Live from the NCL Spirit B2B July 5-19, 2023 (more sarcasm and grumpiness!)

[YVRteacher]

Scenes from the Spirit.  She’s a gorgeous ship!

Dad said wow a lot as we were exploring.  He said some other things today too.  Not going to repeat those.

 

[YVRteacher]

We bought spa passes for the week.  A hot stone lounger is calling my name but first i need a drink at the Bier Garden.

 

When we were doing the Mandara Spa tour we stopped at the acupuncture lady’s station.  She asked me if I’d tried acupuncture before.  I said no.  She looked me up and down and said I should try it because she could tell there was a lot wrong with my body. I told her that was rude and inappropriate.  Who says that to someone on vacation? I thought I had a cute outfit on today!  No tip for her.

 

Hair salon and mani pedi stations

 

Hot stone loungers

 

 

eucalyptus steam room

 

 

massage treatment room

 

 

[omahabob]

Had acupuncture once. Didn't work for me a bit. Worked for the lady who took my money.

[www3traveler]

Considering how much the gratuity is for spa services not one of my favorite ship spaces.

 

[sansroof]

I’m so excited for your trip! I was on the Spirit in 2014 for the Grand Med for my honeymoon. It’s a terrific ship - the observation lounge seems perfect for Alaska. 

[libtrek]

16 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

@UKstages they are the best bags! When you cruise, do you use the full size one or the carry on size? I also have the bag that goes over the handle of the suitcase and love that too.

 

Sometimes I see people with two refrigerator-sized suitcases for one person for one week and I think, “why??”

That was us. After this last Alaska trip, I have reformed. Trying to push two suitcases, with a backpack on, carryon over one of the gigantic suitcase handle and trying to monitor hubs, who was walking ssllooww with his cane. Never more!!!

[YVRteacher]

4 hours ago, singleflyer said:

 

Is the boarding at all delayed because of the port workers strike?

No delays! Aren’t you on this cruise too?  How was boarding for you?

[YVRteacher]

We went to the Cruise Next desk to book all the things:

Behind the Scenes Tour

Dining with the Officers

Sail and Sustain Mixology experience 

Wines Around the World

 

The Cruise Next desk associate had the best smile. He looked so familiar!  I looked at his name tag:

Raymond Matic

 

hmmm I thought

 

I told Raymond we had a wonderful cruise director named Richard Matic and did Raymond know him.  Raymond’s smile got even bigger and he told us Richard is his big brother.  Richard is currently the cruise director on the NCL Gem and will be transferring to the Bliss soon.  I know from other sources that Emma will be taking over as Cruise Director on the Gem.

[www3traveler]

19 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

We went to the Cruise Next desk to book all the things:

Behind the Scenes Tour

Dining with the Officers

Sail and Sustain Mixology experience 

Wines Around the World

 

The Cruise Next desk associate had the best smile. He looked so familiar!  I looked at his name tag:

Raymond Matic

 

hmmm I thought

 

I told Raymond we had a wonderful cruise director named Richard Matic and did Raymond know him.  Raymond’s smile got even bigger and he told us Richard is his big brother.  Richard is currently the cruise director on the NCL Gem and will be transferring to the Bliss soon.  I know from other sources that Emma will be taking over as Cruise Director on the Gem.

OH WOW!!!  I have not seen either Raymond or Richard in a long time.  Best Wishes to both of them.

[www3traveler]

I see that you are beginning to back out of your parking space, have a wonderful cruise.

[bluesea777]

40 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

We went to the Cruise Next desk to book all the things:

Behind the Scenes Tour

Dining with the Officers

Sail and Sustain Mixology experience 

Wines Around the World

 

The Cruise Next desk associate had the best smile. He looked so familiar!  I looked at his name tag:

Raymond Matic

 

hmmm I thought

 

I told Raymond we had a wonderful cruise director named Richard Matic and did Raymond know him.  Raymond’s smile got even bigger and he told us Richard is his big brother.  Richard is currently the cruise director on the NCL Gem and will be transferring to the Bliss soon.  I know from other sources that Emma will be taking over as Cruise Director on the Gem.

I did notice the name but kept forgetting to get back to him to ask him about Richard! 
 

Later I’m going to find some photos of Richard to post here so you can show it to Raymond - he’s gonna have a fit.  
 

Btw, Ray said it’s his big brother … well, I’d say his little big brother. Photos forthcoming. 
 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by bluesea777

[AKR2011]

1 hour ago, YVRteacher said:

We went to the Cruise Next desk to book all the things:

Behind the Scenes Tour

Dining with the Officers

Sail and Sustain Mixology experience 

Wines Around the World

 

The Cruise Next desk associate had the best smile. He looked so familiar!  I looked at his name tag:

Raymond Matic

 

hmmm I thought

 

I told Raymond we had a wonderful cruise director named Richard Matic and did Raymond know him.  Raymond’s smile got even bigger and he told us Richard is his big brother.  Richard is currently the cruise director on the NCL Gem and will be transferring to the Bliss soon.  I know from other sources that Emma will be taking over as Cruise Director on the Gem.

Richard is the BEST! I wish he was moving to The Pearl this summer. I've sailed with him twice and will go anywhere with him. Best Cruise Director ever!

[YVRteacher]

35 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

I see that you are beginning to back out of your parking space, have a wonderful cruise.

That was the Holland America ship. We just left the port now.

We are officially on vacation!  I already love this ship. The bartenders make excellent piña coladas.

[ceilidh1]

Bon Voyage!

Hope dad is having the best time.

[bluesea777]

Here you go ...

 

 

 

I wonder what he looks like now, 9 years later!

 

 

[www3traveler]

4 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

Here you go ...

 

 

 

I wonder what he looks like now, 9 years later!

Thank You  Must be very happy not to have to dance with the angel wings.  Those things were heavy.

 

 

[Seas2mountains]

2 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

We went to the Cruise Next desk to book all the things:

Behind the Scenes Tour

Dining with the Officers

Sail and Sustain Mixology experience 

Wines Around the World

 

The Cruise Next desk associate had the best smile. He looked so familiar!  I looked at his name tag:

Raymond Matic

 

hmmm I thought

 

I told Raymond we had a wonderful cruise director named Richard Matic and did Raymond know him.  Raymond’s smile got even bigger and he told us Richard is his big brother.  Richard is currently the cruise director on the NCL Gem and will be transferring to the Bliss soon.  I know from other sources that Emma will be taking over as Cruise Director on the Gem.

We are home now and I am so excited to stay on the ship through your updates.

Ray (I think he referred to himself as Ray and not Raymond) gave an outstanding BTS tour. When you go, watch to see how many people touch the clean sheets after he asks them not to touch them. Ewww - so gross. 

 

We loved Jerry the cruise director! He was one of the best ones we have had in awhile.  You should not miss the Cake decorating session which may be tomorrow. But it is also a little gross as he feeds some of the chocolate, cake and whipped cream directly to the kids' by putting them inside their mouths. By the end my husband and I wondered, how many times his gloved hands touched the saliva in kids' mouths and in some cases adults were happy to be fed those items in their mouth, too.

 

That is really neat that he is related to a cruise director you know.

[natefish95]

So excited to follow along! I love your reviews and the commentary about your dad, which reminds me of my grandad so much!

 

Question about the thermal suite-is everything co-ed? I love the Jewel thermal suite because the sauna and steam room are in the locker room/gender segregated sections. I hate co-ed saunas/steam room because I hate sweating in a bathing suit haha

[YVRteacher]

Let’s see if this works. I’m accessing Cruise Critic without using internet minutes.  The feature to “like” a post isn’t available so please know that I do like all the above posts, I just can’t drop an emoji. (I also can’t view photos-sorry!)

 

Yes, the features in the Spirit’s thermal spa are co-ed and there is a sauna and a eucalyptus steam room in addition to the large area with the loungers. There is not a therapy pool or a hot tub.

 

@Seas2mountains your review is so wonderful! Thank you for taking us along on your cruise!  I look forward to cake decorating.  There are a TON of kids on board so I may be jostling for a spot in the crowd with them.

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Okay-that worked. This is the first time I’ve been able to do that.

 

Not only did we get latitude strawberries, we also received Captain’s strawberries! 
 

I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person who finds a lot of joy in the little things. There is a peach in our fruit basket and I have never seen such a lovely peach before.  When it ripens, we will savour this peach with a little bit of vanilla ice cream.  I am looking forward to the eating of the big peach!

 

If these photos upload, you will see the giant peach. If they don’t, just imagine a softball-sized peach in sunset hues next to an apple in a silver fruit bowl.

[YVRteacher]

Me:

 

Me: There’s a lot of bars on this ship!

 

Dad: there’s no shortage of a place to get a drink!

 

Dinner was so-so. This afternoon we walked through the Garden Cafe and the food looked really good, especially the pizza. When we came back for dinner there were barely any choices and there were zero options for vegetarians that included protein. The guy at the salad station said they only do pizza at lunch. There was a passenger at the vegetarian station complaining that they couldn’t just have two types of rice and nothing else for vegetarians. Even the Indian food tonight was chicken-based. 

I had salad and a dollop of mashed potatoes for dinner. My dad had an assortment of brown meaty stuff. He said his food was substandard. He asked me if we missed part of the buffet and if there were sections we didn’t see.  I told him not to judge the food based on one day. 

 

The crepes were excellent. Mine had blueberry on the interior with butterscotch, whipped cream and sprinkles on the exterior. A woman saw me with my work-of-art dessert and asked what it was so I took her to the crepe station and helped her order and perfect her own crepe resplendent with all the toppings (she even got crushed up chocolate cookies on hers!)

 

After dinner we tried to do trivia in Henry’s Pub.  It was packed fuller than the lifeboat drill in The District on the Bliss.  We couldn’t get a seat and there was nowhere to stand.  The cruise director’s staff host was using a mic and just screaming into it; we looked at each other, shook our heads and left.  We love trivia and were quite disappointed.  

 

After some time spent in Spinnaker oohing and aaaahing at the view (spectacular!!) my dad was past the point of being functional so I walked him back to the cabin then called guest services because the couch was still a couch and hadn’t yet been transformed into a cozy bed (my high school English teacher would highlight that last sentence in red and use multiple exclamation marks to indicate her extreme displeasure with the run-on sentence.) Our room steward (I Ketut) and butler (Dovie) and another room steward all came to the cabin to say hi and check in and begin the making of the couch bed.  We haven’t met the concierge (Monica) and it’s been a full day onboard.

 

The Spirit sails west of Vancouver Island rather than east of the island and west of the Sunshine Coast (which is on the mainland of British Columbia.) I had read threads on CC before the cruise with people saying they were disappointed in the westerly route.  Don’t be! It is stunningly beautiful. I wish there were digital maps in the lounges so I knew what we are passing. There are names for these places in the gulf islands but in my world they are Little Island, Medium Island with Two Houses, Big Rock in the Pacific and Seaweed Bay. A log floated by and seagulls were peacefully chilling out in the evening sun. There are layers and layers of islands and mountains with multitudes of shades of blue as far as I can see. 

 

I left the room steward and dad in the cabin and headed up to the thermal spa. Now I’m the only person in here and my bum is all toasty warm from the heated ceramic lounger.  I made a pillow out of a bathrobe and 4 towels and am so relaxed. I tried to close my eyes for a moment but I had to open them right back up because I didn’t want to miss anything.  Good thing because I just saw a whale! It was sleek onyx black with a fin. The seagulls up here are albatross-sized (my high school English teacher would appreciate the Rime of the Ancient Mariner reference) and if I turn my head awkwardly I can see the blazing sunset across the pool deck.  

 

Yvonne’s tip of the day: if you get a spa pass head up there to use the fancy shower before bed. Place your robe on a heated ceramic lounger and when you get out of the shower you can come back to your perfectly warmed bathrobe and have the experience of a warm non-peopley hug!  Aaahhh.

 

Today’s beverage count:

Yvonne

1 painkiller

3 piña coladas

3 glasses of water

 

Dad

4 beers

Zero water

 

Today’s crepe count:

1 each

 

Number of Cruise Critic friends who came to wave bon voyage at the port:

1+her son

 

Dad’s complaints

-there are no good places in the cabin for him to put his underwear (he has an entire closet with two drawers plus he has the whole bathroom which has two drawers and I showed him the cupboard in the dining room! There are plenty of spaces where underwear COULD go, but in dad’s world they are not the right spaces.)

-dinner

-he took the pillows off his bed and the room steward put them all back on!

Despite the (very) rough start to the day (which had absolutely nothing to do with NCL or the port of Vancouver) we ended up having a great first day on board. 

[ceilidh1]

I like underwear to go in the drawer in the nightstand next to the bed. That’s the proper place for it.

[Dorhead1230]

Just wanted to say I’m loving your review. Your descriptions are so beautiful and detailed I hardly need photos (but can’t wait to see some more anyway!). Also, your excitement about the lovely peach made me so happy…nice to see appreciation for little things 😊. I hope you and your dad have an excellent voyage!

[Langham1865]

I am not sure which bar she's in on this trip, but look for a bartender named Jocelyn and tell her Daniel says hi and that I'll be in the Philippines on July 18th... she'll know...  PS I love your reviews!!!

[omahabob]

9 minutes ago, Langham1865 said:

I am not sure which bar she's in on this trip, but look for a bartender named Jocelyn and tell her Daniel says hi and that I'll be in the Philippines on July 18th... she'll know...  PS I love your reviews!!!

 

Oooo. A bartender scavenger hunt. Any extra charge for that onboard activity?