This is a review of NCL Spirit's first cruise out of NOLA. We are a family of 4..parent in our late 30s two kids DS(10) and DD(8). DW and I have and enjoyed our 14 cruises (3 with NCL) and our kids have taken 7 (this was their first with NCL). We Drove down from Memphis the day before the cruise and stayed in the Embassy Suites. We did a Coral Cay beach Break in Roatan, a Dulce River cruise in Santo Tomas, Cave Tubing/ATV in Belize, and a rental car to three beaches in Cozumel. We'll try to take some of the guess work out of your Spirit cruise with a lot of information and some opinions.

We had a great cruise that exceeded some of our expectations. Those of you who have read some of my posts know that I have not been a great NCL fan and we had some rough pre-sailing experiences in booking this cruise that are documented elsewhere. We also had a lot of rain - so for us to say we had such a great cruise is really saying something about the Spirit and its crew. We're going to do a day by day but I wanted to point out the Highs and lows for those of you looking for the Cliff Notes.

Our favorite thing about our Spirit Cruise was the Ship itself - Nicer than anything Carnival has our there - it did not feel small compared to the Conquest -it reminded us a lot of Carnival's Pride with a much better layout - the layout of the fantail was especially family friendly and we absolutely loved the open air eating at Raffel's Terrace. The aft main theater was a nice change of pace and its very clever how they use the elevated seating in the Stardust to give the Windows Dining room a majestic look and an intimate feel. (Still like Voyager Class ships best and we'll always have a soft spot for the Century). Read more