liked the soup but the quesadillas were just okay. Our bill including the tip was 350 pesos so not to bad. I have several other restaurants that have been recommended and we will try one of them if we have a stop in Cozumel again. We then grabbed a taxi to Chankanaab Park for my mom's dolphin swim at 1:30. I booked her dolphin swim online well in advance and saved at least 20% so her dolphin swim cost less than $100 which is less than half what the ship typically charges for a dolphin swim. The taxi cost 130 pesos. Entrance to Chankanaab Park was included in my mom's dolphin swim fee but I had to pay the entrance fee. I had a coupon for a free t shirt with paid admission and another for $2 off the entrance fee. My mom really wanted the t shirt and the park accepted the coupon for it so I ended up throwing away my $2 off coupon. My cost to get into the park was 220 pesos. I had a hard time finding the right vendor to redeem the coupon for the free t shirt. I asked one of the guards at the entrance to the park if they knew where I could redeem the coupon. He told me to wait while he took my coupon and went to one of the shops. He came back with 2 different t shirts and had me to choose which one I wanted so everything worked out well. Mom had to wait about 15 minutes before they called her and the others who were waiting to do the dolphin swim. I had bought her a disposable underwater camera to take her own pictures since the park charges $25 per picture or between $100-$150 for the package of pictures. You don't even come home with an actual picture but a CD with your picture(s) on it that you must print when you get home. My mom had a terrific time during the dolphin swim and she used all of the film on her camera. She was kissed by the dolphin, enjoyed the foot push while riding a boogie board, petting the dolphin on her back and stomach, holding her by the flippers and then kissing the dolphin. She also got to pet a manatee and get an up close look at stingrays and a sand shark at the end of her dolphin experience. She chose one picture to purchase from the park as well as one of the pretty wooden picture frames that say Chankanaab Park had have a wooden dolphin on them that cost $17. The frame and picture cost 430 pesos altogether. While I was waiting for her I got a bottle of water to drink and that cost me 30 pesos which is very high. We took a taxi back to the ship and that cost another 120 pesos. We wandered through Los Cincos Soles at the pier as well as the store opposite from it before heading back to the ship. We got cleaned up and had dinner in the main dining room as we were sailing away from Cozumel. Dinner was fine but the service was a little uneven with long waits for refills on our water or for our requests to be fulfilled. After dinner we both went back to the room where we watched the King's Speech on television before going to bed early since we were both exhausted from our very full day in the Cozumel heat.

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We had a late breakfast of fruit, yogurt and croissants in Blue Lagoon because we both slept in today. After breakfast we went to the Q&A with the ship's officers. It was very interesting learning about the ship and what it takes to run it for a week. We thoroughly enjoyed the talk. We stayed in the Galaxy Lounge until lunch playing cards and enjoying the view. There was an announcement as we were heading to lunch that the shops were having an additional 10% off for the next hour only. We detoured back to the gift shop to get a deck of NCL playing cards ($6) to bring with us on future trips, so we won't have to keep asking for a deck of cards at the front desk. This was the first ship we had been on in which we found NCL playing cards. They also had a set of dominoes with the NCL logo but I decided that they were too heavy to pack in the suitcase for our trips so I passed on these. We had lunch in the main dining room one last time so that I could have another Cobb salad. Lunch was delicious and the service was great as well. After lunch I went to the internet cafe to purchase a 15 minute time plan in order to check in with the airline online and print our boarding passes. While I was doing this mom went to the Stardust theater to get seats for the crew show. I ended up missing the crew show because what normally takes me 15 minutes to print the boarding passes took almost an hour. I had printed the boarding passes 3 times and all I was getting were blank pages. I finally got the internet manager and he had the same difficulty that I did in getting our boarding passes with US Airways to print. It took him 2 more tries before he finally got them for me. He ended up crediting all of the extra time back along with the extra print jobs since it clearly was not my fault that I was unable to get the boarding passes to print. Since I had missed the crew show I decided to head back to the cabin to begin packing. I had just started gathering everything when my mom came back and told me the crew show was marvelous and it was too bad that I had missed it. I finished getting everything packed before heading to sit outside on the balcony again. We had decided earlier in the week since we were ahead on our bill that we would eat at Le Bistro again tonight. Dinner was even better tonight than it had been the first night. Aninicia did another outstanding job of serving us. I had originally ordered the chocolate torte for dessert but changed my mind and asked Aninicia if it would be possible to get the coconut ice cream from Shogun instead. One of the servers dressed in a traditional kimono from Shogun brought my ice cream to Le Bistro. She thought it was funny that I loved the coconut ice cream better than any of the other desserts that were offered in Le Bistro. Chef Skyers came out of the kitchen to thank us for dining with him for a second evening and to tease me about my dessert choice. We told him that tonight was even better than the first night and he was pleased to hear how much we had enjoyed our meals. After dinner we returned to the cabin to sit on the balcony for a while with every intent of going to the Second City Comedy show. Needless to say we lost track of time and missed the show but thoroughly enjoyed our last evening on the balcony watching our entrance to the Mississippi River and seeing all of the drilling platforms lit up as well as all of the river traffic passing us in the opposite direction.

[Bookmarker]

We were up by 7:00 the last morning. We had a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room. This was the only morning that I noticed the breakfast menu had changed slightly as they don't serve omelets, I asked and this was the only day I was told sorry no that's not available. Service was not as attentive this morning as it had been previously but we didn't take offense since we know how hard the crew works on Embarkation/Disembarkation day. We ended up doing the self disembarkation at about 9:40. By this time all of the colored luggage tags had been called and had already left the ship and they were doing final call for everyone to disembark. I had arranged for a town car from Big Easy Limos to pick us up at the port at 10:00and take us to the airport and we were there by 10:30. The cost was the same as when they picked us up at the airport when we arrived. Disembarkation was extremely easy. We exited the ship and scanned our cards one last time. We told the crew goodbye and made our way into customs. Once inside the building there was a fairly long line but a NCL official asked us if we had luggage to pick up and since we did not we were able to cut the line and pass right to the customs desks. We actually stood in line for a total of 5 minutes from the time we exited the ship until we were outside looking for our driver. It took us longer to walk the ramps/hallways than it did to actually pass through customs. I found it highly amusing that a family at the desk next to ours hadn't even filled out the customs declaration form and had no idea what the customs officer was talking about. Needless to say they were sent to the desk in the back of the room to fill out the appropriate form that had been left in the cabin two nights before along with all of the disembarkation brochure detailing everything that would happen. The customs officer was the most pleasant one we have come across and was even giving us grief that we hadn't spent very much on our cruise. Our final shipboard bill was $22.33 and we spent a grand total of $149 on stuff that we had to declare. Getting home was our adventure part of the trip. Our flight home was cancelled due to a mechanical failure after we had boarded our plane. There were no more seats left on any of the remaining flights leaving that evening so we had to stay in New Orleans for another night on US Airways dime. The airline comped our hotel room and also gave us $40 in meal vouchers as well as upgrading us to first class for our flight home the next morning. I stopped at a ticket kiosk to print our boarding passes for the morning on our way to dinner. My travel book came in handy again as I had information about the airport including maps and knew that there was an Acme Oyster Restaurant on the other side of the main terminal by the Delta airlines security checkpoint. We had a delicious dinner of oysters and salad for mom and red beans and rice with sausage for me along with two large bottles of water that our meal vouchers covered. It tasted just like the main Acme Restaurant in the French Quarter and was very good. There is beignet place right next to Acme that sells 3 beignets for $2, so I got one last order for my mom for dessert. We then went downstairs to baggage claim and found where to catch our hotel shuttle. We stayed at the Comfort Inn right down the street from the airport. We were given a nice king size bed room with a large bathroom. The room also had an easy chair with matching ottoman as well as a microwave and frig. There was a desk and executive chair with a television sitting on top of triple dresser. We were pleased overall with our accommodations. After being dropped off by the hotel shuttle we went straight to security and didn't have to stand in the long line at the ticket counter since I printed our boarding passes the previous day. Our flight home was uneventful even though we arrived a day late.

[Bookmarker]

We enjoyed our cruise overall. While we didn't participate in as many activities this time we enjoyed all of the port stops with the exception of Belize. We definitely need to have some type of excursion planned for this port or just plan to stay on the ship. I liked the slot play coupons that we bought as we ended up with $100 of slot play for a total cost of $50. We are not big gamblers and this was more than enough money for the week. I ended up getting my $50 back as well as coming out ahead $30. We found the crew to be very friendly and extremely accommodating. We never went anywhere that we were not warmly greeted and made to feel welcome. Not every meal was perfect while we were on board but then not every meal that I eat at home is perfect either. We did enjoy most meals and could easily overlook the few that were lacking. Mom and I appreciated the fact that neither of us had to prepare meals for the week, nor did we have to clean the kitchen up afterward. We both enjoyed and used our balcony a lot this trip. It was so nice to just sit quietly and watch the world go by while reading a good book or listening to our own music. Our stateroom stewards were the best ones that we have had. They kept our room neat and clean along with providing wonderful towel animals every night. They went out of their way to accommodate our special requests and to make sure that we were satisfied with everything. We would definitely cruise on the Spirit again. The future cruise credit purchased last week was used yesterday to book our next cruise, so I have to get busy researching on the boards to get it planned; so we'll be ready to go.

[glorialagos]

Wow - what an informative trip review! I am printing it off and adding it to my cruise file. We will be on the Spirit in July.

 

I am curious about the casino credit. Where did you get this offer? How do I find it?

 

thanks - sounds like you really did your research and had a great trip

[Bookmarker]

Wow - what an informative trip review! I am printing it off and adding it to my cruise file. We will be on the Spirit in July.

 

I am curious about the casino credit. Where did you get this offer? How do I find it?

 

thanks - sounds like you really did your research and had a great trip

 

Glad you found it helpful.

 

The slot credit is through slotplaycoupons.com.

 

You choose your ship and pay $25 per person and they give you $50 per person. Print off the receipt and take it to the casino to turn in when you sign up for the casino players card. The host will add the money to your players card. Just be sure to check your balance the first time that you play to make sure they credit the full $50 per person. Very easy to use.

[tennisfanusa]

Awesome review - I'm going on the Spirit in one month exactly and you got me so motivated and excited (even more so than I already am). :)

[mitsugirly]

Great review. We will be on the Spirit in another 2 months, 16 days, 8 hours, 13 min and 33 seconds. :eek: Can you tell I'm excited?

 

I just wanted to ask... You said you paid for almost everything in Cozumel with Peso's and found it cheaper. Did you carry around some type of calculator to figure out if you were getting a good deal? Or do you just know the conversion (since you mentioned you spoke a little Spanish)? Where did you exchange your money at? I was using a converter on line and comparing what you said you paid for different things and it did end up being a big difference. Do they give you a discount by paying that way? Would they rather have peso's instead of our american money? Just trying to prepare for our trip.

[Bookmarker]

Awesome review - I'm going on the Spirit in one month exactly and you got me so motivated and excited (even more so than I already am). :)

 

Glad you found it helpful.

[Bookmarker]

Great review. We will be on the Spirit in another 2 months, 16 days, 8 hours, 13 min and 33 seconds. :eek: Can you tell I'm excited?

 

I just wanted to ask... You said you paid for almost everything in Cozumel with Peso's and found it cheaper. Did you carry around some type of calculator to figure out if you were getting a good deal? Or do you just know the conversion (since you mentioned you spoke a little Spanish)? Where did you exchange your money at? I was using a converter on line and comparing what you said you paid for different things and it did end up being a big difference. Do they give you a discount by paying that way? Would they rather have peso's instead of our american money? Just trying to prepare for our trip.

 

I was just as excited getting ready for our cruise which is why I thought I would share my experience. :D

 

I do have a conversion calculator that I carry, however I do know about how much I should be paying for some things (drinks, food and sandals especially).

 

I convert money before we leave on the trip. Last two trips, I've been going to AAA and getting my money converted ahead of time...do this at least 2 weeks before you leave as they order the money and it gets shipped from somewhere else. You can order however much you want for the most part and they send a variety of different bills. I do pay for this service and don't get the same conversion rate that's listed on sites such as XE, but it's not that big of a difference. This trip I got shorted about 100 pesos in my exchange which is around $10.

 

Sometimes your local bank will sell foreign currency if you live in or near a big city but again you pay for this service and the cost varies. Some people recommend using your credit card and getting money once you get there from a local atm or bank but I don't want the hassle and the savings isn't significant enough for me to do this. Might be worth it if I was exchanging several thousand dollars but I'm not. I'm usually exchanging a couple hundred dollars unless we are staying a lot longer.

 

At the smaller, local shops that I like shopping at they prefer cash money and don't usually have the ability to process a credit card (the second shoe store is a good example of this). These shops also don't typically have the ability to exchange dollars so they won't do business with you either because of this. There's not usually a discount given for paying in cash.

 

In Mexico it is part of the shopping process to bargain. The first vendor with sandals that I liked gave a price and I countered (1/4 his offer). He dropped his price a little more and I came up a little more that 1/4. We continued back and forth until I realized that he wasn't going to come down any further and I wasn't going to pay what his final offer was even though I was willing to pay up to half of his original offer. You just have to be prepared to walk away if you can't come to a price that you can live with as there is usually another store nearby with the exact same thing and they're willing to bargain. Sometimes I pay too much for things (bottled water at Chankanaab) because I don't have a choice. What I typically do is practice my rate conversion before I leave and write down a list of prices in my travel book ($1, $5, $10, $15, $20, etc). That way I know at a glance if it's a good deal. The exchange rate for pesos is currently in our favor so that's why I got a discount on the picture and frame at Chankanaab by paying in pesos.

 

Hope this helps to explain it more clearly.:)

[chill6x6]

Hey BM!

 

Sailing on the Spirit in October!

 

There is some REALLY good stuff in your review! I really appreciate it!

 

I've been to Cozumel four times and to Calica once and I've always used dollars.. I'm gonna get me two or three hundreds dollars worth of pesos and give this a try! GREAT idea!

 

Again...THANKS for the info!

[Bookmarker]

Hey BM!

 

Sailing on the Spirit in October!

 

There is some REALLY good stuff in your review! I really appreciate it!

 

I've been to Cozumel four times and to Calica once and I've always used dollars.. I'm gonna get me two or three hundreds dollars worth of pesos and give this a try! GREAT idea!

 

Again...THANKS for the info!

 

Glad I could help. Have a great cruise!!

[CruisinMaterial]

Wow! What an incredible cruise! Flying out two months from today for my third cruise on the Spirit. She'll be the ship I've spent the second-most amount of time on at the end of this cruise. Happy to be back with her again.

 

Did you happen to recall which night the White Hot Party was on?

 

Again, great review and thanks for sharing it with us here. :)

[mitsugirly]

 

Did you happen to recall which night the White Hot Party was on?

 

:)

 

I was wondering the same thing. We had a blast last year at the White Hot Party. I was thinking I read somewhere it was on Thursday (or maybe it was Tuesday). I'd like some confirmation as well.

[CruisinMaterial]

I was wondering the same thing. We had a blast last year at the White Hot Party. I was thinking I read somewhere it was on Thursday (or maybe it was Tuesday). I'd like some confirmation as well.

 

I was hoping for it to be towards the end of the cruise because the last sea day is spent packing anyway so spending the whole night before partying is good. If there's a port day the next day, it usually is an early night for me. Here's hoping for Friday night!! :D Or the night with Cozumel the next day because I just go across the street to Senor Frogs or Carlos N Charlies and have a blast there. :)

[mitsugirly]

I was hoping for it to be towards the end of the cruise because the last sea day is spent packing anyway so spending the whole night before partying is good. If there's a port day the next day, it usually is an early night for me. Here's hoping for Friday night!! :D Or the night with Cozumel the next day because I just go across the street to Senor Frogs or Carlos N Charlies and have a blast there. :)

 

Good Point. :D

[dasmonkey]

Wow! What an incredible cruise! Flying out two months from today for my third cruise on the Spirit. She'll be the ship I've spent the second-most amount of time on at the end of this cruise. Happy to be back with her again.

 

Did you happen to recall which night the White Hot Party was on?

 

Again, great review and thanks for sharing it with us here. :)

 

It was on Thursday, May 5th when I was last on.

[Bookmarker]

I was hoping for it to be towards the end of the cruise because the last sea day is spent packing anyway so spending the whole night before partying is good. If there's a port day the next day, it usually is an early night for me. Here's hoping for Friday night!! :D Or the night with Cozumel the next day because I just go across the street to Senor Frogs or Carlos N Charlies and have a blast there. :)

 

I thought it was Thursday night but Mom says it was Friday. I do remember that it was held late at 10:30 or 11:00.