Norwegian Spirit

[PatYontz]

Nope - didn't like it.

 

Smoking was a big issue for me.

 

<LI>They only served dessert where the smoking area is - out behind Raffles. You had to puff 3 or 4 cigs to get a piece of cake. Weird - way to weird that they did that. I hate cigarette smoke!

 

<LI>Then they allowed smoking where you walk on deck 7 - so as you walk you WILL enhale cigarette smoke - definitely. It was disgusting.

 

<LI>Ice machine was consistently empty or broken. Ice tea was consistently empty. Milk stream was extremely thin. Then they allowed smoking where you walk on deck 7 - so as you walk you WILL enhale cigarette smoke - definitely. It was disgusting.

 

<LI>In my opinion, the shows were not that good.

 

Good things... embarkation and debarkation were good. Balcony room was excellent and the housekeeping staff were excellent.

 

Not a fancy ship by any means - my favorite is still the Sun.

 

Overall out of 10 points I would give it a 2 and would not recommend the Star unless it was an extremely good price OR they disallow smoking were food (dessert) and exercise (deck 7) are allowed.

[bigsweeps]

OK - so you don't like smoke. That's fine. To each their own. But I'm really not seeing anything else that would make this cruise a 2 in your post. If the only complaints you have were smoking, the ice machine, empty iced tea, slow milk stream, and entertainment that "wasn't that good" - then I don't quite see this cruise as a 2 out of 10 - especially when you say embarkation, debarkation, the room, and housekeeping staff were excellent.

 

I personally don't mind smoke. I don't *like* it (i'm not a smoker) but I have many friends that do and I don't let it bother me. So can I take this to mean that if the other items you mentioned being broken or slow won't bother me either that I'll have a great time?

 

I'm not trying to give you a hard time - because each person has their own opinions and you are certainly entitled to yours. I just don't quite understand why you only gave it a 2 rating.

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[pam512]

You know what's weird? I was on the May 15th cruise on the Spirit and I didn't really notice a lot of cigarette smoke. And I hate cigarettes! And you said that the embarkation and disembarkation were good? I'm thinking we weren't on the same ship! Not one person has had anything good to say about those two things.

 

Empty ice and ice tea machines? Yep, we had those, but it was probably because the pushy passengers kept the poor crew members from getting to the machines. I'm sorry you didn't have a good time.

[Laura4cruise]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PatYontz:

Overall out of 10 points I would give it a 2 and would not recommend the Star unless it was an extremely good price OR they disallow smoking were food (dessert) and exercise (deck 7) are allowed.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Sorry, did you sail on the Spirit or the Star? Your post title said Spirit but your post says Star.

[brunolvr]

Yes, that's what I'm wondering also - were you on the Star or the Spirit???

[PatYontz]

Sorry - yes - I meant the Spirit.

 

Yes - you are correct - If you don't mind cigarette smoke on your desert or inhaling it while you're walking it wasn't that bad of a cruise.

 

I still rate it a 2 - it could be that the Sun has spoiled me.... it was no where near as good as the Sun. And I still would never go on the Spirt again because of the smoke - yes - well - maybe I hate smoke more than anyone else.... yep - probably do.

[PatYontz]

You know what? If you're a smoker - GO FOR IT!!! It would be THE cruise for you.

[bigsweeps]

Cool! I'm so glad that was your major concern - because it definitely won't be mine! Thanks for your honesty!

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[Jana]

Wait... how many times did you go to the dessert station? And you walked through the other SIDE of the aft portion of Raffles? To get to the dessert station located on the non-smoking SIDE out of doors? Boy, for someone who hates smoke as much as you do, you sure must love dessert.

 

And deck seven... The Cafe, where smoking is allowed, is across the entire ship from the walk-through corridor, the starboard side, where there not only is no smoke, there isn't even a whiff of it. The only place you could go on deck seven that would make you go anywhere near The Cafe is to the pub, or to the accounting desk at reception, which is about 40 feet away.

 

Unless you were doing handsprings on the black marble flooring of The Centrum, there was no "exercising" on deck seven. OH! Maybe you were pulling slot machine handles... yes, smoking was allowed in the casino.

[PatYontz]

Like I said, the desert is on the SMOKING side out of deck - not the non-smoking as you wrote incorrectly. It is in the MIDDLE OF THE SMOKE. And alas - I didn't get any desert because of the smoking because I don't like desert enough to smoke a cig getting it. Might as well give up on convincing me that is ok - you will never convince me that putting desert in the middle of smokers is a correct thing to do.

 

You are also incorrect about the Cafe being the only place to smoke on deck 7. It is allowed everywhere. And yes, there is exercise on deck 7 - it is the walking deck - it is advertised as the walking deck - walking is exercise. 3 times around is 1 mile - oh - plus you have to smoke a cig while doing it.

 

OH! Nope - couldn't go in the casino because that was unbelieveably smokey.

[bigsweeps]

Maybe a non-smoking ship like one of the Carnival ones would be more to your liking.

 

If you wanted desert so badly, why not go to one of the restaurants and get some? I'm sure that wasn't "smoky" since they don't allow smoking in the restaurants.

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[10s nut]

Well, personally I would rather have "dessert" than all that sandy "desert"..smoke or no smoke!

[bigsweeps]

LOL! Oops! I guess I type to fast and didn't catch that spelling error. But I think we all know what I meant. :-)

 

But I'm with you 10s nut! LOL!

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[TomAndJane]

My wife and I just got back from the Spirit and we loved it. The ship is beautiful and the scenery in Alaska is unbelievable. As far as the desserts, the desserts you get at Raffles (The buffet) were outside and I guess you could smoke there. However, if you went to Windows or the Garden the desserts were served in a Smoke-Free environment. As far as Deck 7, I didn't see hardly any one smoking except in the Bunn Bar by the Blue Lagoon and the casino of course. I loved the Spirit and looking forward to my next trip aboard her.

[cruise pup]

Bigsweeps - Carnival is discontinuing the non-smoking ship. Glad Spirit rates only a 2. I'd feel very guilty after getting the cruise so cheap to find out it's a terrific ship.

 

Norway - 2/97;Leeward -12/97;

Grand Princess - 1/99; Leeward - 6/99; Dawn Princess - 11/99;Vision of the Seas - 6/00;Carnival Victory - 9/00; Zenith - 10/00

Mercury - 3/01; R1 -7/01; Grand Princess - 11/01; Majesty of the Seas - 12/01; Norwegian Star - 3/02;

Carnival Triumph - 7/02;

Maasdam - 11/02; Holiday - 12/02; Millennium - 4/03; Carnival Victory - 7/03; Zaandam - 8/03; Zuiderdam - 10/03; Enchantment of the Seas - 1/04; Galaxy - 3/04; QM2 - 5/04; Voyager of the Seas - 5/04

[bigsweeps]

Thanks TomAndJane! I'm sure we're going to love the ship too.

 

Cruise pup - ROTFLOL! Thanks! Good to know. Guess it wasn't as popular as they thought it would be.

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[Jana]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Like I said, the desert is on the SMOKING side out of deck - not the non-smoking as you wrote incorrectly. It is in the MIDDLE OF THE SMOKE. And alas - I didn't get any desert because of the smoking because I don't like desert enough to smoke a cig getting it. Might as well give up on convincing me that is ok - you will never convince me that putting desert in the middle of smokers is a correct thing to do.

 

You are also incorrect about the Cafe being the only place to smoke on deck 7. It is allowed everywhere. And yes, there is exercise on deck 7 - it is the walking deck - it is advertised as the walking deck - walking is exercise. 3 times around is 1 mile - oh - plus you have to smoke a cig while doing it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

I assume you must be dyslexic because the desserts are on starboard side, outside, and smoking is on port side. I will admit that the fruit station is by the smokers, that is true.

 

As for deck seven being the walking deck, you are correct... OUTSIDE! On the promenade, OUTSIDE! You can't make a circuit inside the ship, and smoking is absolutely not allowed "everywhere" inside.

 

It seems that you are bound and determined to be miserable, which is a pity. It is a lovely ship, and while smoking is allowed in certain places, it was not filled with smoke. (The Bund was one place where it was, I forgot about that, but you could avoid it easily by taking the forward elevators.)

 

Everyone else seemed to manage to be tolerant and to enjoy the ship. Carnival Paradise is not going to allow smoking until fall, if you hurry, you might be able to grab a smoke-free vacation on her.

 

Of course, I have no doubt that you'll find something there to make you equally miserable.

[bigsweeps]

Jana - You are too much! I'm almost peeing my pants over here! LOL!

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[Jana]

Thanks, Big. I almost feel guilty for being rude, but here is a first-time poster slamming a ship that is beautiful --and UNIQUE! -- for no reason.

 

I can understand people not wanting to be around cigarette smoke, but except for the few places where it was allowed, it was not noticeable. The Bund was an exception, it's a sports bar, is narrow and if you walk from reception to the casino on that deck you have to go through it. You could go outside, around it, or up and across and down if you really needed to, but to b*tch and moan about something that was either not a huge problem or to try to create a problem that destroys what was a wonderful vacation is just ... nuts.

 

You'll love the cruise. There are some (minor) kinks, but they are forgivable considering the wonderful staff and crew and the beauty of the trip.

[bigsweeps]

Don't feel guilty....you were bold enough to post what others really wanted to say. LOL!

 

I think it's obvious that the OP wasn't even thinking of other options (like dessert in a dining room instead of at the buffet). Or using the gym and treadmill to be in a smoke free workout environment.

 

It's one thing to have smoke blown in your face rudely - it's another to have a smoker in an open outdoor area about 15 feet away. Last I heard this was a free country......and if you want to force everyone to quit smoking because you don't like it, maybe you need to go elsewhere.

 

It would take a major even like a forced evacuation with the cruise ending early or major fire on the ship for me to give a cruise a 2 out of 10 rating. LOL!

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[PatYontz]

You are determined to convince everyone that the smoking was ok - it was not. I have been on many many cruises. I have never had that problem before. It is _only_ on the Spirit. It was a HUGE problem. I am not a miserable person. And _I_ certainly didn't create this problem. I'm trying to explain that it WAS a problem for anyone who can not tolerate cigarette smoke. ENHALING CIGARETTE SMOKE IS A HEALTH HAZARD - IT CAN AND DOES KILL YOU. It was so bad that I went searching for a place on the internet to post my opinion and comment (not b*tch and moan). I thought this board is where you would mention something like that. I wished I had known a head of time.

 

So to make it perfectly clear - and I won't be posting again so don't bother answering since this is obviously a place where you can't mention anything bad.... Smoke was blown in my face rudely and consistently on the outside of deck 7 where you are suppose to do your walking in the fresh air - the smokers were NOT 15 feet away they were in my walking path. The Dessert is not 40 or 15 or 2 feet away from the smoking - it is exactly where the smoking is.

 

That's all I have to say - if you don't mind smoke in your lungs - it was a wonderful cruise - I had a marvelous time.

[bigsweeps]

Inhaling a little bit of second hand smoke on a cruise in outdoor areas is HARDLY going to hurt you. Come on! When someone exhales and it mixes with the air OUTDOORS (and on a ship it's windy so the smoke goes away quickly) - it really doesn't do any harm if it's only for a 7 day cruise. Now if you lived in a home with confined areas with a smoker, that may be a different story. There are far more hazardous things than a little second hand smoke in an outdoor area on a cruise ship.....heck I would bet talking on a cell phone is more hazardous.

 

It isn't that you can't mention anything bad here - because another poster had a few negatives that they pointed out on their Spirit review and nobody gave them a hard time. The difference is they were objective and didn't *freak out* about smoking which happens on most cruise ships.

 

I guess you should stay away from Princess - they allowed smoking in the halls, stairways, etc. when I was on the Grand. You wouldn't be able to leave your room!

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[Jana]

If someone stepped in front of you and blew smoke in your face, that was rude. Did it happen all the time? Because there were not that many people on the promenade, it was too windy when the ship was underway, and I didn't see a single smoker out there.

 

I'm sorry, but it sure didn't seem like you had a marvelous time, and it didn't seem like you were on the same ship as I was on and the other two posters who had sailed Spirit were on. And no one is meaning to flame you except for the fact that your very first post was hypercritical and inaccurate.

 

You don't like smoke. We get it. There was too much smoke for you on this ship. We get it. But just to assure anyone else who reads this, except for the Bund, the casino and a couple of bars on the port side of the ship, it was really, really not a problem.

 

I give the ship a 9, with one point taken off for the challenges in the buffet. It's a great ship, a great cruise, a great staff, and you can make it fabulous or you can choose to make it miserable.

 

And one more thing: You are the first and only person I have heard say that the entertainment was "not that good." It was exceptional in every way, in my opinion, and in the opinion of most of the other people who cruised on Spirit.

[bigsweeps]

Jana - if you give the cruise a 9 only take away one point for the buffet - I should really love my upcoming cruise! I never go to the buffet (have learned on past cruises that the food is usually sub-par). Thanks for putting things in perspective.

 

July 10th NCL Spirit

[Jana]

Well, here's some more perspective: Compared to a Silversea, Radisson Seven Seas or Seabourne cruise, it would be a five or six. But for what she promised and delivered, she was a nine. She is what she is, and imho, staffing also makes a huge difference in your experience, and the staff on this ship is stellar.