NCL Spirit Review w/ pics; 3/5/16-3/12/16

[bhoffman1213]

Any chance you could post the Freestyle Dailies for each day? I am cruising on the SPIRIT next week:) Thanks!

[Mrs.C05]

Before the muster drill and sailaway we went to Splash Academy to get Ethan signed up and a child's wrist band.

 

Rafit was so good with Ethan:

 

Then we come back to the room to find these....Sorry NCL, Carnival has way better cookies :p

 

And we're invited to the Captain's Party, but we didn't go:

 

Our Concierge, Ms. Florentina had finalized our reservations we had planned out while at lunch earlier.

 

Sunset on the way to dinner:

[Mrs.C05]

Pics along the way to dinner....

 

This is Blue Lagoon (free) which is apparently open 24hrs. We ate here later in the week and it was pretty darn good!

 

Atrium:

 

Dinner at Cagney’s is yummy!! I order the Grilled Garlic Shrimp, Ethan has the hot dog and fries, and Tommy has the beef sliders for an appetizer and the bison steak (sorry, no pics). For dessert I get the oreo cheesecake and Tommy has the warm apple crisp.

 

 

Tommy heads to the casino briefly while Ethan and I head to the room to unwind. This was the pull-out couch that turned into a nice size bed for Ethan:

 

Tommy isn’t in the casino long, since I hear him come back about 30 minutes later. I decide to enjoy the whirlpool tub in our room before calling it a night around 11pm.

 

Nice bathroom amenities in the room. This had soup for the sink, and another for the shower, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, lip balm, hand cream, a shower cap, and shower pouf.

 

Tomorrow is a sea day and Ethan is asking to go in the “pirate” pool. My plan is to get up in the morning and hit the gym.

[Mrs.C05]

Surprisingly we wake up around 7:30am on our own (no alarm or 4yo waking us up) and wait for our breakfast to arrive. I had filled out the breakfast card and hung on our door the night before. I just finished a shower when I hear the doorbell.

 

Tommy closed the bedroom door, so Teodoro can set everything up and is gone pretty quickly. Eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and toast are all very good. Maybe it’s just me, me liking my flavored coffee’s, but I am not fond of the coffee in the room. Yes it is very nice to have, but I need some mocha or caramel flavor to my coffee.

 

 

 

The cutest little jar! I have a liking for "mini" things like this.

 

Once we get done with breakfast, we change and head over to the Splash Academy to drop Ethan off. Before leaving we discover how to let the room steward or the butler know we’re in the room, want him to make the room, etc. There is a place outside your door, next to the doorbell that circle’s around to what you want. We move it to “Make our room” and head out.

 

The youth counselor asks us where we’ll be so we tell her, and she said if we leave from there, we need to call and tell her. Then the “handy phone” comes to mind from someone else’s review I was reading. I mention this to the youth counselor and she said “Yes! Go get it, and call me at this #” and she places a sticker on my card with their extension. I go grab the phone and call her and we’re all set.

 

Now we can roam the boat wherever we desire. We head to the shops and I get a shirt and we look at photo’s as well. We get the 10 photos for $149, plus the USB with the digital photos on it for an additional $20. We’ve already found 2 photos we like and it’s the first day.

 

Tommy and I have a drink at Raffles Bar, and then again at the bar above the Tivoli Pool deck, while killing time.

 

 

 

I have noticed since we’re out of port, and we have the UBP they are not printing receipts. I was wanting to keep tabs of how much we’re drinking and see if the service charge they’re now charging for the Promo UBP is worth it. I am thinking it will definitely be worth it, but we’ll see.

[Mrs.C05]

Splash Academy closes at 12noon so we go get Ethan at 11am for lunch at Cagney’s at 11:30am. Well I must have read my sheet wrong because they didn’t actually open til 12noon.

 

Ethan and Tommy looking at the water fall and dolphin statue.

 

While waiting in the atrium, the “CruiseNext” department is offering a deal where you get $100OBC for this sailing, if you put down a deposit of $250 on a future sailing within the next 4 years. So far we’re pretty impressed with this cruise line, so we decide to fill one out. The manager for this is busy so we decide to wait and talk to our concierge, Florentina at lunch.

 

We have lunch at Cagney’s, ask Florentina, who says yes we can fill it out and give it to her, and then come to the room for Ethan to nap.

 

These yummy treats were waiting for us:

 

 

Tommy stayed with Ethan while I went to the gym for a little bit. The gym is on the side of the boat and is kinda small, but doable. You can watch the ocean go by while on a treadmill, or get on a bike and “people-watch” at the Tivoli Pool Deck. People watching is always entertaining.:D

 

I do my 30 minutes, split between the treadmill and stationary bike and then head back to the room. Tommy and Ethan are both napping while I type my review for the day thus far. If Ethan wants to go to the pirate pool, we will.

 

We have dinner reservations at 6:30pm at Teppanyaki’s. I am very excited for this. It reminds me of a Kobe’s Steakhouse at home.

 

We get ready for dinner, and tonight is NCL's formal night, but they call it "Norwegian's Night Out".

 

 

I took this picture while Ethan was getting his professional photos done:

[Mrs.C05]

YES!!! Teppanyaki’s is just as I imagined, and Ethan was entertained with the cook too. Everyone enjoyed the entertainment, food and company. It was so fun! Dinner reservations was at 6:30pm and was walking out around 7:45pm.

 

Once we were done we dropped Ethan off at the Splash Academy for a bit while we grabbed drinks and headed to the casino.

 

Tommy is had some good rolls so now he’s only down $16 for the trip, and before it goes south any faster, we cash in and get Ethan.

 

This guy was waiting for us when we get back to the room:

 

We have an early day tomorrow, meeting in Cagerny’s anywhere from 8:30-9:15am to get priority tickets to get off the ship. Once we get off we plan to go shopping and enjoy the day at Senor Frogs.

[Mrs.C05]

These pictures are fantastic. This is the first time I have seen updated pictures of the Spirit suites. Most of what you find is from some time ago. Thank you again. Also did you happen to notice if they have the "new" "new" menus? I know they went to alacarte by using what was the menu with pricing added. I am most interested to know if Cagney's added the crab cakes, lobster bisque and the surf & turf back on the menu.

Thank you again so much for doing this review.

 

I took pictures of menu's but did not take one of the Cagney's menu. Sorry! I do know they have the crab cake and surf & turf on the menu, since we ordered that the last night of the cruise while dining there for Ethan's 4th birthday. I did see lobster bisque on the menu, but didn't order it.

[NJLVW]

I took pictures of menu's but did not take one of the Cagney's menu. Sorry! I do know they have the crab cake and surf & turf on the menu, since we ordered that the last night of the cruise while dining there for Ethan's 4th birthday. I did see lobster bisque on the menu, but didn't order it.

 

Thank you so much. The copies of the menus I have seen for the Spirit did not have those items. I am so glad to know they are on the menu. They must have finally changed over to the newer menus. You have just made my day. :D Can't wait for my first nights dinner at Cagney's!!!

[Mrs.C05]

I will work on the next installment later on tonight.

[bydefault]

We are cruising on the Spirit this Saturday and I'm getting more and more excited for this trip. Thank you for posting the review! Keep 'em coming.

[Vacationlover2]

I can't wait for the next installment

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[vicocala]

We did order breakfast a few times to have in the room, we ordered room service for lunch and dinner too once or twice. FYI, their ice cream is so delicious! I don't know if the room service menu is different for suites, but if you can order ice cream, you must try it. We didn't discover it until the last day of the cruise. Which was probably a good thing:rolleyes:

 

As for the daily treats, I have pictures of those, so that will be coming up too.

 

 

 

Thanks! I hope you enjoy the review.

 

Thanks I look forward to following!

[WYTinman]

 

 

 

A couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

Did you catch the name of the other butler? I'm in an Aft next cruise. My last cruise one butler covered the Aft Suites the other had the Forward Suites.

 

Did you hear any talk of a crew change prior to the Transatlantic on April 23rd?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[coscab]

A couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

Did you catch the name of the other butler? I'm in an Aft next cruise. My last cruise one butler covered the Aft Suites the other had the Forward Suites.

 

Did you hear any talk of a crew change prior to the Transatlantic on April 23rd?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

We were in a forward corner suite (a balcony on the front and one on the side) on the spirit, we had teo and he was wonderful, 2 doors down in a middle forward suite the people had a girl butler, I think teo told us he had some suites on the back also but I am not sure, I know on the pearl our butler for our aft suite also had forward suites.

[Mrs.C05]

A couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

Did you catch the name of the other butler? I'm in an Aft next cruise. My last cruise one butler covered the Aft Suites the other had the Forward Suites.

 

Did you hear any talk of a crew change prior to the Transatlantic on April 23rd?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

 

We only had 1 butler, Teodoro, and we did have a Room Steward (I guess) but we never saw him and don't know who he was. I didn't hear anyone talk about changing for the Transatlantic. I didn't even know it was moving.

[Mrs.C05]

We were in a forward corner suite (a balcony on the front and one on the side) on the spirit, we had teo and he was wonderful, 2 doors down in a middle forward suite the people had a girl butler, I think teo told us he had some suites on the back also but I am not sure, I know on the pearl our butler for our aft suite also had forward suites.

 

We really liked Teodoro, he was great. He always answered when I called to order food or needed anything. I never had to ask for towels or anything. Ice bucket was always full, etc.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

We wake up with a phone call from Teodoro saying our food was at the door, which was around 6:30am Tommy said. He brings in our food, which isn’t much that we ordered, and quickly leaves. NCL does not have the hot chocolate machines like Carnival does, like I had thought I saw. Those machines are apparently actual coffee. I go back to the room and make hot chocolate.

 

We get ourselves ready, beach bag, etc. and head down to Cagney’s where we meet Ms. Florentina. She wasn’t kidding when she said we get to butt the front of the line. There was a ton of people lining up and was already waiting on the stairs to get off. She made them move, and we were the first in line now. Our plan today is to head to Senor Frogs.

 

Walking the pier was long, but doable. They have a tram that drives up and down the pier to take you to and from the cruise if you cannot (or do not want to) walk that far.

 

Looking back at the ship. Sorry for the ship being so "white". I had just dropped my camera due to trying to catch my hat being taken by the wind.

 

 

Cool driftwood that Tommy liked:

 

 

You can get your first official drink in Costa Maya at this bar:

[Mrs.C05]

I vaguely remember these guys from 10 years ago when we were last here.

 

Once you walk past these guys and through the massive concrete walls, you enter there "straw market" area. We walk past all the vendors selling things just saying “No Thank you” to all that asked to “Come take a look!” and we get to the swim up pool.

 

 

 

We pick out a table right at poolside, at what I thought was Senor Frogs. The menu does not state it is Senor Frogs but the food and drinks are very similar to it. Anyways, we set our stuff down and Jorge our waiter gets us drinks in the meantime; 1 Bahama Mama for me and something for Tommy. I slowly get in so I can get used to the water and then Ethan slowly gets his feet wet, then I put him on the stool in the water, and then carry him over to the shallow end.

 

 

Tommy connects to wifi for a brief time before it cuts out. Right about then Jorge comes to ask if we had cash because their internet connection is bad and they cannot run the credit card machine. Whether or not that is true, I dunno, but we do have cash we tell him.

 

Ethan and I play in the pool for about an hour before I get him out because he’s shivering. We order nachos and quesadilla, and I had ordered a 3rd drink by now. Those Bahama Mama’s are so yummy going down…..but come to find out later, this would be a bad idea. I don’t normally drink a lot. Once we eat, which is now an early lunch, we head back to the ship after we pay our bill, $120 after tip.

 

Walking back to the ship, these 3 windows were pretty cool on the back of the ship. You'll find out later in the review where you are in the ship, when you look outside these windows. Can anyone guess?

 

Since we were still in bathing suits we take Ethan up to Buccanner's Wet & Wild for a little bit. He didn't last long there, but we grab drinks at Raffles Bar before letting him play on the pirate ship. The pool was waayyyy too cold for me to get in with him.

 

[Mrs.C05]

Mid-afternoon snack......this pizza was pretty darn good!!!

 

I watch some TV, and relax while we head out of port at 4pm.

 

By now, I had a headache so I take some advil. Dinner reservations are at Trattoria tonight at 6:15pm but we don’t make it since I am not feeling well. We headed out of the room for a bit at 5pm, but my head really started pounding so I bring Ethan back to the room and give Tommy the “Handy Phone” since he was headed to the casino.

 

He calls to see if we’re going to dinner, but I tell him I just want to stay in the room tonight, so he comes back to the room. We order room service from Teodoro which for some reason I feel really weird about. Tonight I order the spaghetti which I learn later is pretty good for room service! Sorry, no pics!

 

***I have to make note about the room, the location of the room and the rocking of the boat. The room is very quiet and smooth sailing thus far. Tonight though it’s been a bit rocky, but not too bad. The room is very nice! It’s better than I could have imagined. The bathroom has 2 regular outlets and the shelving by the dining table has 1 regular outlet. The vanity has the European outlet.

[Coastalbreezes]

A couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

Did you catch the name of the other butler? I'm in an Aft next cruise. My last cruise one butler covered the Aft Suites the other had the Forward Suites.

 

Did you hear any talk of a crew change prior to the Transatlantic on April 23rd?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

 

 

The other butler is Seka...she's a sweetheart!

Tracy

[WYTinman]

We were in a forward corner suite (a balcony on the front and one on the side) on the spirit, we had teo and he was wonderful, 2 doors down in a middle forward suite the people had a girl butler, I think teo told us he had some suites on the back also but I am not sure, I know on the pearl our butler for our aft suite also had forward suites.

 

The other butler is Seka...she's a sweetheart!

Tracy

 

Thanks to all of you!

 

I've heard nothing but praise for the current Butlers on Spirit.

 

My hope is that they don't change out (End their contracts) before my cruise.

 

Mark

[Mrs.C05]

Next installment is coming up. I am working on the dailies. Anyone have a preference if they are attachments or images?

[perkydebrajean]

A couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

Did you catch the name of the other butler? I'm in an Aft next cruise. My last cruise one butler covered the Aft Suites the other had the Forward Suites.

 

Did you hear any talk of a crew change prior to the Transatlantic on April 23rd?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

 

We were in an aft suite in December and had Teodoro as our butler.

[Mrs.C05]

Good morning!

 

We wake up and head to Cagneys’ for breakfast. We all order omelets, which is very good and then go check out our formal photos from last night. We are accumulating photos to choose from at the end of the cruise.

 

 

We head up to Raffles and get a drink and kill some time until we get to Grand Cayman. Painkiller is the drink of the day, and Mango Meltdown is the Bar Manager Special, so we had a few of these.

 

The Malibu Rum bottle was pretty cool and I asked to take a picture of it. Tommy asked then what they do with the bottles, and Reynaldo said they just throw them away so we asked if we could have it. He said yes, once it’s empty. It was almost gone anyways, so 6 painkillers later (3 each) we were able to get the bottle. Yay!!!

 

 

 

While we were here I heard the captain come on twice, but couldn’t hear what was said. Tommy tells me it was Code ___ on Deck 4, and walking down the hall I could smell barbecue or fire. Apparently there was a fire that was put out quickly. This is not something I like to smell or hear about! Funny thing, or not so funny thing, is that Teodoro called telling us not to worry, they were cooking barbecue upstairs. Uhh-huh….how are they barbecuing on Deck 4? They are all rooms.....

[Mrs.C05]

Looking out from the Raffles Bar:

 

We go back to the room and pack up for the day. We have a distillery tour at Seven Fathom Rum nka Cayman Spirit Company, so once we anchor up and follow Florentina down to deck 4, we’re on the first tender to the island. There are 3 other boats in port with us – The MSC Divina, Carnival Sensation and Disney Fantasy. Needless to say, the island is very busy. It took us quite a while to get a taxi, and I had to ask 3 different people.

 

Waiting for a taxi:

 

We get to the distillery and tour it within an hour. Then we head to Calico Jack’s on 7 mile beach which is very packed. We were lucky to find a table.

 

 

 

 

I order a drink, Tommy orders fried grouper and side of fries. It takes quite a while for food to come out, which is understandable as they are very busy. The waitress takes off the bottles of water and my Cayman Mama drink for how long we waited. We grab a taxi once we’re done and are back to the shops around 3:30pm.

 

We use the free wifi briefly and then get on the tender to get back on the boat. Ethan says he’s hungry so order him a pizza once we’re in the room. Dinner tonight is in La Trattoria at 6:30pm. Since we fed Ethan a bit late, we’re taking him Splash Academy while we have dinner.