Norwegian Spirit Review

Great Itinerary on a Below Average but Passable NCL Ship

Review for Europe Cruise on Norwegian Spirit
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PaulB
10+ Cruises • Age 2020s

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Sail Date: Jul 2015
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

We took this 14 day cruise for 1 reason, the ports which included Kotor and Dubrovnik which are not normally on their itinerary. Other than a special cruise with these ports I would probably not go on this ship unless it was really inexpensive but if you fly from North America or down under you have probably spent so much on airfare saving money by taking this ship is probably not the best way to economize.

The ship is older and as it was not built for NCL it is weirdly designed built in 98 as the SuperStar Leo for Star Cruises. Some things in it just don’t function well because of the design. Yes the ship left from Barcelona but the ship was 85% from the English speaking world, US, Canada, Australia, UK and New Zealand. The ship kept playing Latin music. Ok this sounds nitpicky but literally one night in the 12th floor Galaxy club the house band Hot Wire was listed on the as playing Beatles music “till close” with a full dance floor and switched to Latin music at 11:15 after starting at 10:45. This happened several times and a packed dance floors emptied at once as Latin music came on either by the band or recordings. I asked about this and was confidentially told that when the crew gets tired they put on Latin music as it makes everyone leave.

They seemed to do whatever they could to close the 12th deck Galaxy of the Stars early which was a real shame as it was the only location where you could be with your younger than 18 teens. The later night club Maharanis was 18 plus and behind the Casino. 18 was just a rule and younger girls seemed allowed in without issue. There were a couple small fights there. Security had a tough job balancing customer enjoyment with safety and their rules. I have no complaints with them at all.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BA

Small but clean. Great attendant

Port Reviews

Kusadasi

Getting in at around 1 was nice as everyone was still beat up from the previous ports. It is a nice docking area and you walk off right into the heart of the town. You can go to Ephesus or the beach or just shop. If you have a wife who likes real fake bags etc… there is one shop there which is far superior to everything in Istanbul or anywhere else. It is “by Edie”. The quality is remarkable and I felt safe with my wife being there without me. Their items cost more but are very impressive. Some friends said the shop keepers were very grabby on their daughters who were very pretty 17 and 21 year olds.

Kotor

This was great. The ship docked and you had a 2 minute walk to the old walled city which I found stunning. We walked up the trail to the old castle and got the wonderful photos. It was in the mid 90s with high humidity so this was difficult but if you did it start and rested you were fine. 1330 steps each way. People were selling water bottles on the way up for a very reasonable price, 1 to 1.5 euros. The sail in and out were breathtaking. A friend rented a motor boat and went to a small church on an island you will see going in and out of port. Even the crew was excited about coming here as most had never been. Something noticed by even my wife was the woman there were gorgeous. Many 6 foot plus. I know it is odd to write about but it was noticeable. There was a beach you could go to that was 200 feet from the dock. This stop was my favorite.

Dubrovnik

You could take a taxi to the old walled city for 13 euro or buy a bus shuttle ticket from NCL for 15 euro round trip. There were three of us and we took a taxi. The old walled city was beautiful. We walked the walls which was difficult because of the sun and heat. High 90s with high humidity. There was a cable car you could ride to the top of the hill and look out. The city and walls were more impressive and larger than Kotor but I still liked Kotor better but there stopes were 1 and 2 for me.

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