NCL Spirit Med Cruise Q&A

[mypleasure]

Does anyone happen to have any meeting place recommendations for my group to get together before our tours? We have booked through private companies and I figure it would be easier to meet on the boat than off (but maybe I'm wrong on that??). I was thinking somewhere central like on deck 7 or 8 would probably be best for everyone.

 

Thanks for any suggestions. This has been an extremely helpful thread :D

 

Champagne Charlies on Deck 8 mid ship or the atrium cafe area, which may be crowded, on Deck 7.

[budgetfairytale]

Does anyone happen to have any meeting place recommendations for my group to get together before our tours? We have booked through private companies and I figure it would be easier to meet on the boat than off (but maybe I'm wrong on that??). I was thinking somewhere central like on deck 7 or 8 would probably be best for everyone.

 

Thanks for any suggestions. This has been an extremely helpful thread :D

 

Our meeting place was The Cafe on Deck 7 and it seemed to work well for us. Although we often got separated making our way off the boat, but at least you know what everyone looks like so it's easier to re-group. :)

[jenjens1023]

(i'm whispering, because this is a secret) When getting off the ship on port days, DO NOT go down the midship stairs to get to deck 4 and the gangway. Go down the foreward stairs and then walk down the passenger hall to th exit. If you try to go down the midship stairs you will find the line is backed up fom deck 4 to deck 7 and out into the atrium. If you go down the foreward stairs there is a much, much, much shorter line that merges with the big line. But don't tell anyone! By the end of the cruise more people will discover this and the line will be longer, but still not as bad as the midship line.

 

You can exchange euros back to dollars at the end of the cruise in the casino without paying the service fee. I got $24 for €20. (or use the leftover euros for additional tips, although one crew member said they don't care what country's money you tip with!

 

You can find a table at Raffles more easily if you eat outside on the aft deck.

 

My daughter has been on line with a crew member who said the current cruise skipped Athens due to strikes and went to Croatia instead.

[budgetfairytale]

(i'm whispering, because this is a secret) When getting off the ship on port days, DO NOT go down the midship stairs to get to deck 4 and the gangway. Go down the foreward stairs and then walk down the passenger hall to th exit. If you try to go down the midship stairs you will find the line is backed up fom deck 4 to deck 7 and out into the atrium. If you go down the foreward stairs there is a much, much, much shorter line that merges with the big line. But don't tell anyone! By the end of the cruise more people will discover this and the line will be longer, but still not as bad as the midship line.

 

We tried this "trick" once and feel we ended up waiting way longer to get off the ship. Although sometimes they had a second gangway open, and the wait for that was always shorter.

[jenjens1023]

Im sorry it didn't work for you. We did it at every port and we know we saved a lot of time.

[crucer]

We took a taxi from our hotel near the airport to the ship. We told him which ship and the driver took us right to it. There was no thought involved on our part at all.

 

 

 

Do you know de name of de Hotel near de airport?

can you remember also de terminal and name from de port in Barcelona where de ship Spirit departs.

Thanks

[budgetfairytale]

 

Do you know de name of de Hotel near de airport?

can you remember also de terminal and name from de port in Barcelona where de ship Spirit departs.

Thanks

 

Barcelona Airport Hotel.

 

I do not know any information about the port name, sorry. There seems to be only one port for cruise ships in Barcelona.

[woody73]

 

. . . My daughter has been on line with a crew member who said the current cruise skipped Athens due to strikes and went to Croatia instead.

We were on the June 4-16 sailing that substituted Dubrovnik for Athens. The officers and crew handled the itinerary change very smoothly. At 9:00pm on the night before we were to arrive at Athens (Piraeus), the captain made an announcement over the PA saying a 24-hour labor strike was called in Greece, and we would instead visit Dubrovnik. Our steward later delivered a letter with the new itinerary, along with a new Daily. (Day 10, "Athens," became a sea day; and Day 11, "sea day," became Dubrovnik.) The next morning, the Shore Excursions desk offered eight different excursions for Dubrovnik, and we received a one page Port Guide.

 

Having been to Athens twice before, we were delighted to be visiting a new port. Fortunately, we had Rick Steves' "Mediterranean Cruise Ports" guide book to read about Dubrovnik. We decided to DIY, and followed Rick Steves' self-guided tours.

 

Some random thoughts:

• Embarkation in Barcelona started at 11:20am, with cabins ready at 1:00pm.
  
• On day 1 there was a clothes "pressing special" at 50% off.
  
• There were two $24.95 laundry specials, one toward the beginning of the cruise, and the other toward the end.
  
• The shower has a dispenser with shampoo and shower gel. (We brought conditioner and lotion.)
  
• We used the wi-fi from our cabin. We did not buy a package. There was an initial $3.95 charge to set up an account, then 75¢ per minute. The connection was fast when we used it.
  
• The onboard Foreign Exchange Desk charged a $10 transaction fee. (We did not use this service.)
  
• The ship often arrived in port early.
  
• At Civitavecchia (Rome), the ship waited well past the onboard time, paged passengers, then left some passengers behind.
  

Woody

[Erwende]

Just marking my spot on this informative thread. We are sailing this cruise next summer. We will have a child age six on

board so I am interested in hearing about the volume of children on board.

[Mbbutler65]

Did you happen to venture to the gym? Is there a spinning room? Where spinning classes offered on the daily? We leave in a month on the same cruise!

[Da-Painter]

The onboard Foreign Exchange Desk charged a $10 transaction fee. (We did not use this service.)

Woody

Correct; we brought with us $100 Euro bills, and they would give you smaller change, no charge for doing that. That was helpful. :)

[jdvmd]

Correct; we brought with us $100 Euro bills, and they would give you smaller change, no charge for doing that. That was helpful. :)

I know this thread is referring to the Spirit but on the Sun Baltic, they would not give us smaller bills without paying the fee. I ended up getting a large bill changed with someone on our roll call.

[flipflops62]

Going on this cruise next July! Very excited but concerned about all the problems in Turkey. Hopefully things will improve by then.

[budgetfairytale]

Did you happen to venture to the gym? Is there a spinning room? Where spinning classes offered on the daily? We leave in a month on the same cruise!

 

I went to the gym twice, on the two sea days. It was very crowded on sea days. I can't comment on classes. There is a side room with spin machines but I don't remember if there were any spin classes. I remember there were some kind of classes offered every morning but I didn't pay attention since I'm not a morning person. :p

[Spaldydog]

Just returned from the Spirit cruise and wanted to post some helpful hints from my experiences.

 

Don't pack a lot of clothes to wear to dinner. We ate in the dining rooms 4 nights out of 12. Two hours for dinner each night was too long to sit after long days in port. The people who do go to dinner don't dress up a lot. The dining rooms are pretty casual considering this cruise is so port intensive. On dress up or not nights (there are 2), I didn't see 5% of the people in "formal" attire. A casual dress or skirt will be fine for either dining room and shorts and jeans are allowed in the Garden dining room. The menus for Window and Garden are basically the same to dress casually and go to the Garden if you want to have a looooong meal.

 

The best place for a nice breeze and quiet enjoyment is the quiet area behind the Bier Garten on the ship.

 

There were 3 ladies in my cabin and we were very thankful for the nightlight I packed. We plugged it in the 110 on the hair dryer in the bathroom so we didn't have to turn the light on in the night and disturb one another.

 

Unless you are on a prepaid shore excursion, you will need Turkish Lira in Turkey. We did Istanbul on our own and had to have lira for admission into the Cisterns and to travel on public transport. We had to spend time finding an ATM due to the fact that we were under the impression that Euro or USD were widely accepted. They are accepted in 90% of the Grand Bazaar but it helps to have a little lira.

 

I read the Freestyle newsletter every night and both laundry days were clearly marked. There is a special insert for the laundry days telling you exactly what to do. From reading all the complaints about not knowing about the first laundry day, I'm assuming that the room stewards forgot to insert them for certain areas of the cabins on other cruises.

[Hobo_Online]

TIf any of you had taken your own phone or bought an international one for the trip, or just got a SIM card over there, did it work for you?

 

My last few trips were with replacement SIM cards in my phone. One company gives me a North American number that will work in all of Europe. Costs are far less than my local carrier would charge, but costs on the ship are still extraordinary. I'm quoted $3.95 per minute to use my phone on the ship's system when at sea. Port costs are more like $0.39 per minute, with France costing $0.99 per min.

 

I'm going to use '0044' again, because they have one SIM for all Europe, and that can still be used at home for testing that everything works before we depart. I've also used the competitor for travels in North America, when my local carrier wouldn't work in the areas I was visiting. Both companies have good customer service, and you can control your costs as you travel.

[crucer]

Just returned from the Spirit cruise and wanted to post some helpful hints from my experiences.

 

Don't pack a lot of clothes to wear to dinner. We ate in the dining rooms 4 nights out of 12. Two hours for dinner each night was too long to sit after long days in port. The people who do go to dinner don't dress up a lot. The dining rooms are pretty casual considering this cruise is so port intensive. On dress up or not nights (there are 2), I didn't see 5% of the people in "formal" attire. A casual dress or skirt will be fine for either dining room and shorts and jeans are allowed in the Garden dining room. The menus for Window and Garden are basically the same to dress casually and go to the Garden if you want to have a looooong meal.

 

The best place for a nice breeze and quiet enjoyment is the quiet area behind the Bier Garten on the ship.

 

There were 3 ladies in my cabin and we were very thankful for the nightlight I packed. We plugged it in the 110 on the hair dryer in the bathroom so we didn't have to turn the light on in the night and disturb one another.

 

Unless you are on a prepaid shore excursion, you will need Turkish Lira in Turkey. We did Istanbul on our own and had to have lira for admission into the Cisterns and to travel on public transport. We had to spend time finding an ATM due to the fact that we were under the impression that Euro or USD were widely accepted. They are accepted in 90% of the Grand Bazaar but it helps to have a little lira.

 

I read the Freestyle newsletter every night and both laundry days were clearly marked. There is a special insert for the laundry days telling you exactly what to do. From reading all the complaints about not knowing about the first laundry day, I'm assuming that the room stewards forgot to insert them for certain areas of the cabins on other cruises.

 

Did men wear a jacket to dinner on the MDR?

[crucer]

Are on the Spirit quite places to sit without music?

[bonniboo1]

oh you lucky people. you will be sailing on a beautiful classy ship. the crew is the friendliest I have ever encountered. the first night we made reservations at Le Bistro...it was wonderful to say the least. cagneys was fine. do not miss the entertainment. We had a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and as usual NCL was wonderful. enjoy every minute!

 

Bonni

[kddy]

Are on the Spirit quite places to sit without music?

 

We enjoyed the aft area on decks 11 and 12. There would be music sometimes, but we were able to move away from it and just have it in the background. If you want to be inside, the library and the Stardust area at the very front on deck 12 seemed very nice.

[kddy]

Are on the Spirit quite places to sit without music?

 

We enjoyed the aft area on decks 11 and 12. There would be music sometimes, but we were able to move away from it and just have it in the background. If you want to be inside, the library and the Stardust area at the very front on deck 12 seemed very nice.

 

I also did not see many men wear a jacket for dinner, but you would not be out of place if you did. The Windows dining room was more formal, and no shorts were allowed at dinner.

[NYGirl1002]

Did they have the Chef's Table on this cruise and if so what night?

[mypleasure]

Did men wear a jacket to dinner on the MDR?

 

 

Some but not many as it is not required

Edited July 1, 2013 by mypleasure

[mypleasure]

Did they have the Chef's Table on this cruise and if so what night?

 

They did it twice on our sailing. Can't remember which nights but they were sea days so that narrows it down a lot.

[mypleasure]

Do any of the recent travellers, the last cruise is what I really mean, remember if the Hotel Director was Armando or Orazio?