My partner and I just returned from a 7-night cruise to Florida and the Bahamas, sailing on the Norwegian Spirit on Sunday, March 19 out of New York City. Being the review geek that I am, I had read just about every review out there on the Spirit and I was a little hesitant about what to expect. I am happy to report that we were very favorably impressed. The ship, staff, cabin, and cuisine all exceeded our expectations. We will definitely sail on NCL again!

Background

I am 28 and have sailed on a number of cruises, including Sitmar (Fairwind), Wind Star (Wind Star and Wind Song), Renaissance (Renaissance III), Holland America (Westerdam), Celebrity (Century), and Cunard (Caronia). My partner is 23 and has only every sailed on the Caronia, an experience he likened to one of the last circles of hell. Hes not a trussed-up-in-a-tux kind of guy (like me), so in retrospect I probably should have guessed that an inside cabin on a smaller, older, formal ship was notto use an appropriate term for the shiphis cup of tea. I say that because our fellow passengers had seemingly been recruited en masse from a British nursing home. Tea at 4:00 was like wading through a gleaming, surging, endless sea of walkers. To make matters worse, we were on one of the Caronias last voyages with Cunard and the ships staff had been picked over for service on the new Queen Mary 2, which apparently meant that only the mute or deeply unhappy were left on board. Being a ship buff, I took it in stride and spent my time admiring things like the teak rails and gravity davits. My partner, unimpressed by gravity davits, spent his time swearing and muttering under his breath. In short, he had sworn off cruising and this NCL cruise was my last, best, most desperate attempt to show him the exact opposite of what we had experienced: freestyle cruising. THANK THE STARS FOR FREESTYLE CRUISING. It turned the last tattered shred of hope I had into future cruises for both of us! Read more