NCL Spirit - A Review Of The Ship And What It Offers
Cruising is a great way to enjoy a vacation.
Regardless of where you want to travel, if you have the opportunity to cruise there, it is well-worth checking into.
The benefits of cruising are well-documented, so I won't go into all of those again, however, just having returned from yet another cruise with my family, I wanted to give a professional account about what to expect when taking a cruise, specifically aboard the NCL Spirit.
The Spirit currently (2007 -2008) is departing from New Orleans.
Though cruise ships frequently change ports the ship itself stays pretty much the same.
I have quite a bit to report on this ship and this company.
Overall, NCL receives a passing grade as there were plenty of positive things I experienced.
However, there are many things that could be improved upon.
Let's start with the positives.
As with any NCL ship, you can eat whenever you want wherever you want..
This is a huge positive for those free-spirited travelers who hate being strapped to a schedule that someone else creates.
It is very convenient to sleep in late and still have 2-3 restaurants to choose from where you can eat breakfast.
And, if one is a night owl, like my 14 year old son, you can still get food anytime you choose.
The Freestyle goes beyond just being able to eat when you want.
The choice of restaurants is also a huge plus.
With a variety of choices, one could choose from a typical cruise buffet, a very nice dining room (called Windows), a more intimate dining room (Garden Room), an Italian sit-down restaurant, a Japanese-style restaurant, and a wonderful steak restaurant (my favorite called Cagney's).
There were also a few bar-style eateries available on the ship as well as the casino had a late-night buffet (though I didn't go into the casino, I heard good reports about the food).
Most of the restaurants were included in the price of the cruise, however a few had a $20 per person cover charge but were well-worth the price.
The food was always well-prepared and the staff were mostly polite and very helpful.
They were usually very helpful when serving my children (as young as 5 years old) which we appreciated.
Speaking of children, childcare was pretty good.
Now, in all fairness to the reader of this article, we traveled during low season, so the number of children present was far smaller than during high season.
However, my children always asked to go to childcare.
That for us was a great sign and a welcomed one as we have six children ranging from ages 5-16.
Even our older children loved the programs.
The younger children has their own swimming pool including 2-water-slides.
Plus, there were 2 hot-tubs nearby where parents could relax and keep an eye on their young ones.
There is also a main pool on the top deck along with 4 hot-tubs.
Though I never saw anyone swimming in the pool, there were always several people around having a good time.
The help-desk staff were very patient and always informative.
And, though we had pre-bought our shore excursions from shoretrips.
com the excursion staff were available and helpful.
NCL offered several exciting excursions, but they were a bit over-priced.
For the first time we chose to stay in an interior room.
This, as it turned out, greatly benefited my sleeping! having always enjoyed an outside cabin, it was nice to experience darkness whenever I wanted it.
This is something that people who have a hard time sleeping might want to consider when making reservations in the future.
The inside cabin was a bit smaller than I like, it did work.
The outside cabins were much larger, especially those with a veranda.
As with any ship, it is all about personal preference.
The ship did have its share of letdowns.
We are not smokers, so this was a huge one.
NCL allows smoking in the cabins and in several places throughout the ship.
It was very irritating to walk through the hallways smelling smoke.
Plus, we could not use our in-room hairdryer because every time we used it, the smell of smoke filled our bathroom.
That was very annoying and unappreciated.
Another drawback of the cruise was the lack of a soda-service in many places throughout the ship.
First, to get the service you had to pre-pay the $7/day/person.
Then you got a "coke" can that had a lid.
The can looks big, but barely holds 6 oz of liquid and ice.
This created a continuing annoyance as the only place to get soda (outside of a dining room) was a smoke-filled bar.
Then, if you are a big drinker like me, you had to keep going back and getting a refill.
They never gave you a can of soda and you always had to show your room-key that had a little "coke" sticker on it before getting it.
Children were a little less, and they had to wear yellow bracelets in order to receive the service.
The elevators did not work in a logical fashion much of the time.
If you were on deck 7 and wanted to go up you would push the up arrow.
If an elevator was on deck 6 going up you would think that the elevator would stop for you.
This rarely happened, especially mid-ship.
By the end of the cruise, people were getting in any elevator they could find and ride to whatever floor just to avoid the wait for another to finally stop.
The entertainment was fair.
At times, they had content that was not suitable for children even though children were encouraged to attend.
At other times, the shows were fairly entertaining.
This certainly goes down as a personal preference and each should make up their own minds about such things.
Finally, tips were not up to us.
Tips were charged to you without any discussion.
There were times when out cabins were not properly cleaned and there were times when the service at a restaurant was not what I would expect.
Still, I was charged automatically whether I liked it or not.
I like the freedom to tip those who do the best job with the highest tips, but this was not possible.
I was very disappointed to find out about this on my last night of the cruise.
Internet service was available, but at 40-70 cents per minute, who really wants to surf the net.
NCL would be much better served to provide more-affordable rates especially for business owners like myself.
Phone charges were even more outrageous.
Overall, I would give NCL a "B-" for this cruise.
Having sailed them before and hearing about how much they have improved, I was expecting much more.
It just didn't happen.
I did not see the improvements I was hoping for.
However they did a fairly decent job and the rate was good.
Would I sail with NCL again, probably.
But having been on other cruises with other companies, NCL would be finish at best in 3rd place.
Regardless of where you want to travel, if you have the opportunity to cruise there, it is well-worth checking into.
The benefits of cruising are well-documented, so I won't go into all of those again, however, just having returned from yet another cruise with my family, I wanted to give a professional account about what to expect when taking a cruise, specifically aboard the NCL Spirit.
The Spirit currently (2007 -2008) is departing from New Orleans.
Though cruise ships frequently change ports the ship itself stays pretty much the same.
I have quite a bit to report on this ship and this company.
Overall, NCL receives a passing grade as there were plenty of positive things I experienced.
However, there are many things that could be improved upon.
Let's start with the positives.
As with any NCL ship, you can eat whenever you want wherever you want..
This is a huge positive for those free-spirited travelers who hate being strapped to a schedule that someone else creates.
It is very convenient to sleep in late and still have 2-3 restaurants to choose from where you can eat breakfast.
And, if one is a night owl, like my 14 year old son, you can still get food anytime you choose.
The Freestyle goes beyond just being able to eat when you want.
The choice of restaurants is also a huge plus.
With a variety of choices, one could choose from a typical cruise buffet, a very nice dining room (called Windows), a more intimate dining room (Garden Room), an Italian sit-down restaurant, a Japanese-style restaurant, and a wonderful steak restaurant (my favorite called Cagney's).
There were also a few bar-style eateries available on the ship as well as the casino had a late-night buffet (though I didn't go into the casino, I heard good reports about the food).
Most of the restaurants were included in the price of the cruise, however a few had a $20 per person cover charge but were well-worth the price.
The food was always well-prepared and the staff were mostly polite and very helpful.
They were usually very helpful when serving my children (as young as 5 years old) which we appreciated.
Speaking of children, childcare was pretty good.
Now, in all fairness to the reader of this article, we traveled during low season, so the number of children present was far smaller than during high season.
However, my children always asked to go to childcare.
That for us was a great sign and a welcomed one as we have six children ranging from ages 5-16.
Even our older children loved the programs.
The younger children has their own swimming pool including 2-water-slides.
Plus, there were 2 hot-tubs nearby where parents could relax and keep an eye on their young ones.
There is also a main pool on the top deck along with 4 hot-tubs.
Though I never saw anyone swimming in the pool, there were always several people around having a good time.
The help-desk staff were very patient and always informative.
And, though we had pre-bought our shore excursions from shoretrips.
com the excursion staff were available and helpful.
NCL offered several exciting excursions, but they were a bit over-priced.
For the first time we chose to stay in an interior room.
This, as it turned out, greatly benefited my sleeping! having always enjoyed an outside cabin, it was nice to experience darkness whenever I wanted it.
This is something that people who have a hard time sleeping might want to consider when making reservations in the future.
The inside cabin was a bit smaller than I like, it did work.
The outside cabins were much larger, especially those with a veranda.
As with any ship, it is all about personal preference.
The ship did have its share of letdowns.
We are not smokers, so this was a huge one.
NCL allows smoking in the cabins and in several places throughout the ship.
It was very irritating to walk through the hallways smelling smoke.
Plus, we could not use our in-room hairdryer because every time we used it, the smell of smoke filled our bathroom.
That was very annoying and unappreciated.
Another drawback of the cruise was the lack of a soda-service in many places throughout the ship.
First, to get the service you had to pre-pay the $7/day/person.
Then you got a "coke" can that had a lid.
The can looks big, but barely holds 6 oz of liquid and ice.
This created a continuing annoyance as the only place to get soda (outside of a dining room) was a smoke-filled bar.
Then, if you are a big drinker like me, you had to keep going back and getting a refill.
They never gave you a can of soda and you always had to show your room-key that had a little "coke" sticker on it before getting it.
Children were a little less, and they had to wear yellow bracelets in order to receive the service.
The elevators did not work in a logical fashion much of the time.
If you were on deck 7 and wanted to go up you would push the up arrow.
If an elevator was on deck 6 going up you would think that the elevator would stop for you.
This rarely happened, especially mid-ship.
By the end of the cruise, people were getting in any elevator they could find and ride to whatever floor just to avoid the wait for another to finally stop.
The entertainment was fair.
At times, they had content that was not suitable for children even though children were encouraged to attend.
At other times, the shows were fairly entertaining.
This certainly goes down as a personal preference and each should make up their own minds about such things.
Finally, tips were not up to us.
Tips were charged to you without any discussion.
There were times when out cabins were not properly cleaned and there were times when the service at a restaurant was not what I would expect.
Still, I was charged automatically whether I liked it or not.
I like the freedom to tip those who do the best job with the highest tips, but this was not possible.
I was very disappointed to find out about this on my last night of the cruise.
Internet service was available, but at 40-70 cents per minute, who really wants to surf the net.
NCL would be much better served to provide more-affordable rates especially for business owners like myself.
Phone charges were even more outrageous.
Overall, I would give NCL a "B-" for this cruise.
Having sailed them before and hearing about how much they have improved, I was expecting much more.
It just didn't happen.
I did not see the improvements I was hoping for.
However they did a fairly decent job and the rate was good.
Would I sail with NCL again, probably.
But having been on other cruises with other companies, NCL would be finish at best in 3rd place.
Source...