Anyone just back from the Spirit?

[lynnquenby]

Hi just after update on tender situation for great stirrup cay & Grand Cayman? Can anyone confirm whether Spirit lifeboats or larger tender boats are used? We have a friend travelling who uses a wheelchair and trying to work out if she will able to use tenders safely. TIA

[Tyskie]

Hey all. The trip is winding down. Final sea night. The cabin key card issues were also happening to the Staff. It took security to come to the cabin and reset the lock for it all to work. No more problems after that. [emoji4]

I have had some amazing luck in the casino. All on slots. Elisabeth and Joan are part of the casino staff and they are amazing. I never thought I'd ever be anything but Loyal to Royal. NCL has earned my future repeated business as well. Some of the cruise critic members I have met onboard are going to be long time friends. I can't believe I was so nervous about going solo. It's been an awesome time and experience. The ship is fine in my honest opinion.

 

Glad a you had a great trip and again, thanks for posting "live". Congrats on your good fortune in the casino - I hope it stays that way for us, DH will have a "grand old time"! I was a bit leery trying NCL back in 2010 - we loved it! The M&G's are great, love their CAS program, staff- amazing ! We also love the casual feel to the ships - no fancy clothes or suits. A big plus! :)

[dexddd]

Hi just after update on tender situation for great stirrup cay & Grand Cayman? Can anyone confirm whether Spirit lifeboats or larger tender boats are used? We have a friend travelling who uses a wheelchair and trying to work out if she will able to use tenders safely. TIA

 

For GSC they used the island tenders - mostly Little Norway I and II. At times they used a third - forgot the name - maybe along the lines of ...GSC..

 

Grand Cayman they used the larger tenders operated by the island. Interestingly enough, MSC Divinia was there as well and they were using their own life boats while the other ships - DCL, Carnival, NCL all used the island tenders. The line for MSC to get back on the ship was probably a 1/2 mile long.

[lynnquenby]

For GSC they used the island tenders - mostly Little Norway I and II. At times they used a third - forgot the name - maybe along the lines of ...GSC..

 

Grand Cayman they used the larger tenders operated by the island. Interestingly enough, MSC Divinia was there as well and they were using their own life boats while the other ships - DCL, Carnival, NCL all used the island tenders. The line for MSC to get back on the ship was probably a 1/2 mile long.

 

Thanks so much.......hoping this will help my friend.....1 more question.....we're there many steps??

Edited January 9, 2016 by lynnquenby

[dexddd]

For the tenders? It was basically a flat ramp. I only saw one lady go from ship to tender who used a wheelchair.

 

She got to edge of ship and her son and crew helped her walk across the ramp then back into wheelchair. Not sure what they do if you can't stand or walk.

[lynnquenby]

For the tenders? It was basically a flat ramp. I only saw one lady go from ship to tender who used a wheelchair.

 

She got to edge of ship and her son and crew helped her walk across the ramp then back into wheelchair. Not sure what they do if you can't stand or walk.

 

That's perfect.....my friend can walk flat but will struggle with steps :( thank you so much for answering !

[Justaddvodka68]

Hi just after update on tender situation for great stirrup cay & Grand Cayman? Can anyone confirm whether Spirit lifeboats or larger tender boats are used? We have a friend travelling who uses a wheelchair and trying to work out if she will able to use tenders safely. TIA

 

Just back and we tendered at St. Thomas and it wasn't pretty. Used Spirit tender boats, not life boats, but the boarding was ugly. Rocky waters and they weren't stabilized. Many people had a hard time if they weren't prepared to wait with the wave and time the "jump" onto and off the tender. There were a lot of deckhands there helping. But it was difficult for the older people.

 

As for a wheelchair, there's no ramp. They'd have to be able to stand up and make the steps up to the tender and cross over with help. They then folded her wheelchair and put it onboard.

[Justaddvodka68]

Just returned from the Jan 2nd sailing. Had an absolute blast!

 

I was worried after reading some of the reviews but happy to report we ran into no issues with the stateroom, staff or service. I will write a complete review later in the week, but for now to those going - it's all about expectations in my opinion.

 

I heard many people grumbling about little things, like "not much of a selection!" at the dessert bar in Raffles at lunch, when there where two stations with 6-8 selections at each. Sigh, guess you just can't please everyone.

 

We had the ubp (free deal) and added the 4udp. Got our money's worth on those for sure! From reading some people are under the impression your drink can only be $11 but it's actually $15. We drank Belvedere vodka Martinis and Cosmos and Bullet Manhattans and everything was included. Even if you want something from the far right bottom "Super ultra premium menu" or the special cocktail with the souvenir cup that's $16.95 you just pay an upcharge.

 

We ate twice at Cagney's, once at LeBistro (OMG, have the mussels!) and once at the Italian place. They were all wonderful. Windows was also wonderful at lunch and dinner. Never made it for breakfast. (I blame the unlimited beverage package!) Shogun is included in your cruise, but sushi is Ala Cart and inexpensive. We could have used the UDP for sushi, but we just did $25 worth of sushi as apps and ordered off the shogun menu, so we didn't use it.

 

One thing to note here, there are "upcharge" dishes like the Lobster at Cagney's that if you don't have the UDP you pay in addition to the $19 or $29 you pay for the specialty dining. But if you have the UDP, you don't pay the extra $9.95 for the Lobster. Didn't know that until the 2nd time at Cagney's.

 

We are late eaters and had made our reservations for the specialty dining for 7 and went to windows at about the same time on the days we ate there and never waited for more than one party to be seated before us.

 

The only slow down on drinks was at the restaurants at dinner. I think they have limited service stations at the restaurants and if you order anything they can't make or don't have, they send a server to the next nearest bar to get it, so that can slow things down. We caught onto the and hit the Galaxy for pre-game drinks and brought our first one with us! Hint: If your first drink takes a while, order your second drink as soon as they take your dinner order and you'll have it by the time you're first is done!

 

Anyone else a fan of Norman Manigat?

Best bartender at the Galaxy of the Stars? Loved that guy! Made friends with him the first hour of the cruise and that became our go to place and he our go to bartender every night. We never didn't have a drink and often he was setting us up for another before we even asked! Of course, we showed our appreciation!

[Medtech2]

I do have them - they are for the Western. I'll look into posting them.

 

Did you have any specific questions in the interim?

 

hey, if you can scan them as PDF's then it is easy to attach them to a post. Also the easiest way to see them for the reader...:):):)

[dexddd]

Just back and we tendered at St. Thomas and it wasn't pretty. Used Spirit tender boats, not life boats, but the boarding was ugly. Rocky waters and they weren't stabilized. Many people had a hard time if they weren't prepared to wait with the wave and time the "jump" onto and off the tender. There were a lot of deckhands there helping. But it was difficult for the older people.

 

As for a wheelchair, there's no ramp. They'd have to be able to stand up and make the steps up to the tender and cross over with help. They then folded her wheelchair and put it onboard.

 

In one of her earlier posts she was asking about GSC and Grand Cayman which do use tender boats and a ramp without any stepping.

[Ilikebigboats]

Just returned from the Jan 2nd sailing. Had an absolute blast!

 

I was worried after reading some of the reviews but happy to report we ran into no issues with the stateroom, staff or service. I will write a complete review later in the week, but for now to those going - it's all about expectations in my opinion.

 

I heard many people grumbling about little things, like "not much of a selection!" at the dessert bar in Raffles at lunch, when there where two stations with 6-8 selections at each. Sigh, guess you just can't please everyone.

 

We had the ubp (free deal) and added the 4udp. Got our money's worth on those for sure! From reading some people are under the impression your drink can only be $11 but it's actually $15. We drank Belvedere vodka Martinis and Cosmos and Bullet Manhattans and everything was included. Even if you want something from the far right bottom "Super ultra premium menu" or the special cocktail with the souvenir cup that's $16.95 you just pay an upcharge.

 

We ate twice at Cagney's, once at LeBistro (OMG, have the mussels!) and once at the Italian place. They were all wonderful. Windows was also wonderful at lunch and dinner. Never made it for breakfast. (I blame the unlimited beverage package!) Shogun is included in your cruise, but sushi is Ala Cart and inexpensive. We could have used the UDP for sushi, but we just did $25 worth of sushi as apps and ordered off the shogun menu, so we didn't use it.

 

One thing to note here, there are "upcharge" dishes like the Lobster at Cagney's that if you don't have the UDP you pay in addition to the $19 or $29 you pay for the specialty dining. But if you have the UDP, you don't pay the extra $9.95 for the Lobster. Didn't know that until the 2nd time at Cagney's.

 

We are late eaters and had made our reservations for the specialty dining for 7 and went to windows at about the same time on the days we ate there and never waited for more than one party to be seated before us.

 

The only slow down on drinks was at the restaurants at dinner. I think they have limited service stations at the restaurants and if you order anything they can't make or don't have, they send a server to the next nearest bar to get it, so that can slow things down. We caught onto the and hit the Galaxy for pre-game drinks and brought our first one with us! Hint: If your first drink takes a while, order your second drink as soon as they take your dinner order and you'll have it by the time you're first is done!

 

Anyone else a fan of Norman Manigat?

Best bartender at the Galaxy of the Stars? Loved that guy! Made friends with him the first hour of the cruise and that became our go to place and he our go to bartender every night. We never didn't have a drink and often he was setting us up for another before we even asked! Of course, we showed our appreciation!

Wow! Great mini review.

Thanks for clearing up some confusion concerning the drink and dining packages, like maximum price for drinks, and no up charges for lobster, etc.

Sounds like you had a great trip!

Your review has got me excited about my upcoming trip in June!

[NJLVW]

Thank you everyone who is contributing all this wonderful information. It really is a big help to me and I am sure others who will be going on the Spirit soon.

 

Anyone know when or if the new menus will be on the Spirit. I did read some of the menus so I am kind of hoping especially at Cagney's. They have gone back to some of the original and yummy items.

 

Norma

Edited January 12, 2016 by NJLVW

[dexddd]

Thank you everyone who is contributing all this wonderful information. It really is a big help to me and I am sure others who will be going on the Spirit soon.

 

Anyone know when or if the new menus will be on the Spirit. I did read some of the menus so I am kind of hoping especially at Cagney's. They have gone back to some of the original and yummy items.

 

Norma

 

Barnacle Boy reported that the Spirit will be getting them shortly (he had a date, I don't remember) but it was in the next week or two.

 

If you log into your NCL and try to do a reservation at one of the new ala carte places, it will possibly tell you what the date is for the cutoff.

[NJLVW]

Barnacle Boy reported that the Spirit will be getting them shortly (he had a date, I don't remember) but it was in the next week or two.

 

If you log into your NCL and try to do a reservation at one of the new ala carte places, it will possibly tell you what the date is for the cutoff.

 

Thank you. I did just check and all it shows is the a la carte but no date. That is ok though because at least I know it will be on our cruise. We are not cruising until April so plenty of time. Just hope it is the menu I have seen. :D

[Tyskie]

Thank you. I did just check and all it shows is the a la carte but no date. :D

 

Even on our January 30th cruise it too shows a la carte - whatever it is, it is ! :)

[funredhead]

Just back and we tendered at St. Thomas and it wasn't pretty. Used Spirit tender boats, not life boats, but the boarding was ugly. Rocky waters and they weren't stabilized. Many people had a hard time if they weren't prepared to wait with the wave and time the "jump" onto and off the tender. There were a lot of deckhands there helping. But it was difficult for the older people.

 

As for a wheelchair, there's no ramp. They'd have to be able to stand up and make the steps up to the tender and cross over with help. They then folded her wheelchair and put it onboard.

 

 

 

Just wondering if you can elaborate on your tendering experience in St. Thomas. How were numbers handled, how long it took to actually get off the boat, return trip & where the tender actually drops off?

 

We are supposed to tender on 2/16. There are 16k passengers in port and we don't arrive until 11am. This combined with reports of lots of red algae at the beaches is making me a little nervous.

 

Your perspective. Greatly appreciated.

[jroe4567]

We also just returned home from the Jan 2 cruise on the Spirit. We had a fabulous time! I was concerned after reading some recent reviews, but I'm happy to report that I would return to her in a heartbeat. We had only very positive interactions with the staff, and they seemed happy and upbeat to us and to each other. We loved Michael, a bartender at the Biergarten and Maharani's. We had the UBP and had no issues with long lines.

 

There were many upset people during the tendering process at St. Thomas. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 11 but the schedule was changed to noon. We had a "resort for a day" planned that day, so it wasn't a huge deal to us that it took a while to get off the ship (there wasn't a set time for us to get there). But for those with excursions scheduled and not booked through Norwegian, it was frustrating. We were in group 6 (we lined up to get tender tickets when they were offered) and we got off the ship around 12:45 (rough guess). It ended up being a short day at the Morningstar Resort but it was ok. We saw several people yelling at Norwegian staff--it got pretty ugly.

 

We were in an obstructed balcony (room 9202). The room was very clean and the balcony obstruction wasn't a big deal at all. The whole ship was very clean and comfortable.

 

We had great meals in the dining rooms and at Shogun. We loved Raffles for breakfast and it was just ok for lunch and dinner. We certainly never starved and had plenty of choices. We also enjoyed the bbq around the pool a few times. I LOVE freestyle cruising with no scheduled meal times--I'm not sure I could go back to scheduled meal times.

 

The ship really got to rolling on our two final at sea days. They closed the pool one whole day and most of the 2nd due to rough seas. I used my sea bands and dramamine those days and I was ok after a feeling a little nauseous the first morning. I met a woman who took meclizine because she was feeling really sick. Your mileage may vary!

 

We enjoyed Galaxy of the Stars every night. I thought the band "Soul'd Out" was great. The 80s night was great fun and the games were entertaining to watch even if not participated in.

 

This was only my 2nd cruise (my first was Royal Caribbean a year ago) so I don't have a lot to compare this one to, but we were very happy. It is pretty hard to be the UBP!

[lynnquenby]

Just back and we tendered at St. Thomas and it wasn't pretty. Used Spirit tender boats, not life boats, but the boarding was ugly. Rocky waters and they weren't stabilized. Many people had a hard time if they weren't prepared to wait with the wave and time the "jump" onto and off the tender. There were a lot of deckhands there helping. But it was difficult for the older people.

 

As for a wheelchair, there's no ramp. They'd have to be able to stand up and make the steps up to the tender and cross over with help. They then folded her wheelchair and put it onboard.

 

Thanks for the update. .....Our friend will have disembarked by then but good to know what situation is with St Thomas! !

[MaccaMom]

Also off the Jan. 2nd sailing here. We lined up early and got tickets for the 3rd tender, but the line completely wrapped around the pool deck by the time they started handing them out. The tickets went up to number 30, so I can't imagine how long it took to get everyone off the ship. With us coming into port an hour late then tendering, we missed our excursion. Took a taxi to Coki Beach instead and was not a fan. Definitely not the best cruise I've been on.

[barnacle_boy]

Thank you. I did just check and all it shows is the a la carte but no date. That is ok though because at least I know it will be on our cruise. We are not cruising until April so plenty of time. Just hope it is the menu I have seen. :D

 

 

It doesn't show a date because Spirit rolled out the new menus and a la carte this week (1/9).

[barnacle_boy]

Just wondering if you can elaborate on your tendering experience in St. Thomas. How were numbers handled, how long it took to actually get off the boat, return trip & where the tender actually drops off?

 

 

 

We are supposed to tender on 2/16. There are 16k passengers in port and we don't arrive until 11am. This combined with reports of lots of red algae at the beaches is making me a little nervous.

 

 

 

Your perspective. Greatly appreciated.

 

 

You should be fine. Spirit will likely dock at Crown Bay with Norwegian Gem.

[NJLVW]

It doesn't show a date because Spirit rolled out the new menus and a la carte this week (1/9).

 

Thank you. Do you know if the menus are the same ones that are on the Escape? I did see those menus and well guess I am hoping.

[barnacle_boy]

Thank you. Do you know if the menus are the same ones that are on the Escape? I did see those menus and well guess I am hoping.

 

I'm not onboard myself at the moment, but I believe that's the case.

[funredhead]

You should be fine. Spirit will likely dock at Crown Bay with Norwegian Gem.

 

Thank you so much. But, I neglected to mention that there are 6 ships in port. And it says the spirit is slotted for anchorage.

 

Judging by the other reports in this thread, it sounds like it has the potential to be a disastrous day. Thankfully, we are plantinum and will get priority tender tickets. Can anyone report on how the priority went?

[barnacle_boy]

Thank you so much. But, I neglected to mention that there are 6 ships in port. And it says the spirit is slotted for anchorage.

 

Judging by the other reports in this thread, it sounds like it has the potential to be a disastrous day. Thankfully, we are plantinum and will get priority tender tickets. Can anyone report on how the priority went?

 

Where are you seeing this? It's not on the schedule I have access to.

 

The only benefit for Platinum is that you don't need to get a numbered ticket beforehand. Go directly to the line for the tenders.