REVIEW: Spirit - Boston to Bermuda - June 5 - 12 (long)

[merlib]

Clare:

We happened to eat at Windows that night, and saw at least 3 of the "big wigs" discussing the setup for your wedding dinner. I kid you not, it must have taken them at least 1/2 hour to come to a final decision. So glad to hear that all went well!

 

Mary R (DaveinCT's wife)

 

WEDDING DINNER BACK AT WINDOWS: There are not words to describe the overwhelming feeling I had when I saw the set-up Bernhard, the Food and Beverage Director and his Windows staff had created for our Bride and Groom. The mother of the bride, Magz had lugged (carry-on because they were breakable) some centerpieces and the Windows staff agreed to put them on the tables for us. The did but, in a nutshell went the extra mile for our bride and groom. The little touches that make a special occasion special were all there. The wait staff was extraordinary; the food was to die for. The look of joy on our bride's face said it all. Now, I am 100% Irish. I am not a natural hugger. I am uncomfortable with the new overly-prevalent hugging thing that has permeated the circles in which I travel. A pat on the back, a little wave, even a handshake and I'm good. This night, however I could NOT stop hugging people. Poor Bernhardt... my earring kept getting stuck in his name tag! One of my best memories of the evening (and I have soooo many) was looking over at the staff and crew stand in a little line in the background - each of them had a big smile. Not the forced corporate 'gotta put on a good face smile' but smiles from their hearts that they had set the stage for such joy to our bride and her guests. Where does NCL find these people???? AND THEY WORK SO HARD! And they had to stay so late that night because we were a bit slow... (I felt quite guilty about that... keeping them on a port night.) I'm getting weepy so I've got to move on. It's like I'm hearing the entire kitchen/wait staff sing 'Let me Call You Sweetheart' all over again!

[maggiecatenjay]

Clare-

The dinner you had a Windows, was that set up separately or did you guys just come at normal dining time? We were thinking about doing a dinner "reception" at cagney's. I don't want anything special-as in a different menu or anything. I guess I am trying to avoid any fees NCL would add on if I asked them to hold a reception just for me. We just want to eat dinner together (maybe 20 of us?) and then go to one of the music venues for dancing and drinks. Is that what you guys did, or did you plan something through NCL?

 

We did not plan anything special in advance with NCL. Since there were thirty three of us, though we couldn't make a reservation before 8:30. The dinner NCL and the Windows staff/crew provided was great. The only thing special we asked for was the centerpieces being placed on the tables, which they did happily and beautifully. Cagney's or Le Bistro was also our first idea but we nixed that after a bit of research because of small tables... I think all tables are for two or four... not conducive for group chit chat. Windows afforded long tables - It might be advantageous to think about the dreaded seating chart (won't be too bad for twenty) and maybe make up little pretty place place cards... I wish I'd thought of that before. I'm pretty sure Windows would be amenable to that and it would be a nice touch... a bit formal. Nobody complained about their seat that evening but looking around I would have set it up a bit differently for conversation purposes. Also, we made a few friends along the way and had to tweak our reservation up! A bonus when everybody's meals are included! "Come and join our celebration!" is a great treat to say (and I think our 'extras' had a great time, as well!). One thing we did that you might want to do was to use the 'group amenity points' (if you are an official booking group and get them - not sure how exactly that works...) for bottles of wine (one per cabin) to be served at the wedding dinner. That was awesome! Be careful, though to disseminate this info to your group beforehand. The bottles ended up IN the cabins on embarkation which was a bit difficult.

 

I highly recommend Windows. One thing we did was to plan all of our other group dinners elsewhere and only the wedding dinner at Windows to make it seem more special.

 

Afterward there was a GREAT band playing by the pool. There was much dancing! We had a great time!

 

Lots of good wishes. My best advice, plan, keep your expectations low, invite fun people and remain flexible. YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT TIME!

 

Clare

[angeljt]

Great review and website. Thank you for your time...

Glad everyone had such a good cruise, and I'm sure the wedding was fantastic!

Jackie

[CrazyCruiserfromMaine]

Clare, Maggie,Maggie Cate and Jay....This cruise changed my attitude towards cruising forever...I love to travel, when I can absorb the culture and meet incredible people native to the country I am visiting or not. I want to go to Bermuda every year by far one of the best vacations I have ever had....most of that was because I met THE most incredible people in the world. I hope we all stay friends forever!!

[rikatine]

Thanks for posting your review. Have been thinking of you and your group and I'm glad you had such a good cruise.

[sparks1093]

Clare, I read all of your posts leading up to the big day and I am so glad that things turned out the way they did for your group. Your review is simply smashing and gives a great picture of how things were. DW and I will probably sail to Bermuda from Boston one day, but not until the boys are gone out on their own (or until we can leave them home alone and expect to have a home to come back to :eek:). It will be nice being able to drive 4 hours to the port versus 27 hours :). (Our first cruise was on the NCL Dream out of Boston on a CTN just because it was so close.)

[maggiecatenjay]

Thank you so so much, all you cruisers out there. We had such a great time. Below is a pic of our group of 33 right after the wedding ceremony at Jobson's Cove, Bermuda.

I can say with absolute certainty that the day/week would NOT have been such a success i.e. these smiles would NOT have been this big in this pic LOL) if not for all of the help we (I) received from CruiseCritic!

Thanks soooo much.

Happy cruising to all.

Clare

 

[sparks1093]

Thank you so so much, all you cruisers out there. We had such a great time. Below is a pic of our group of 33 right after the wedding ceremony at Jobson's Cove, Bermuda.

I can say with absolute certainty that the day/week would NOT have been such a success i.e. these smiles would NOT have been this big in this pic LOL) if not for all of the help we (I) received from CruiseCritic!

Thanks soooo much.

Happy cruising to all.

Clare

 

 

Okay, so which one of those beautiful ladies is you?

[maggiecatenjay]

Radio took this pic at our Meet & Greet (thanks, Radio!).

 

Magimai, Mike, Alice, Ralph, maggiecatenjay (Clare), Sandy

Henry's Pub, June 6, 2009

The papers on the table are a D-Day trivia game with prizes.

If you have an opportunity to attend a CC Meet & Greet I highly recommend going. It was great!

[Radio]

Here is a pic of Clare's "Communication Central" Cabin Door !

 

I love this idea !

 

There were schedules, notes. . ."I'll be here", and "I meet you here" notes.

 

It was perfect !

 

 

Radio

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Job Clare !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Smellytoes]

Radio took this pic at our Meet & Greet (thanks, Radio!).

 

Magimai, Mike, Alice, Ralph, maggiecatenjay (Clare), Sandy

Henry's Pub, June 6, 2009

The papers on the table are a D-Day trivia game with prizes.

If you have an opportunity to attend a CC Meet & Greet I highly recommend going. It was great!

 

Clare, you look VERY familiar to me. I know I've seen you before so if someone comes up to you at the supermarket and says "I KNOW YOU" it's just me:p Your review has made me so excited for the 17th. I can't wait another 3 whole weeks.

[maggiecatenjay]

Clare, you look VERY familiar to me. I know I've seen you before so if someone comes up to you at the supermarket and says "I KNOW YOU" it's just me:p Your review has made me so excited for the 17th. I can't wait another 3 whole weeks.

 

E-mail me at the address at the bottom of the site pages in my signature and maybe we can figure it out!

Have a great time on your cruise!

Clare