Spirit 5/11 Cruise Review

[PassionFruit]

I just returned from my 5/11 cruise on the Spirit out of NYC. This review will probably have to be done in pieces over the next few days....both as I have time and remember "one more thing" that I meant to include! The cruisers in my group were myself and DH (30-somethings), DS (18 mo), my mom and my grandparents (whose ages I will not disclose because I like getting presents at Christmas!).

 

Day 1: Embarkation

We arrived at the pier by cab around 11:30 or 12:00. Traffic was a mess! The Dawn was in port at the same time loading & unloading. We finally fought our way through to the correct pier (a story in itself!) and got all the luggage unloaded. We did not print luggage tags before leaving (oops!) so we had to get some from one of the pier workers. It was a quick and painless process to get the tagged and loaded on a cart and we headed inside. We asked for wheelchair assistance for my grandfather since he can't walk long distances or stand for long periods. Let me tell you...this was the first of many times that I was VERY impressed with how special assistance passengers are treated. We got checked through security and my mom and grandparents were taken through the line for those staying in suites & villas. They were able to pretty much go straight through and board with no wait. An NCL worker wheeled my grandfather right up to Windows and they were having lunch while DH, DS and I waited in the regular line. We were in line probably 45 minutes before we got checked in. There was no wait to get on the ship, though, as passengers had been boarding the whole time we were in line. We did have to rush up to Windows to eat, though, since they were closing at 2:00.

 

We had a nice lunch and went to our stateroom right afterwards. Luggage was delivered shortly thereafter. Our stateroom was small (not smaller than expected, just small), but we managed it very well even though we had lots of baby paraphanelia. We were in room 9626 which is a balcony room just around the corner from the elevators. This was a great location. Very little noise and all drawers, doors, etc., in good working order. We turned the small table that is in front of the sofa upside down and put it under the desk to get it out of the way. That left room for DS's bed - sort of like a pack-n-play on the floor which was so easy to roll up and move out of the way each morning. Our bed was very comfortable. On the 2nd night of the cruise they put new pillows in all the rooms along our hallway. I'm assuming this was part of the 2.0 upgrades. The pillows were pretty large and a little stiff for my liking, although I think they were just what DH likes. My grandparents and mom were in a balcony room on the other side of the ship (9122). Everything in that room was fine with one important exception: the sofa bed was TERRIBLE. My mom was going to sleep on it, but after the 1st night she decided to just use the bedding and sleep on the couch itself (not turned out). Thank goodness we are a short family! While the 3 of us made it fine in our room, I've decided that if others go with us again I'll get an inside cabin at least so there are only 2 adults per room if at all possible. Maybe the 2.0 bedding upgrades will help out those couch-beds, but I'm not sure I'd chance it!

 

We explored the ship some. Everything was nice and overall we liked the ship. We did go to the spa on the first day. They had a drawing for spa services. They selected 2 winners and there only 10 or 12 people at most that were there. You had to be present to win, so the odds are much better than in the casino! I'm not sure what the prizes were (even those odds weren't in our favor!), but it's worth trying out if you like using the spa.

 

More later....DS is up from his nap!

[Chipster2]

Thanks for taking the time to post. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[sdsun*]

Hi

 

Thanks for the update. Did you take any of the ships excursions? If so what do you recommend? Sorry to rush you, we will be on the Spirit this Sunday.

Thanks, SD

[electricron]

Eagerly awaiting the rest of your review.

[PassionFruit]

Hi

 

Thanks for the update. Did you take any of the ships excursions? If so what do you recommend? Sorry to rush you, we will be on the Spirit this Sunday.

Thanks, SD

 

The only ship excursion anyone in our group did was the Airboat Adventure in Port Canaveral. My grandfather & DH did this one and enjoyed it. The rest of us rented a car from Thrifty there and went to Cocoa Village for some shopping, Ron Jon's Surf Shop, and took DS to Cocoa Beach. In Nassau we walked around the shopping area near the pier and took the horse & carriage rides which we really enjoyed. And in Freeport we only looked at the shops right at the pier and didn't really venture out since it was such a short turn-around.

[Sea Hound]

PassionFruit -- more - more - more! We want to hear more!:D

 

Glad you had a good time.

 

Sea Hound:D

[PassionFruit]

On with the review....

 

The 1st night and 2nd day was extremely rough seas. There were seasick bags all over the ship. Thankfully no one in my group got sick, but we did find that the seasick bags were great for stinky diapers! :p My grandfather really had a tough time walking around the ship due to the motion. This is when we found out that you can call from any phone on the ship and they will send a wheelchair to take you where you want to go. This was invaluable several times when we were trying to get to dinner or a show or - most often - off the ship at a port.

 

I got a little frustrated the first day at sea with the activities. It seems like on every other cruise I've been on, I've always found several things I wanted to do. I can't exactly pin-point what was lacking, but very little on the Freestyle Daily interested me. I'm not big into drinking or gambling, which is pretty much the 2 activities they had all day and it just seemed like there wasn't much else. I would say this was probably my biggest let-down on the cruise. I thought the spa prices were more outrageous than any cruise I had been on previously, so I didn't head there. My mom and I went to the casino once and stayed long enough to lose $4 on slots. It was so smokey and felt very cave-like, so we didn't go back any more. I will say that they had times scheduled each day for the under-2 crowd to come - with supervision - to the kids crew area and play which I thought was good. DS enjoyed going up there and playing in the ball pit and with some of the toys.

 

More later!

[PassionFruit]

Ok....I'm going to have to do parts of this review in categories because I can't remember every place we ate each day and such. So.....

 

DINING

 

We ate at Windows, The Garden Room, the buffet, and once at La Trattoria during the cruise. I wasn't wild about breakfast in the buffet, but everyone else in my group seemed to like it. The hot lunch dishes on the buffet at lunch also didn't send me overboard, but the rest of the group enjoyed it. I did find that they had a chicken salad that I could get on pretzel bread and fix a side salad or Ceasar salad with it. I really did enjoy that and think I ate it 3 days in a row for lunch. I preferred the dining rooms, though, as much for the atmosphere and service as the food. Getting to the Garden Room from our rooms was the easiest, so we had dinner there several times. I found the service across the board to be very good with a couple of minor exceptions that really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I thought La Trattoria was good also, except for the ravioli. All in all, though, I enjoyed the food and service - and ate non-stop - without ever setting a foot in one of the "premium" restaurants. I just didn't feel the need to pay when I could get very good food already.

 

 

SHOWS

 

My mom and grandmother went to the first show - the singing, tap-dancing, trumpet-playing one - and said it wasn't that great. The Broadway-review show was entertaining enough, but nothing to write home about. Second City was hilarious but at times might not be appropriate for children. My absolute favorite show was the crew show on the last night. It was the most well-attended, too, so it's important to get there early for a good seat. My grandparents saw the magician, too, and thought that was good.

 

 

PORT DAYS

 

As I mentioned earlier, we played it fairly quiet on port days and didn't do anything too much. In Port Canaveral we rented a car from Thrifty. They have a shuttle running continuously from the pier to the rental agency and we didn't have to wait long for it. We had a car for about $40 for the day. We got to see all the sights we were interested in and found the area to be very easy to drive around. Since we weren't going to be at Cocoa Beach very long (we are a fair-skinned bunch!), the guy at Ron Jon's told us to just leave our car there and walk to the beach which worked out well. {Now, just as an aside for those of you who do not frequent beaches....please stay very close to your kids and watch them carefully. Even at Cocoa Beach the undercurrent had a good pull without going very far out. I could see how a child could lose their footing easily, so be cautious!} Cocoa Village had some cute shops, but you probably don't need more that a couple of hours max to look around unless you really like shopping. We had the car back by 5:30 or so. The shuttle had already stopped running for the day, but the rental agent was very helpful in getting a cab for us. It was $10 to get back to the pier.

 

In Nassau we went to the visitors center first to inquire about a wheelchair. They had one available that they let us use for the day (to be returned by 5:00) and basically just asked us to leave a tip for the usage. DH was able to push my grandfather around the shopping area near the pier so he could see some of it. We went to the straw market, but they didn't attempt to go in there. We made 2 aisles and got out. The aisles are so narrow we had difficulty getting the stroller around. I'm not clausterphobic, but this was TIGHT. And each booth seemed to have the same stuff over and over. They also push their wares pretty readily. We didn't buy anything and much preferred the market area that's connected to the visitors center for souveneir shopping. We made our way back to the horse & carriage area and got 2 carriages to take us on the longer (40-min) tour around the city. Our guide - Michael - was very good. It was $20/person with no charge for DS. We tipped at the end, also. This was an excellent option for us as there is no way we could have made the walk with the whole group. It allowed everyone to get a "taste" of Nassau without being tired out.

 

I wasn't going to get off the ship in Freeport, but there was a small shopping area and some vendors that set up right across from where you get off the ship, so I decided to check it out. We ended up getting a few more souveneirs and I got the front part of my hair braided for $30. (Hey, everybody's got to do it once, right?!) We also got some excellent photos in front of the ship on a nice grassy area. We went out about an hour or two after the ship was docked and it was very nice. However, within an hour of boarding time, I looked off the balcony and the crowds were getting THICK down there. I'm sure it was all the excursion people returning. Just don't wait until the last minute if you want to check things out since it did not look as inviting then.