Norwegian Spirit Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,123 reviews

Great Cruise - Missed the Games

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Spirit
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ssolomon56
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Mar 2008
Cabin: Inside

Background Information ~ My DH and I are in our 50s, and we discovered cruising in 2000, this was our 28th cruise. Clearly, we've discovered our favorite mode of travel! We've experienced most of the major cruiselines several times (Carnival, RCI, Celebrity, HAL, Princess and NCI)- this was our 5th cruise with NCI, and our first on the Spirit. We chose this cruise based on the itinerary and the embarkation port. Neither of use had ever been to NO and we'd be celebrating my 52nd birthday and our 7th anniversary on this trip.

Hotel Information ~ We flew into NO on March 6th from Oakland, California on Southwest Airlines, arriving about 5:30pm. After claiming our luggage, we took a taxi to our hotel in the French Quarter, which cost us $40.00 flat rate. It was about 20 miles from the airport to our hotel, and we arrived at the Aston Crown Plaza Hotel shortly after 6:30. The Aston is located right on the corner of Bourbon and canal. Excellent location! I got a fantastic rate of $80.00 per night on Bookit.com...which was amazing. The room was roomy and nice - on par with Holiday Inn. After checking into the hotel and bringing our bags to our room, we headed off to famous Bourbon Street to find a place to have dinner. We walked up and down the street looking at menus and trying to make a choice. We finally opted for a place called "Le Creole". They had the BEST chicken gumbo there...just amazing! My hubby stated feeling a cold coming on so we made it a short night and headed back to the hotel. By the next morning he was SICK and spent the entire day in the hotel room. I did a bit of walking around during the day myself, checking out the little shops and stuff, and we had dinner sent up from room service, which was really pretty horrible. By the next afternoon, (my birthday) my DH was doing much better, and we explored the French Quarter and then took a really nice tour that we booked thru the hotel. It was $45.00 per person, lasted over 2 hours and really showed us all over New Orleans. We saw the Garden Dist, the aftermath of Katrina, the cemeteries, etc. etc. I highly recommend this tour! After the tour we walked the few blocks down to Harrahs and played the slots for a couple hours. I won $100! On the way back we walked past a charming little bistro called the Palace Cafe - right there on canal street. We stopped in and made a 7:00 reservation for my birthday dinner and headed back to the hotel to freshen up. We were surprised to see that my daughter had sent me a bouquet of chocolate dipped strawberries, and they were waiting for us in the room. Dinner at the Palace Cafe was delicious and the service was wonderful. We each had a cocktail and including tip it was about $85.00. After dinner, we headed back to Bourbon Street and got caught up in the Italian-American parade. What fun! We bought a few souvenirs, enjoyed a couple of Hurricanes and was back in our hotel room by about 10:30. Check out was at 11:00, but I called down to the lobby and asked if we could extend our checkout until noon. No problem! I have to say, the Aston Crown Plaza was a sheer delight! The service was wonderful (except that horrible room service meal), they went out of their way over and over. I'd stay there again in a minute.

Embarkation Day ~ The next morning we slept in, and was out of our room by about 11:45. We planned to get a taxi to take us to the port. No need! A very large group called CSK were staying at the Aston and had a chartered bus in front of the hotel when we stepped out the door. They said they had plenty of room, and invited us to take the bus with them to the port - for free. Cool! The port was really VERY close anyway, and within minutes we were there. It was quite windy and very chilly and we all claimed our luggage from the bus. Normally, at this point several Porters show up to get your luggage and whisk them away. Not this time! We all had to get into a LONG line with our luggage and 2-3 Porters were collecting the luggage from the line. All-in-all, it was a very stressful way to do things. Once the luggage was collected however, and we were able to into the building, things happened QUICK! The actual embarkation was taken care of so quick I couldn't believe it - and were were walking onto the ship within 10 minutes after our luggage was taken. We were told right away that our staterooms would not be ready until 2:00, so we made our way up to the 12th floor to have lunch at Raffles Cafe. We had lunch, roamed around the ship a little, and promptly at 2:00 we were able to get into our room. I've got lots to say about our stateroom, but I'll hold off for now. I was delighted in how quick and easy the boat drill was this time. Generally, I loathe that part. It took awhile to get our luggage this time - they arrived just minutes before we headed for dinner around 7:00.

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