NCL Spirit Review - The Good, The Better, The Best

[nasvhillecruise]

Here is the 1st part of my 1st review. Any questions, ask!!!!!!!!

BACKGROUND: I am a non-cruising (well I was, now I’m a cruise enthusiast), outdoor vacation type person. After hearing great things about cruises and finding out you DON’T HAVE to lay out at the pool the entire time, I decided to try it. Hubby & 5 yr old son joined me. We chose the Spirit primarily due to ports but also because of Buccaneer Wet & Wild & good reviews of the kid’s program.

 

PRE-CRUISE FLIGHT (10 out of 10): We flew Southwest from Nashville to N.O. , leaving at 5:50 p.m. for a direct flight on Sat, mainly so we wouldn’t spend our spending $ before we boarded. About 30 minutes before boarding, they announced they were oversold (imagine that). We volunteered to take a one-stop flight leaving pretty much at the same time & getting to N.O. only 2 hours later. For this, we got a $680 credit (& with most flights we take being around $200, that’s basically 3 free flights). Since 2 of our tickets were free (frequent flyer), we paid for 1 ticket & got 5 free. WOO HOO!!! What a GREAT way to start vacation.

 

PRE-CRUISE HOTEL (8 of 10): For $50 through Priceline, we got a room at Courtyard Marriott Convention Center about 3 blocks from the cruise terminal. The room was GREAT & their online website showed the nightly price to be $139/night. I LOVE Priceline deals!!! After enjoying the hotel’s buffet, we got a taxi ($7 per person) to take us to the cruise terminal.

 

EMBARKATION (10 of 10): SMOOTH, EASY, & QUICK. Of course, I was excited & insisted on being at the terminal by 10:30 a.m. We were one of the 1st there, so sat for about 25 minutes before getting to wait in line for check-in. Miss Organized here THOUGHT she had everything good to go (passports, drivers license, etc). However, when taking a cruise, one should always remember the TICKETS. Can you say “IDIOT”?!?!? I didn’t have them, but the ticket agent was fine with that and processed us right on in.

 

NOTE ABOUT EMBARKATION: When you walk in, they give you a number. KEEP that number. I left it on the counter with the ticket agent, not knowing we would need it to board the ship. Can you say “IDIOT”?!?!?! Are you seeing a pattern here? Anyway, when it was time to board, they called a number and those with that number got in line. Since we were 1st there, we had one of the 1st numbers. We got in line & told the staff person what I left our number on the counter. She kind of looked at me funny, but let us through. At this point, I’m IMPRESSED with the staff since I’ve already messed up twice, & NCL staff just shook their heads and took care of me.

 

WINDOWS ON 1st DAY FOR LUNCH: Thanks to CC, we knew to go to Windows for lunch. Sure enough, a staff member was at the door of Windows telling us we should go upstairs to the buffet and enjoy pizza. We asked if Windows was open & she cheerfully told us yes. There were only a few people in there and we enjoyed a quiet lunch.

 

FOOD (7 of 10): This 1st lunch was our introduction to what we learned would be consistent: TINY portion sizes. Entrees were pretty much 5 to 6 bites of whatever the main entrée was. We learned quickly to order appetizer, soup, salad, entrée & dessert. If you skipped a course, you would be hungry in an hour. We ate in Windows or the Garden Room most lunches and dinners and breakfast in Raffles buffet. The food at the sit-down restaurants was certainly not FINE dining but it was usually very good. Breakfast at the buffet was also good with a variety of foods. The only specialty restaurant we ate at was Teppanyaki. The food was EXCELLENT here, and it was a lot of fun to meet one CC couple and another couple from Manhattan. We all enjoyed the show by the chef, and it was really the only night we had normal dinner portions. Blue Lagoon was just ok. Service was usually slow and the food was not impressive.

 

ROOM SERVICE (6 of 10) : Slow (45 minutes to an hour). All we ordered was pizza (good) & the grilled cheese sandwich (AWESOME). I do wish they’d had more choices.

 

KIDS CLUB (15 of 10): I cannot say enough about how wonderful Charlie’s Child Care was. Michael absolutely loved it and was upset when we wouldn’t let him go. The staff was friendly and made sure the children had a great time. They had a Disney parade one day through the atrium, they went to the On the Radio show, and they went to dinner one night.

 

BUCANEER’S WET & WILD POOL (8 of 10): This pool was also GREAT. With 300 Vandy students, the main pool was pretty packed. In fact, we never once went there. It was quiet at Bucaneer’s and the hot tub there was also empty most of the time. My only complaint is how slippery the surface was. I slipped several times (though I am known as a klutz).

 

ROOM (8 of 10): I HATED the bed spreads and the window painting (we had an interior cabin), but aside from that, the room was GREAT. There was plenty of room for us & our stuff (including the 25 pairs of shoes we had between us). The closet space was more than ample and bigger than I expected. I was also happy that all of our luggage fit under the bed. Michael adored the pull down bed.

 

STEWARD (9 of 10): We didn’t see him very often, but we had a different towel animal every day. Ice was kept full, & the room was super clean every day. On the last day, he made ALL of the towel animals and had them lined up on the bed. What a treat that was.

 

Ok, am I wordy or what? I’ll give everyone a break & will try to finish this tomorrow.

[Ralphinsc]

Nice review. Thanks.

[nasvhillecruise]

Nice review. Thanks.

 

You're from Aiken? We are originally from Columbia, but moved to TN 5 years ago. Did you have any damage from the tornados? I'm thinking they were more in the low country, so hopefully you were safe from them.

[LadyDivot]

Thanks, Nash! We're going on the Spirit for the first time in November. Great review and it sounds like a good time. I'm looking forward to the next part of your review.

[maryln]

I'm glad to hear your son had such a good time. Did he ever go to the late night sitting? I'm just wondering if they have somewhere for them lie down if they fall asleep. By the way, my family is originally from Nashville. There are still some living in Brentwood. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Grandpaul]

Two of my favorite things; Southwest and the Spirit. Going on either one means I'm heading for a good time. Now that you're hooked like the rest of us poor souls you're in deep trouble. The kids pool on the Spirit is great and it's one of the best views in cruising sitting up on the top deck looking down over the pool and seeing the wake of the ship. Glad you had a great time.

[KerCar]

Great review!!!!! Can't wait for part 2!!!!! I love your rating system:)

[Disneygirl4ever]

I'm loving your review! I'm getting so excited for our Spirit cruise in June...only 3 months to go!!

[electricron]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. From what I've read, it's obvious you spent some time here at CC prior to your cruise. Since you had realistic expectations before you started your cruise, it appears you throughly enjoyed yours.

 

And that's a good thing. I wish everyone who posts a review spent some time here before their cruise too.

[nasvhillecruise]

I'm glad to hear your son had such a good time. Did he ever go to the late night sitting? I'm just wondering if they have somewhere for them lie down if they fall asleep. By the way, my family is originally from Nashville. There are still some living in Brentwood. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Michael only stayed late once (10 to 1 is the late night sitting). They didn't really have anywhere for them to sleep which surprised me. The kiddos just laid on the carpeted floor. So for the little ones, I'm not sure I would recommend the late night. If I'd known that ahead of time, I wouldn't have paid to have him stay late. Brentwood is nice. We work in KY & TN, so we moved north of Nashville to White House.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. From what I've read, it's obvious you spent some time here at CC prior to your cruise. Since you had realistic expectations before you started your cruise, it appears you throughly enjoyed yours.

 

And that's a good thing. I wish everyone who posts a review spent some time here before their cruise too.

 

My name is Debbie & I am a Cruise Critiholic. I'm not sure what I would have expected had I not read CC, but it certainly did help in knowing how the cruise would be. I actually thought it was much better than many people who have had negative comments.

[slotaddict]

Thanks for the info waiting for part two.

[nasvhillecruise]

CASINO (8 of 10): I spent a too much time in the casino, mostly playing blackjack. I played roulette a couple of times & craps once. Overall, I think I made $30 (WOO HOO). The blackjack tables were all $10 tables with the exception of one (maybe 2) $25 tables. They were never entirely full, so I was always able to find a table. My only complaints were the fact that drinks weren't free like in Vegas (I knew this when I went, but still, it would be nice) and the dealers. They were nice & most were friendly, but the language barrier really made it hard to communicate. I HATE smoke & if you sat at a table with someone smoking, you noticed it, but it wasn't as horrible to me as I've read in some reviews.

 

SERVICE (11 of 10): Seems like I read a lot of negative things about the service, but this was one of the highlights of the cruise. EVERYONE was so eager to please. I don't know how many servers learned Michael's name & remembered it the remainder of the cruise. Except for Blue Lagoon, service was EXCELLENT everywhere. One thing to remember, in the dining rooms, they treat it as though it is a fine dining restaurant, and meals take 1.5 hours or a little more. When we go to really nice restaurants, that's what we expect. It's an event, not "let's see how quickly we can eat and get out of here." I've read several times where people complain about the time it takes to eat. We would have liked breakfasts to have been a little quicker cuz we were ready to "GOGOGOGOGOGO", but we understood their concept so it didn't bother us too terrible much.

 

MEET & GREET (9 of 10): Our CC M&G was the 1st sea day (Monday) from 10 to 11 a.m., in Henry's Pub, which doesn't open to the public until noon. One of the people on the roll call made name tags for us (thanks again, Tom). We had about 40 people show up, I think. Also, many of the officers came including the F&B Mgr, Hotel Mgr. Front Desk Mgr, Restaurant Mgr, Concierge & several others. They had snacks set up for us, as well. I loved getting to meet some of the people we would see the remainder of the cruise.

 

PHOTOS (7 of 10): We didn't buy too many photos, mainly since my son decided he was going to practice a new smile, one which made him look more like he was trying to poop than smile. Oh well, it did save us $, I guess. The photogs knew what they were doing & could QUICKLY have us in 10 or 12 poses. There was never a line for pics, even when the Captain was there for photos.

 

PORTS: We did Roatan, Santo Tomas, Belize, & Cozumel. Roatan & Cozumel tied as my fave ports, while Santo Tomas was my least fave, though I enjoyed it.

 

ROATAN (9 of 10, ONLY due to there not being enough time): My only complaint is that we couldn't be there longer. To me, this was the MOST BEAUTIFUL of the ports from the sea. We went to the front of the ship to watch the approach & our eventual docking. There were more people this time than when we left N.O., but it still wasn't terribly crowded.

 

We used Victor Bodden's tours & Caesar was our guide. He made sure we were able to do everything we had wanted to do (zipline, tour the city, see the shipwrecks, go to beach, & see Victor's monkeys). It was a QUICK trip, but we did indeed do everything.

 

We went to Jungle Canopy zipline, which is, I believe, the only one a 5-yr old can do. All of us loved it, & hubby & I (both overweight) were SO HAPPY we didn't embarrass ourselves & get stuck 1/2 way through a zip or 1/2 way across one of the bridges. Our guide there, Alex, was the BEST. He used our video camera to tape us & took extra special care of Michael.

 

AFter the zip, we went to a beach area where we just missed the sunset. The sky was still beautiful, though. Then off to see the wizard (oops, wrong trip), off to see the monkeys, who we adored. THey were sleepy, & the smaller monkey refused to get off the back of the older one. Victor was under the weather but he still came out to chat with us for a few minutes.

 

Somewhere during all of this, we also saw 2 shipwrecks. At one, there were 2 little girls selling sea shells & sea horses for $1 each. Michael bought one of each, & they ended up being great for show & tell.

 

MAN, I talk/write too much. My fingers are tired, so I'm gonna stop again & get back to this soon.

[ilovewdw]

GREAT review so far! I will be on the Spirit on 4/27. I have kids who will be going to the kids club. I am SO GLAD your little guy enjoyed it so much!!!!!!!

 

I can't wait to hear more!